Vacuum spreader offers land-application versatility and productivity

Vacuum spreader offers land-application versatility and productivity

The Magnum vacuum spreader from Nuhn Industries Ltd. helps liquid waste haulers boost productivity and profitability and offers injection capability, which eliminates the odors typically associated with land application.

“Time is money,” says Ken Prince, the company’s operations manager. “The faster you can load and unload, the more profitable you can be.

“Your equipment costs the same amount of money, you can only drive a certain speed, and you can only spread so fast in a field,” he continues. “So the only place where you can really save time is during loading and unloading. And if you can cut loading and unloading time, you can increase your number of service calls per year.”

Prince says the spreader can load 6,500 gallons of sludge in about two minutes and 20 seconds. A more powerful, dual-ported rotary vane vacuum pump delivers the increased loading and unloading speeds. Two pumps are available: on the Magnum 400, the pump can produce 400 cfm at 15 inches Hg, and the pump on the Magnum 600 can generate up to 600 cfm at 15 inches Hg.

“We upgraded our vacuum pumps,” Prince says. “The advantage is that they achieve higher vacuum levels as well as higher cfms because there aren’t any restrictions in the housing. Because of the dual ports, air can go out as fast as it comes in. They also run cooler and use less oil than conventional vacuum pumps.”

Made of heavy-duty, 1/4-inch steel, the spreader’s unibody-construction tank carries a five-year warranty. Capacity ranges from 600 to 7,500 gallons. A dual-tank configuration, called the Quad Train, provides capacity of up to 13,500 gallons. The tank includes a large, 5-inch, bubble-type fill gauge. The tandem model offers extra inlet ports at the front and rear, Prince says.

An optional 22-foot-long vacuum arm, which hydraulically retracts onto a cradle built onto the side of the tank, enables operators to off-load waste without driving transport trucks into fields.

“Environmentally, it’s the cleanest and most efficient way of moving sludge – no mess or dropping (waste) on the ground,” Prince says. “Highway vehicles stay on the highway, where they belong. You don’t want trucks going out into the field and then dragging sludge or manure back onto the roads. It’s a big issue.”

The spreader can either inject or top-dress waste. Prince says more customers prefer to inject waste because of the odor elimination.

“In populated areas, that’s an advantage,” he says. “Plus, if you can smell the waste, that means you’re losing nutritional value in soil. If you top-spread liquid manure, you lose 40 to 60 percent of the nutrient value (nitrogen) in a 4- to 6-hour period.”

Other features include an 8-foot, 6-inch tongue for better handling and visibility; a clevis or pintle hitch; an 11-foot width, which matches road and tractor widths; an in-tank wash system; pressurized unloading, which allows for even spreading no mater how full the tank is; and a spreader control valve on the front of the tank, where the operator can see it while driving. 877/837-7323; www.nuhn.ca.



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