you might add that you should check this in one of the harder ground/usually higher placesd in the field.

With the planter down you should not be able to easily lift either of the row unit gage wheels off of the ground - the planter should be riding on the depth control stops. This is on a newer planter with the equalizer/rocker beams on the depth setting.

On the other hand, ther eshould NOT be so much down pressure used that the gage wheels feel like they are welded to the ground either!

As noted in another thread, planting forward SPEED is also a big factor. A planter row unit acts somewhat like a water skier, the faster you go the more it wants to ride up on the veeopeners and gage wheels. In fact row uniit down pressure required to stay on the depth stops goes up approximately with the square of the speed, not linearly.

In other words, if you were to double your planting speed (for example between 3 mph and 6 mph) it takes not twice but four times the down pressure to keep the row unit similarly on the stops at 6 mph as it does at 3 mph.

It is important to realize that there are huge differences in planter mechanical performance with modest increases in speed, in addition to the metering effects.

Also be aware that even if you increase the ro wunit down pressure to run at higher forward speeds, you are also exponentially increasing the impact loads on everything should you be hitting rocks etc. I have seen folks running so much pressure in the airbag systems that they break the rear out of the parallel links!

In many areas, 30-50 psi is a rerasonable operating range for the JD airbag pressure.

They should almost never be run up in the 70-100 psi range!!

Jim at Dawn