In fairness to your method Randy I would like to say that this is a very time consuming method but sometimes it is the only method that can be used when working near other buildings where the risk of falling onto other structures is great. My main point here is that tripods are only bulky to work with but they are relatively light and can be "persuaded" to settle the distance of one ring of staves at a time. In that respect as well I recommend a safety rope while working near that edge as well. this will enable the person performing the descent a comfortable working height and a "reasonable" safety ledge so that they will not fall. Please keep in mind that the silage level on each descent should not be any lower than four or five feet from the top most rim. However if settling the leg is not an option then temporary setup such as highlift jack and a chain may be needed to set each leg down slowly. total weight of most tripods is usually not much more than a few hundred lbs. I've seen a few taken down where the farmer simply filled them up for the last time, and once the silo was filled and the silage settled they went in the silo with tools and removed the roof, Once the roof was removed when the time came to lower the tripod one simply has to slack the cable, letting the weight of the unloader rest on the silage, go over to the wall and knock one layer of staves free, once the one layer is free the tripod leg will settle down the next 30" or so. Tripods are not all that hard to move once the roof is removed. If a farmer wants to take a silo down by unloading as they go they simply have to reset the tripod once a week or so. Last year a guy near me almost got killed trying to knock over a cement stave silo with an excavator, it landed on his cab and crushed the cab, he got out but was in critical condition the last I heard, by the looks of the machine, its a miracle he even survived. I too have seen the excavator demo's on the net, looks way too dangerous to me, I'd think blowing them with explosives would be a safer way to do it to me. Upright silos of any make are sure a thing of the past, at one time we had 6 we used every day, and now they are either gone or abandoned for good, bunkers have taken the market over completely and for plenty of good reasons. I'm also curious Montee, with the taking them down as you go as they are unloaded how does that work if you don't have a tripod to hold the unloader in place, all the silo's I've ever seen either had ring drive unloaders or surface ground wheel drive unloaders and you still needed the cable to hold them off the silage as you unloaded them, only a jamesway unloader that sat on the silage and had the bullet pulled up the center would work like you described, all others need the cable to support the unloader? There are some we won't take down though, they are way too dangerous for me to work on. We've taken down quit a few but always cable the top and have something hooked to them just in case, still it takes a lot of time and money to get them down, so if anyone wants to run around and use just a sledge hammer to knock them down, good luck, I'll watch from a safe distance and see how it all works out.
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