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Post by Oatking on May 13, 2022 6:20:00 GMT -6
Interesting you say about being distracted by your phone! I have an odd rule where I never turn on the tractor radio while seeding until the last quarter of the season. I have never had a miss pass in over 25 years due to forgetting to trip some clutches and aim to keep it that way!
Maybe not a mistake , but I do slow down to 5 mph when seeding canola or flax. I find it seeds more evenly and no bounce. Cereals I sometimes will do 6mph. Do you guys slow down at night or keep the same speed. I find 5.8-6.3 or what ever seems really fast when the sun goes down. I usually slow down at least a mile per hour and get out and check every few rounds to make sure no hoses are blown off or something else has occured.
Thanks for all the tips. Its good to be reminded every year because this year it will be one chance at seeding at best and with all the risk in crop failure and high inputs we can not afford a mishap.
For guys pulling 1895 disc drills, put a safety chain on the hitch part from the hitch frame to the disc drill frame. I know it sounds silly but by friend who has a 60ft almost new 1895 drill had one of the bolts break that hold the hitch frame to the drill. They ended up twisting the hitch frame side ways. It is important especially if you are pulling an nh3 tank behind the air tank. I love my deere equipment but it bugs me to no end when they cheap out on the important strength points. I ended up custom welding my hitch to beef it up to prevent B.S from happening. I usually seed all by myself so when the retailer delivers a nh3 tank I always use my back up camera on the air tank to back up to the nh3 tank. Works well, but I imagine there is a lot of stress on all the caster wheels swiveling back and forth! I usually back up when my air tank is almost empty.
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Post by SWMan on May 14, 2022 21:38:28 GMT -6
Maybe not a mistake , but I do slow down to 5 mph when seeding canola or flax. I find it seeds more evenly and no bounce. Cereals I sometimes will do 6mph. Do you guys slow down at night or keep the same speed. I find 5.8-6.3 or what ever seems really fast when the sun goes down. I usually slow down at least a mile per hour and get out and check every few rounds to make sure no hoses are blown off or something else has occured. I seed everything at 6mph, but I also have a disc drill. It seems to work fine even at speeds above that but with my rocks I figure it's got to be harder on things. I put Dutch seed brakes on to help with seed bounce and they help, but require periodic cleaning because dust builds up in the upper part and can flake off and fall down and plug the seed boot. Something to watch for if considering seed brakes. Seeding at night is kinda something I don't plan for but usually do. Often I try to empty the semi out so I can fill it when I go home for the night, sometimes that means finishing a tank or two after dark. Lots of daylight in seeding season though, which is nice. |
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CTS2
Junior Member
Posts: 74
Likes: 27
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Post by CTS2 on May 15, 2022 4:44:45 GMT -6
Good question about the conveyor belt system CTS. We had a Leon S45 and S105 (same tank just different numbers on side) that had conveyor belt under each compartment. Conveyors designed to dump in a central point into plenum. No air presurization and lid was just a rain cap. I suspect the central dump into the air plenum was designed as a venturi effect. Fan at front of cart blew air past the grain entry point and then to distribution manifold on back of tank. It was a detail I never paid attention to back when we had the equipment. Like those vacuums you can attach to your shop air comoressor hose. Pressurized carts and leaving lid open is a function of weight of grain and pressure in plenum. High fan speeds and restrictive distribution system means high pressure in plenum blowing up through the tank dump port. Light seed and high pressure means no grain drops. Low pressure and high product weight means more product drops. So why hasn't the unpressurised conveyor belt system become more common? The only fault with the Alfarm hoppers was that they are not easy to empty out, compared to the vee bottom type ones. I'm sure an engineer could overcome that pretty easily though. |
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Post by shmiffy on May 15, 2022 8:11:49 GMT -6
Going to seed canola. Changing the depth from c.5 to c. Find out one was set at b and 2 were at f
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Post by torriem on May 15, 2022 17:29:26 GMT -6
Make sure your auger/conveyer is latched and secure before transport, learned that the hard way yesterday Ha! I did this to our brand new air drill nearly 10 years ago. It really dented up the tube and it bent the auger. But it still turned. For years we've used this bent auger, clanging away. Plus the support arm was bent and it never quite moved properly and wouldn't want to stay where you put it. This year we finally replaced the support arm and fixed up the auger tube since it was rusting out on the crinkled spot. Bought poly auger flighting for it also while we were at it. This season the thing runs so quietly now! And it moves fertilizer a lot faster with the poly flighting. Should have fixed it years ago. Ahh well. |
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Post by kenmb on May 16, 2022 8:09:16 GMT -6
Don't know cts2. I suppose the BG auger style metering system or others roller system probably gives a little more precision but then a guy could use the same airstream delivery system of the conveyor belt along with auger/roller to meter onto belt. I guess there are draw backs to the conveyor system that I am not aware of. Maybe as airflow increases with higher demands of distribution systems the non-pressurised system starts showing weakness. Don't know. I would need to look at the old Leon tank to see how it actually worked for delivery of seed to airstream but that is one of the few pieces of equipment that actually moved off the farm.
Been failing at getting my old BG 4300 cart to put Edge down at recommended 7.5lb rate, keep coming up light. Wife will pick up some new tank lid seals this morning and see if resealing will help. While I can't feel any kind of leak around the lid the camera I have on my center tank does show dust from in tank slowly flowing upwards so slight leakage at lid could be screwing me up. Let's just say that the idea of tank pressure has been on my mind recently. My center tank pressure line is blowing strongly, cleaned it out a year or two ago to be sure.
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CTS2
Junior Member
Posts: 74
Likes: 27
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Post by CTS2 on May 16, 2022 14:33:12 GMT -6
The Alfarm metering system seems great to me. Just a simple slide adjustment at the end of the conveyor, infinitely variable. Compared with the Bourgault quick change sprocket system where you often find yourself either too heavy or too light between sprockets. (However I would take the Bourgault system over anything with an electric or hydraulic drive)
Another advantage of the Alfarm is that you can see the belt moving, and see the seed and super falling off the end of the belt into the venturi, from the tractor seat. So you don't actually need a monitor.
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Post by cptusa on May 16, 2022 18:33:51 GMT -6
My planter sure likes to fight with fences this year.
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Post by kevlar on May 16, 2022 18:37:06 GMT -6
My planter sure likes to fight with fences this year. And who has been winning? |
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Post by cptusa on May 16, 2022 20:45:24 GMT -6
Planter winning, fence loosing. I'll be fixing.
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Post by kenmb on May 17, 2022 7:12:12 GMT -6
The Alfarm units look similar to the old Leon S45. Can't find much on the S45 other than a pami report. open.alberta.ca/publications/afmrc-297#summaryI see the pami report does mention the belts deliver into an air lock that is rotated by the same drive system that turns the belts. So no venturi. I see mention of metering accuracy change when operating on slopes so perhaps the conveyor belt system is more influenced by external forces than say a pressured air tank metering system. Looks like new tank lid seals have improved the accuracy of my edge application. Ordered the tank lip seals but looks like the parts book has wrong part number for my tank serial # so will try again. Old tank lid seals still look ok on sealing area and are pliable but apparently 25 years is long enough for them. I don't expect the old seals to be a factor for any other product but trying to do edge at 7 lbs ac then every little thing matters. |
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Post by victory on May 17, 2022 8:32:54 GMT -6
Just curious kenmb, why you are putting down edge at that light a rate. The blue book gives higher recs.
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Post by meskie on May 17, 2022 9:06:39 GMT -6
Kenmb check your bottom seal on your tank clean out also. Had a problem when we seeded oats one year and air was leaking out the bottom of the tank.
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Post by garyfunk on May 17, 2022 9:45:46 GMT -6
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Post by kevlar on May 17, 2022 9:50:37 GMT -6
Might not hurt to check the bearings and bearing seals. I assume you’re using the middle tank. A bearing might be starting to go and getting a little rough, might lock up for a second here and there but not long enough to set off the alarm. Or if the bearing seals are leaking they will let air blow back the auger, with low rates and light product it doesn’t take much.
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