Auger Wagons/Farming Simulator 17
An Auger wagon (or chaser bin) is a type of Container in Farming Simulator 17. Like other containers, it can be filled with certain types of materials, but the advantage of an Auger Wagon is that it can transfer its cargo directly into other containers or machines without the need for any third-party tools.
Auger Wagons can only be filled with a limited variety of cargo: Basic crops, seeds, and solid fertilizer. Instead of unloading its cargo by dumping it out the back or side, an auger wagon unloads its cargo through a long pipe - much like a harvester does. This pipe allows it to automatically fill other types of tools, including tippers and particularly sowing machines.
Thanks to this ability, the auger wagon can be used as a filling point for sowing machines, quickly and easily topping off their seed and fertilizer compartments. Alternatively, it can be used as a sort of mobile silo, storing crops until another trailer is ready to receive them.
Farming Simulator 17 offers two models of auger wagons in the base game. They differ from one another mainly in price and capacity, but the difference in their physical size also has a minor impact on their use. The Big Bud DLC adds one auger wagon.
List of Auger Wagons
Below is a list of both models of auger wagons in Farming Simulator 17. These models can be found in the "Auger Wagons" category at the store.
| Name | Price | Maint. Cost per Day |
Capacity | DLC |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Metaltech PP 20 | 51,000 | 100 | 28,000 | |
| Bergmann GTW 430 | 87,000 | 150 | 43,000 | |
| Brent Avalanche 1596 | 118,000 | 190 | 53,000 | Big Bud DLC |
List of Cargo Types
Auger Wagons can only carry a limited variety of cargo types:
The usefulness of carrying Crops with an auger wagon (as opposed to using a regular tipper) is limited, but as explained below the ability to carry seeds and fertilizer has a great practical application.
Applications
The main feature of the auger wagon is its ability to transfer cargo directly into other containers or tools. It can do so automatically, without the need for any other third-party tool. This opens up at least one possible application for auger wagons that can save you time and effort.
Mobile Filling Point
The primary application of an Auger Wagon in Farming Simulator 17 is to serve as a mobile seed or solid fertilizer filling point for sowing machines.
In previous versions of Farming Simulator, your farm had a stationary point where you could bring sowing machines and fertilizer spreaders to be filled. They could automatically pull any amount of material from these filling points, as long as you could afford the material.
In Farming Simulator 2019, these stationary filling points are gone. Both seeds and solid fertilizer are bought in pallet form, and sowing machines can automatically refill their tanks directly from these pallets. However, each pallet contains only a small amount of material, and transporting the Pallets from the store to your farm (or wherever they are needed) is a more complex operation - typically requiring you to load the pallets onto a low loader, or maybe even transport them one at a time. Both methods are time-consuming and delicate.
With the use of an Auger Wagon, you can now create your own mobile filling point for sowing machines. After towing the auger wagon to the store, you can use a loader to lift a pallet above the auger wagon, causing the material inside to spill into the wagon. Repeat this until the wagon is full, then tow the wagon to wherever the sowing machine is waiting. The auger wagon can then pour the material directly into the sowing machine. Note that you'll probably want to purchase two auger wagons - one for seeds and one for fertilizers.
Note: The sowing machine's cover needs to be open in order for materials to be dumped into it.
Harvester Offloading
Auger Wagons can also carry basic crops (anything except potatoes and sugar beets is accepted cargo). This allows harvesters to unload their cargo directly into an auger wagon, exactly as it would with a tipper.
Real life Auger Wagons are frequently used in this manner, and then transfer those materials to a larger (heavier) container waiting off the field. The superior weight distribution (and overall lower weight) of an Auger Wagon helps it traverse the rugged terrain on the field -- which a larger container (and its heavy towing vehicle) might not be able to negotiate so easily.
Unfortunately, this effect is not modeled in Farming Simulator 17. As a result the usefulness of an auger wagon for this role is somewhat questionable. After all, a tipper is better for this job, as it is usually larger, cheaper, and can dump the resulting crop yield into a silo or sale point, which Auger Wagons cannot.
Loading an Auger Wagon
- Main article: Loading Containers
Auger Wagons can be loaded in most of the ways described in the article on containers. There are no other unique ways to load an Auger Wagon.
Note that some of the methods in that article are not applicable to Auger Wagons due to the limited types of cargo they can carry. For example, auger wagons cannot be used with forage harvesters, since they cannot carry any forage materials.
The most important way to load an Auger Wagon is from pallets. As explained in the previous section, a loader with a pallet fork or similar tool can lift a Seed BigBag or Solid Fertilizer BigBag above the auger wagon, at which point the contents of the BigBag will spill into the wagon. Note that the lifting arm of a skid steer loader is a little too short to lift the pallet all the way up - you'll need to tilt the pallet fork all the way back, allowing the hole at the bottom of the pallet to go over the side of the Auger Wagon, at which point it should start dumping the materials.
Unloading an Auger Wagon
- Main article: Unloading Containers
Auger wagons are capable of dumping their own cargo out - there is no need (or ability) for any other machine to unload them. Dumping is the only way to unload an auger wagon.
An auger wagon can only dump its materials out through its overloading pipe. The pipe must be extended for any dumping to occur. Folding the pipe is useful only when you do not want to accidentally pour the material into the wrong container. Otherwise, it's better to keep the pipe extended at all times.
The auger wagon's primary function is to unload its cargo into other containers or machines. If the auger wagon detects that a valid receptacle is present underneath its overloading pipe's nozzle, it will automatically dump its cargo into that container. You do not need to have the auger wagon connected to any vehicle in order for this automatic dumping to happen. This is another reason why auger wagons are so useful as mobile filling points for sowing machines, as explained earlier in this article.
On the other hand, unlike other containers, an Auger Wagon cannot dump its materials into a designated unloading spot, such as a silo or sale point. You will not get the option to unload into such spots, even when the pipe is extended. Therefore, auger wagons are completely useless for taking cargo to be sold.
Finally, like any other container in Farming Simulator 2017, Auger Wagons can be manually instructed to dump their materials on the ground, creating a pile. For more details about manual dumping, read the article on Containers.