Feeder setup for new lease.. suggestions?

[razorsharptokill]

This is not intended to start a feeder debate. Just want some input from those of you who use them.

My lease is over an hour away. This place is new to me but as I posted before, it is 3600 acres with only about 8 hunters. I should be able to get several hundred acres away from everyone else.

I plan to put mine out in mid-August when I get back from my deployment. I plan on mounting a 55 gallon drum on it instead of the 6 gallon that is on it now. I have a 6 Volt solar panel to keep the battery charged.

It should hold about 300 lbs so filling it is going to be tough if it is very high off the ground. How would you mount it?

Will it hurt the motor to run 12 volts instead of 6 volts and is there any advantage to that?

Never had a feeder of my own so any experience you can offer will be a help.

[whitebuffalo]

Only run what the motor is rated or,, getting one that runs off of the sun is best for that application and if you use a 55 gallon drum fabricate a sheet metal cone and weld it into the bottom so the corn doesn't rot and start stinking.

The small part of the cone should be no bigger than your hole for your spreader,, Good luck buddy and when that baby starts up get ready!!

[razorsharptokill]

So like a large funnel at the bottom of the barrell? Thanks.

[Ray Hammond]

yep..keeps the corn from sitting on the bottom perimeter where it won't run out- and getting condensation, humidity, becoming wet, and molding and stinking.

Mount it so its the height you can reach it standing in the bed of your truck..or mount from a tree with a rope so you can let it down, fill, and then tie off to your bumper to haul it back up- or use a small block and tackle like a big game hoist for elk field dressing?

[Terry Green]

Learned a bunch years ago on fish feeders at our pond.  Yep, the funnel is a MUST.  

If you don't use a funnel, then some of the corn is going to stay in there and rot and keep buggs fat and happy....and if you get water in it, it is a God awfull mess.

The funnel keeps all the stuff moving, even the water and the wet stuff will be out before there's a big mess.

Solar Panel charging is great, and keeps you from having to change out batteries .....but you best duc tape all the wiring REAL good or the coons will tear it to heck and back.

[MikeC]

I would recommand you get the feeder at least three feet up from ground level.  Critters will have a field day with it even if it has a varmint guard attached.  If you got bears and they find it then you may have some issues and will need to get it it up really high out of their reach.

[razorsharptokill]

Ok, thanks guys. I'd have never thought of the funnell. That'll save me some grief!

[Caddo]

Good Advice given so far. With your solar panel wires, the only thing I've found to really effective is to run the wires from the panel to the battery through a piece of rubber fuel line to keep the critters from chewing it up. I tried duct tape, the plactic wire harness covers you find on cars, just about everything. So far the only thing that has worked is the fuel line. I also have a collapsable ladder I use to fill the feeders with. Can't always get the truck backed up close enough. I've also used a 4 wheeler to haul corn to the feeders. Trust me, trying to stand on one of those beasts with a 50lb sack of corn can be a real adventure in itself! Good Luck, Have fun!

LD

[Deadbolt]

What i plan on doing (I am putting up 2 55g drum feeders homemade) is suspending them from a very large branch very high in the tree.  After building the feeders they will be suspended w/ steel cable and chains to ensure the weight doesn't bring it down.

Got an industrial pulley and chained it to a heavy branch.  Hung the feeder and in order to move it we use a come-along with a series of lag bolts to anchor it down.  Its time consuming but the automatic feeder we put on spits feed out twice a day and we are holding right around 300+lbs of feed like you.

We had to put it so high to keerp the bears away (they are brutal in my area)

If you dont want to use a come-along you could use a winch or just your truck.  There are alot of ways to move that kind of weight.  Or just put it on a tri-pod and bring a ladder to fill it.

[jchunt4ever]

I totally agree with Mike, 3 feet high to the bottom of the motor would be minimum, as those pesky coons can reach amazingly high. And if it is in their reach, they will rake all your corn onto the ground in a couple of nights.

The feeders we have are made out of 30 gallon drums that didn't have ends. I welded a used plow disk on the bottom and another with a hinge for the lid. It was perfect for the 30 gallon size, but probably won't help you much. Orginally I had hoped that the concave feature of the disk would act as a funnel, but it didn't, and I later added a true funnel. I strongly agree with the others above regarding the need for a funnel.

Since I had the strong bottom, I just welded 3 scrap pieces of 3/4" square tubing about 8" long, and slid some heavy walled, 1/2"ID pipe about 4 1/2 to 5ft long into those. This is set up in a tripod type configuration with the legs being removable for portability. Oh and I welded some small flat plate on the ends of the pipe for feet, to keep it from sinking. This height worked out to be just right while standing in the back of a truck.

Well, sorry for being so long winded, hope that helps you some though.

[razorsharptokill]

Is this not the cats meow? I've been rack'n my brain trying to figure out how I could fab some thing 1/4 as good as this. They make a funnel for 55 gal. drums! Saw it on e**y.

This will be so much better than trying to make one that would fit like crap anyway.

I'm leaning toward drill stem tripod and boat trailer hand winch. If I was wealthy like the T.V. hunters..err .. advertisers, I'd do the 12 volt and add an electric winch. ha ha.

Think the squirrels would gnaw through a plastic barrell? If not it would last forever I think.

[bentpole]

A bud of mine has two 55 gal plastic drums on his private property. What he did was at the bottom of the barrel he cut half circles [flat on bottom round on top about a  6  inch diameter circle] in about six spot.He keeps it full of corn with a lid on the top. when the corn spills out and hits the ground it stops until a deer comes and starts to feed on it.That's when the gravity kicks in.You can get more then one deer eating at the drum at one time.I'm noy saying it's right or wrong but IMPO I would see what sort of crops I can hunt over on the property or ask the owner if I can plant some no plow or something similar to bring the critters in.By the way I stopped hunting with this particular gent years ago.

[whitebuffalo]

I would just beat a peice of 20 gauge into submision until it was shaped like a cone and then weld it in,, I could asure you it would work great..But that peice there looks pretty fancy bud,,I just like fabin steel and makin it do what I want it to do with great result 80% of the time,,LOL,,carefull though, it'll bite back sometimes,,LOL<,,Have fun looks like your on to a good start. I don't hunt on the feeder but about 100yards or so away useing trails that are down wind of it,,always hopeing a buck will be checking it before goin into it. Good huntin to you buddy,, JB

[BernieH]

If you need to mount your solar panel on the barrel use some 1/2" or 3/8" flex conduit from your local Home Depot or Lowes and run the solar panel wiring inside it.

You could also run the wire on the inside of the barrel and out the bottom and into the control box. But you'll still have some exposed wire for the coons to play with. But works well if you put a varmint cage around the box.

The best way that I've found is to mount the solar panel directly on the box containing the battery/motor/controller. That way you will not have any exposed wires anywhere.  The box just needs to have a side large enough for the solar panel to go on.

[Ray Hammond]

bentpole, the problem is that gravity feeders require they sit on the ground..and where you have hogs and/or bears- that means you are going to have no feeder and some big fat belligerent bears or pigs or both- very quickly.

You have to get them up in the air to avoid them being torn to pieces.

We used to hang them on tripods...and the hogs broke the legs on some of the tripods rubbing on them...bears would do it quickly.

[razorsharptokill]

Yeah I plan to hunt in between the feeder and the beding areas. Thanks for the input guys.

[bentpole]

Yeh I guess your right about that Ray.I was using my Jersey mentality.Over here in Soprano Land we don't have any Hogs yet and my bud did have a problem once with a bear knocking over one of the barrels.

[Ray Hammond]

well, you go with what you know, BP...thank goodness you don't have pigs up there...you'd have mad italians running around with meat cleavers all over the woods sayin'

"YO, SAUSEEEDGE, COME OVAH HEYAH, N O W !!!!!!!!"

[bentpole]

That's a perfect accent right there Ray. Oh and there might be some hogs at the bada bing club!!!????

[Butts]

If you haven't bought the funnel of the internet yet you might check out Sportsmans Wearhouse or Bass Pro. Hopefully there is one close.