I knew this deign looked familiar. My dad had a cousin that had the original Jamesway Big Jim. This design was definitely ahead of the time inits day. We had three top unloading Hanson stave silos (1-20xs50, and 2-20x60) with the standard Hanson surface drive unloaders with the 3-24 blower, and 10 HP motors, they were dependable even in frozen forage. The only other silo unloader I've ever seen back in the day with a high volume output was the flying dutchman bottom unloader often found in the Bergman poured concrete silos. Thanks for sharing. Scott (Minnesota)

Hanson offers a conversion kit that will fit this unloader in any silo 20' diameter and larger. If your silo is less than 20 feet in diameter Hanson Silo offers the Posi Trac, Uni Trac, Twin Trac and Valmetal 900 series unloaders.

Great video guys but the J-star Big Jim is better. It's got an 18 inch auger and hole vs. the Val Metal 16 inch. Also Val Metal has a lot of cross bars obstructing the feed when filling. The Big Jim is much more open. One down side to the Big Jim is, they don't make em anymore. But definately this style of unloader is the way go in big tower silo's. Got to keep it chopped fairly fine too for good results!!!

hmmm you guys still put up a lot of these? btw great video, what would the pricing area be a rough estimate to put up a 20x80 or 22x80 silo in north west Indiana?

Love how they don't show how when filling these bastards up if the hole in centre plugs and you don't realize it till later.... your in for a world of problems. If your thinking of putting this silo unloader in... Don't do it. Lot of moving parts when filling, everything has to be perfect. You can't just blow and fill. I'll climb a silo once a week and lower the chute rather than having this thing.

The Valmetal 2000 unloaders we have out have been very consistent unloading high volumes year round, regardless of temperature. Call us at 1.800.THE.SILO for more information.