Rolling Shop Stand Holds Diesel Exhaust Fluid

Many farmers are still coming to terms with how to best handle and dispense diesel exhaust fluid (DEF). Instead of having to buy another pump for filling, Gary Osborn of Fairmount, North Dakota, built a stand that holds the DEF shuttle higher than the service tanks for his equipment.   

He first raised the 275-gallon shuttle higher than the service tank with a forklift. “This saves a step,” Osborn says. 

His stand is built from salvaged 3-inch-wide by 2-foot-long channel iron. “It’s also on rollers, so I can move it around the shop,” he says.      

“I find that one tank of DEF lasts for about three tanks of fuel. We keep it in the shop, the coolest building on the farm,” he says. 

This is Osborn’s second published “All Around the Farm” idea. 

Materials and tools: Channel iron (the skid removed from a hopper bottom), rollers, a welder

More about Gary Osborn

Operation: On the place his dad bought in Fairmount, North Dakota, Gary Osborn farms with his son, Scott, and grandson Brennan Luick.

Prescription applications: The Osborns have used seed prescription application for several years. They’re trying it out with fertilizer in 2019. 

Pastimes: Osborn attends Bible study twice a week. He and wife Betty also enjoy taking their boat out. He fishes; she reads and suns.     

Quote: “Farmers never retire, but at least they try to cut down. I’m letting the boys do more of the work,” says Osborn.      

Email: garyo@rrt.net