Boatnerd Discussion Forum

I'm guessing that there's lifting legs in each hold that feed the coveyors on deck & those must take the product to some sort of discharge manifold or whatnot to get it to the building they unload into. Very specialized & probably not to flexible for other customers.

From looking at the pictures of the deck mounted equipment I'm having trouble visualizing how this system works. Does anyone know if there are any videos of such a system being used?

The American Mariner spends 36 hours unloading grain in Buffalo. Her system can shoot it out fast, but the building can't take it. They have to slow everything down anyway with those big boats. Even the Jackson or the Saginaw take around 18 hours to unload.

Corn, can be damaged by the standard unloading leg with its rapidly moving little buckets. The system on Ojibway serves the same purpose as the strange small boom, auger and conveyor that was on Canadian Ranger. Shippers prefer corn to be moved in self-unloaders but they are not always available. Ojibway, though probably not as efficient in terms of unloading speed as a true self-unloader, can still deliver the cargo undamaged.

I know nothing about the system other than what I have seen and read here. But given the size of the conveyor tubes I suspect it is much slower than traditional unloading legs. And it looks like it would be a real pain now to install and remove the hatch covers.

Mr Link, you've done it again. Now that's interesting! I guess it's a cheaper, less complicated system than a full blown conversion to a self-unloader & you still get the higher cubic capacity of a straight decker. I guess the only drawback is that it's pretty specialized & I don't think it could do much more than grain or some other light weight, granular or powdered prodcut.

Grain unloading system. I think it might only be used at elevators with no unloading legs.

Discussion:
http://newsearch.boatnerd.com/viewtopic ... ing#p41438

May 2010 Photos by Rob Hartley:
http://www.boatnerd.com/news/newsthumbs ... s_1080.htm

Does anyone know what that weird looking set of tubes is along the Port side of Ojibwa's deck is? Thanks in advance.