John,

Some good advice above. I would add a caution about being concerned about the "parallel links". They can be dead level and the whole planter still be screwed up.

If we focus on getting the toolbar height in the field in normal operating conditions at 20-21" from the underside of the 7x7 to the ground measured in line with the seed row on all three sections AND leveling the planter toolbar (NOT the parallel links) then the parallel linkage will take care of itself.

Setting the toolbar height is not an easy task on most big planters these days. Assuming yours is a CCS model I would suggest you look at the top end of the center section lift cylinders and make sure that pin is in the lower of the two holes which will raise the toolbar in the down position. This compensates for the weight of the CCS hoppers being all on the center frame section. Bauer designed this bar for individual seed hoppers. They added the second hole when the CCS came on the scene. Most CCS folks should use the bottom hole.

The wings also have a couple different bolt positions as I recall. I would like to be able to put a donut on the wing cylinders also it would be simpler. Usually the wings are close to 20" as shipped. It's the center section that sinks, especially in worked ground.

Many of the DB bars and other larger planters pull from the lower 3-point links. These are eay to level. On the drawbar models you can put donuts on the cylinder on most models to raise the tow point. On some tractor planter combinations however you must flip the draw bar over to get it high enough or build it up some how. You do NOT want the planter running nose down.

On leveling - what I would recommend is to pull into your first field, with the center cylinder pins in the bottom hole, pull ahead 50 ft and stop with the toolbar down. I assume your planter has markers. If you look at the bar from the end, the off side/up marker arm should appear straight up and down visually relative to the nearby ground, not tipped towards the tractor as most are.

All planters are better off level to slightly heeled back than running nose down (=marker top visually leaning toward the tractor).

One other thing to watch on that 36R20 planter in particular is in a no till situation seeing seed on top of the ground at the wing end rows.  Since all seed weight is on the center and there are so many row units per ft of toolbar, increasing air pressure or spring down pressure on the end rows lifts the bar rather than applying more down force to the row unit.  This model often needs dead weight added to the ends of the wings to keep all rows in the ground.  If you are using airbags I would start with low pressure - maybe 25-30 psi and only increase as far as needed. Excess air pressure causes a lot of difficulties.

Good luck this season.

Jim at Dawn