One man sand bag filler?

[Stephen Tashiro]

Is there a good tool that works as a one-man sand bag filler? I see such things advertised on the web. Anyone know which tool works well?

[John Pratt]

How many bags need to be filled? In the Army we built our own "sandmans". Basically it is a large plywood chute with a sliding trap door in a dado. Fill the whole chute with sand, raise/move the trap door, fill the sand bag. It makes it quite easy for one man to fill a sand bag. I guess it really depends on how many sandbags you plan to fill. This method probably wouldn't be worth it for 30 bags, but when your filling several hundred or a thousand, it make it a lot easier.

[Curt Harms]

I recall a stand for filling "gunny sacks" or burlap bags, It was 2 "U" shaped pieces. The bottom was something like 2X6s. The top "U" was also 2X lumber. The center piece was fixed to a vertical spine; I don't remember what that was. The arms were about 2X2 and were spring loaded to open. The tops of the arms had cut-off finishing nails driven into them. You hooked the bag over the cut-off finishing nails and it was held open. The height was such that the base of the bag was on the ground. The arms wouldn't have to be spring loaded if you were using only one size bag. This was burlap bags with a loose weave, dunno if something like that would work for sand bags or not.

[Larry Frank]

I just did a quick google search on sand bag filler and got a lot of hits. Some of them were home made things that looked like they would work well.

[Stephen Tashiro]

My need for sandbags would be in a minor emergency situation when irrigation water floods my lawn or a burst pipe floods the street (both have happened in the past). Since I'm not sure if I'd have help, I'd like to have some simple one-man sandbag equipment ready.

I wonder if its effective to have a stack of sandbags outside that are already filled. Do they "go bad" sitting out in the weather?

[David G Baker]

I would keep the bags out of the weather if possible, if nothing else cover the filled bags with a tarp or something similar.

[John Pratt]

I wonder if its effective to have a stack of sandbags outside that are already filled. Do they "go bad" sitting out in the weather?

That depends on the type of sandbag. If they are burlap or cloth they will break down over time. If they are nylon or similar they can last for years. There are sandbags here on the military installation that heve been here for years. They only need replaced due to damage when repeatedly moving them.

[Bill ThompsonNM]

In Las Cruces I would cover them for sun protection. Most fabrics break down pretty fast here in NM due to the high UV from the sun. Other than that you could probably store some for years. My hay tarps don't last nearly as long as I would like.

[Kevin Gregoire]

i seen this on some invention show a few years ago and its just way cool

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeuwtkPdQVs

only bad part is a crappy website
http://sackmaster2000.com/