When Mike Meadows saw it raining indoors, he knew it was time to get new buckets. It wasn’t water he was worried about; he had grain raining down on his head. As the maintenance supervisor at the Cooperative Producers Inc. terminal elevator in Hastings, Neb., he knew the elevator buckets at his grain elevator station weren’t throwing the grain properly, spilling as much as 10 percent down the leg each day. Not only was this noisy, it was costing the elevator operation lots of money and time.

CPI, which works with two other affiliated coops covering the bottom southwest corner of Nebraska, asked Meadows to fix the problem and increase throughput. To reach both objectives, he recognized he would have to replace the eight-year-old buckets in three elevator legs. While overhauling the facility, he also added another new leg.

For the buckets, he took the advice of Rubber Belting and Hose, a long-time parts suppliers and installed 6,800 new Tiger Tuff and HD-Max heavy-duty elevator buckets, which are produced by Maxi-Lift Inc., a Dallas-based company that has been serving the needs of the agricultural community for more than 30 years.

“It costs about $15,000 to $20,000 to overhaul each leg, so we wanted to be sure we were spending our money wisely. The Maxi-Lift buckets were economical, and better still, they are the toughest buckets on the market,” said Meadows.

The new buckets and a shroud he installed at the top of the legs completely eliminated the grain rain the station was experiencing. Furthermore, the Maxi-Lift buckets, even though they were the same size as the older buckets, held more grain. “The Maxi-Lift buckets are designed in such as way that they can actually carry more grain, even though their dimensions are the same as the buckets we were using. That’s helped increase our capacity to move more grain faster. That’s a tremendous benefit.”

Meadows estimates the operation moved about 12,000 bushels per leg per hour before installing the Maxi-Lift buckets, and now they move about 18,000 bushels per leg per hour. Annually, he says the terminal station moves about 20 million to 24 million bushels of grain, mostly wheat, corn, soybeans and milo. The terminal elevator station has both train and truck traffic. “We have to load each train, about 100 cars or so, in less than 15 hours, or the trains start to back up. So increasing our efficiency was vital.”

Made from high-density polyethylene, the Maxi-Lift buckets are designed to maximize bucket life, elevated capacity and discharge efficiency. Maxi-Lift buckets are engineered with thicker corners, lips and walls, all the critical wear points on high-speed buckets. Maxi-Lift buckets come in all standard sizes and some can be custom-made. Maxi-Lift also has technical knowledge to help troubleshoot during the installation process.

Meadows testified that after seven million bushels, they still look brand new. “Having buckets that last means a lot, because worn buckets don’t carry the load properly and are at risk for breaking away from the belts and lodging in the elevator leg, which would slow down our operation significantly. Maxi-Lift buckets have proven their worth to me.”

Meadows said he will install new Maxi-Lift buckets on the two remaining elevator legs at the station as soon as he can. In the meantime, he has recommended the buckets to two other elevator operations that are linked with CPI. He’s received thank you calls from both managers after several months of using the Maxi-Lift buckets.

For more information on Maxi-Lift elevator buckets, call Toll Free 800-527-0657 or Local 972-735-8855, or go to www.maxilift.com.