As many growers already know, STP Manufacturing’s Crop Shuttle is one of the largest, fastest and most versatile crop carts on the market. In 2021, the Park River, N.D.-based company added even more diversification to its Crop Shuttle lineup with an all-new spreader attachment. The dual pan spinner is hydraulically driven, meaning operators still will not need a PTO to operate the Crop Shuttle.
“This new attachment is a major deal for us,” says STIP vice president Jacob Kringstad.
“It allows our customer another option to diversify the use of their equipment, making their investment go further. Diversification options for our customers’ Crop Shuttle investment has been a major focus of ours for the past couple of years, and we have some real groundbreaking things to come out in the next year or two.”
The company worked closely with Ron and Nick Adams from Reynolds, N.D., to test and enhance the Crop Shuttle’s design in the fall of 2020. The testing unit was outfitted on a 4600 series Crop Shuttle, allowing it to load up more than 30 tons of lime ash. The attachment is out of the way at the rear of the cart, allowing farms to move from harvest operations to spreading with no downtime to switch over.
“This year we harvested around 1,500 acres of sugarbeets, then spread over 12 million pounds of lime ash in the Grand Forks area with the Crop Shuttle” says Nick Adams. “The Crop Shuttle’s Bluetooth scale system really made it easy to keep track of our spread rates and to adjust accordingly. Not only that, but our loader and harvester operators had the app on their phones, allowing us to get the perfect amount in the Shuttle every time.”
“The Adamses were helpful during the development of this spinner,” says Kringstad. “They have been awesome to work with while we work out the kinks.”
The Crop Shuttle has a modular design, allowing farmers to customize their cart to fit their specific needs. Payload can be maximized up to 46-ton or 2400-cubic foot capacity and discharge speeds up to 30 tons per minute. Customers can customize various components of their cart, including capacity, side wall height, scales, cleaning tables and boom widths. The Crop Shuttle is extremely versatile, and can be used in multiple crops including sugarbeets, potatoes, carrots, onions, red beets, cucumbers and even corn silage.
The Crop Shuttle started as a product from Kringstad Ironworks, Inc., but has since been moved to a sister company, STP Manufacturing, where it is currently manufactured.
“The Crop Shuttle got its roots when we introduced the first one into vegetables in 2016,” says Kringstad. “The Beet Shuttle was my father’s project. It dates to the first prototype in 2012 to help Michigan farmers tackle the need to load large trucks at tall heights at an efficient rate. After about three main designs, we learned that the current hopper-raising design was the most efficient and laid the groundwork for my brother Alek and I to take it to the next level and introduce it to more crops. To date, we have tried it in more than 15 different crops and are adding more versatility each year.”
STP currently manufactures five main products.
“We started with just Safe-T-Pull in mind back in 2014, but our focus to diversify quickly added more product lines,” says production manager Alek Kringstad. “In 2015 we worked to develop the Slingshot Kinetic Energy Ropes. In 2016 we added the Crop Shuttle under our roof. In 2018 we purchased Strong Box live bottoms; in 2019, Prairie Plastics; and last year was our first year as a dealer for the Holmer self-propelled harvester. All these product lines complement each other and share common parts and customer base.”
“We have always been big on innovation and there usually isn’t many things we aren’t willing to try,” says Jacob. “We have some big prototypes coming up this harvest, and 2022 holds some promising innovations. We have a few new items to debut, so we look forward to the 2022 trade show circuit and getting back out in front of our customers.”
For questions regarding the Crop Shuttle or any other product manufactured by STP, visit www.stpmfg.com or call (701) 284-6100.
