I went to my deer lease to fill feeders and one of them would start out spinning slowing and then pick up a little speed. I'm thinking maybe I need to spray WD 40 on the eliminator to fix. I have "The timer" and my 12 v battery is fully charged and I replaced the two AA batteries and that didn't help. Maybe a motor problem?Anyone had this problem?

I don't think you have a plate or timer problem... You either have a battery or motor problem.

I have an Eliminator on my 6vt pig feeder and I occasionally have to spray the "springs" as they would clog up with corn dust. But when that happened it didn't drop or turn at all..

Try it and test it that will tell you.

I have two feeders with those Eliminator plates. One still works as designed and one doesn’t. I no longer trust them.

Could be a lot of things...

How old is your battery? It is difficult to assess how good a battery is by measuring its open circuit voltage. You have to place it under load. An old battery will have a much higher impedance (resistance) and so when a load is placed on it, in this case the motor, the voltage drops further than that of a new battery and so the motor will spin slower. If you have a Digital Multimeter you can check this at the battery terminals when you test the motor. Motors draw the most current when they start because the winding resistance is low (probably 0.1-0.5 ohms for most feeder motors) and so it will draw a lot of current and pull the battery voltage way down initially. Once the motor starts to spin, the motor generates a back EMF which decreases the current it draws and thus your battery voltage will come back up more as it spins faster and faster.

It could also be the motor beginning to fail.

Does the plate face drop away from the funnel when it is spinning? If it isn't dropping away from the funnel then your theory could be right and maybe needs some WD-40. I mean its a cheap thing to try.

A) This sounds like a battery problem. The battery can show adequate voltage, but if it's failing it may not produce the amperage needed. Betting if you place a new battery on there you'll be good to go.

B) DON'T SPRAY YOUR ELIMINATOR PLATES! If you must lubricate use dry graphite. Any kind of liquid lube will cause dust to stick, and will eventually get worse to point it gets stuck. This comes straight from the manufacturer.

WD40 PTFE Dry Lube is what I meant I use. Whew, thought I was giving bad info. Thanks TxAg.

Thanks for all suggestions.

When you lube be sure and put the lubricant on the small links that are on each side. When set to use those links should have a bit of slack in them not straight up and down. It was suggested to use spray lithium grease on them so I tried it. The plate works but the lithium seems too heavy...at least when applied.

I’d get rid of everyone and use varmint plates. I absolutely hate the eliminator plates. Everyone I have had ...12 plus eventually tosses the white plastic guide/slide in the center

Varmint plates are very good.

I bought a couple of feeders off of CL and they have the little box spinner that the two ends fly up and open when it spins. What are they called? Combined with the motor, they sling the feed harder and further than I've ever seen. There were varmint cages on them too, so I'm hoping for low maintenance.

Not sure which varmint plates you are talking about.

All season sells them they call it a gated spinner plate I used them for years worked great

Thanks.

Sidebuster if you look at feeders made by Ramball36 you will get the best idea of the varmint plate. It fits very close to the bottom of barrel or corn container with a small area for corn to come out. The plate will be about 15 " wide. Corn goes further and the coons cannot reach in to pull corn out.

Ok, I've seen those but I thought he was talking about some other kind. My next feeders will definitely be those type. Thanks

Those double plates look real good but you can accomplish almost the same thing by putting one plate under a barrell. The bottom of barrel takes the place of the second plate. I made one from a 55 gallon barrel lid, works pretty darn good.

Yelp, it’s the concept

Take a picture of your current set up and PM ramball34

And see if he has the ability to make you some.

I run 8 feeders with the eliminator plates and love them. I like it over the plates because my feeders are for hogs only and I want the corn more concentrated and straight down. I empty my feeders once a year and clean them out. Take off the motors to clean everything (including the eliminator plates) and spray the feeders inside and out with Demon WP bug spray. I let this all dry for a day and put feeder back together and fill with corn. This fixes issues with bugs in feed, dirty motor/plate and mold getting into my feeders.

After cleaning the eliminator plates, I spray them down with WD 40, wipe all off the next day, put the graphite on the base and put lithium grease on the links below.

All this, just like changing your oil regularly in your truck, keeps my feeder running smoothly all the time.

I am tired of driving long hours to my place to hunt and find out the feeder isn't working. All feeders will eventually break down if not properly maintained. I probably spend just as much in maintenance now that I use to in replacing parts, but now I don't have to worry about driving 5 hours to hunt and the feeder is broke.

What ever you end up using, yearly maintenance will keep your frustration level down.