I'm on a one-man lease with 3 feeders. Keeping them filled at my age is more work than fun. I have to fill buckets and hand them to my wife (God bless her good spirit).

I can't always find a helper to keep the feeders topped off.

I've been thinking about building a leaf blower powered PVC hopper to fill the feeders.

If you have used one, what power blower do you need? HP/CFM/speed? Was it worth the hassle? How long does it take to load 3-4 bags of corn?

I appreciate any advice, plans, or suggestions.

Happy Hunting!!!

If you control the feed via smaller diameter hole or rate of pour, most any leaf blower would work for you.

There are lots of videos out there showing them in operation and how to build them. I seem to recall that it's important to make sure you do something to ground them as the corn flying down the pipe tends to generate what has been described as hair-curling static electricity.

Tell your wife that she has my utmost respect! True love is a wonderful thing.

Here's a similar thread I started a while back, maybe it has a little more info for you:

》》》Small blower

Does your budget allow to transition over to stand-and-fill feeders over time? More and more places are building them and the prices are slowly coming down. Good hunting to you.

You might consider new feeders,,, stand and fill, they only come up about 4 feet high. That way your wife could just dump the bags of corn straight into the top of the feeder.

That one made me laugh! I feel you're wife has all our respect. That's a good woman who'll fill a feeder.

I'm in the new feeder crowd as well or maybe you can just cut the legs off your current feeder and make it fillable from the ground or standing in the back of the truck.

One of my feeders is almost low enough to fill from the ground. It's a reach, but I can do it.

I have a crank feeder, but I'm working on the pulleys. It's pretty darned stiff.

I already cut the legs off of the last feeder. Maybe more will do.

My wife is a real sport. She has helped with everything except cleaning game. I'm keeping her.

I used 2 double pulleys and wow, what difference

What is a double pulley? I have one pulley at the top of the tripod and another on the barrel. They are about 2 inches in diameter. What changes should I make to be as happy as you?

I made a feeder filler using 3 inch PVC pipe and a 5 gallon water bottle as a funnel using a gas leaf blower for power and it worked great. Water bottle neck let the right amount of corn out into the pipe and would fill a feeder in about 10 minutes.

Tractor, front end loader and grown grandsons. I don't even have to buy the corn. They say the old man did it long enough.

Well, I don't have grown grandsons to help, but I sure do use a tractor with front end loader. Otherwise, I could not do it.

I use a blower connected to metal trash can. The static electricity will definitely build up. I discovered it last year filling protein. 200 cfm is plenty going thru 4" pvc. Takes about 10 minutes to fill a 650 lb feeder.

entertaining anyway.

Except for the yard feeder, the feeders I hunt over are all stand and fill type. I load the corn in the back of the Kubota UTV900, drive alongside the feeder, get in the back of the Kubota and dump the corn in the feeders. It’s a pretty easy process.

I have a tripod for a hanging feeder, with winch and pulley. Anybody that wants to drive here can have it. Near Groesbeck.

603, I might take you up on that offer ... last weekend I did a half gainer swan dive from the bed rail of my truck to the ground, scored 8 on style points ... landed flat of my back right between my shoulder blades. I could finally breath after a few minutes, at least that was after the last sack of corn and lid back in place. I don't bounce like I used too, at least not off the ground.

I’m 90 miles from you. Just let me know when to expect you. You might want to check some welds and grease the pulley before use.

I sometimes go thru Marlin and cut thru on 147 to just south of Groesbeck, so passing pretty close to you. I will likely be going that route on my way to the lease next Friday, Oct. 2, guessing early-mid afternoon. I'll have my RTV on a trailer and if the winch up folds/hinges, I should fit on the trailer too.

If you drive over on 147, at one point you will be 1 mile from my house. Let me know if you are for sure going to come by the house and I’ll bring the tripod legs to the house in advance.

okie dokie ... so it breaks down pretty easily where it should fit on a trailer with my RTV?

Yes, though the 3 legs are kind of long. 10’ maybe. I never measured them.

i cut all the my old feeder legs in half. so they became stand in fill. I do understand varmit problem with some people but just put a cage on it. Remember the corn hits the ground no need for the feeder to be 10ft high LOL.

PM sent, I should be passing close to you tomorrow mid afternoon or can on my way home Sunday early afternoon ... whichever works best for you.

PM responded to. See you soon.

Beautiful ladies. Crazy system (and hassle).