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Dave F

Posted 4/7/2009 22:24 (#672921)
Subject: Planter rebuild - lots of pics

Southeast MN

I apologize for a long winded, fragmented sentences and a bunch of pictures, but this is the the tale of my planter rebuild project. My wife was starting to refer to it as my “other woman” because of the time I was putting into it.

I realize this is nothing new to many with larger planters, but 5 years ago, no one in the area ran a planter bigger than 6x30 and now there are several 12 and 16 row machines.

I bought it last May for a very good price knowing it needed a rebuild. Had it delivered and unloaded off the truck during corn planting May 08 and it ended up sitting in the yard for a few weeks. The electric / hydraulic system is easy to trouble shoot to get it folding and lifting but popped two hydraulic hoses and hope the rest hold. I had to spares of different lengths made up so I hope that keeps any others from blowing.

Once in the shop, the row units got new seed tubes, tube guards, keetons, openers, gage wheels or bearings where needed. Martin single closing wheel (6 new and 6 off the old machine), all new drag chains and 6 yetter trash whippers from the old planter and 6 new to me bought with the White. Meters got new brushes, seed disks and drive chains. Also replaced the parallel arm bolts and bushings, which went well when you only replace one bolt at a time. Don’t pull two bolts at a time or life gets difficult. All the other chains were replaced at this time too.

The fertilizer system took some thought and engineering. I had the 12 yetter openers on my old 6 row JD7000 and they have low acres on them, 6 for dry and 6 for 28%. A call to Yetter told me that they don’t offer dry fert setup on a 6180 because the dry hose will be almost flat, about 16 inches behind the fert box opening and the dry won’t flow at that flat angle. This is where I got creative; the dry coulters will crash the frame when folded if extended so I made reciever hitch style coulter brackets. I ran a quick finite element analysis on the design during lunch at work one day to make sure the design is strong enough and found I should add a little gusset plate to the bottom of the bracket to remove a high stress region.

The idea is to pull a pin and slide the coulters back when folding to transport and then when in the field, slide them forward, install the pin and reconnect the dry flex spout. It’s a bit of fooling around, but worst case is doing this once a day as I don’t have to fold the machine until I leave that farm. I bought the yetter clamps for the White diamond bar, bolts from Fastenal and steel from a local supply house. Improvised a welding fixture to get the brackets square and that welding had me wishing for a wire feed machine. Burned up close to 10 pounds of 5/32” 6011 rod. I found a 10” metal chop saw wheel for my chinamart compound miter saw and use it as a $40 metal chop saw.

After researching efficient methods of 28% UAN, I chose to use the 12 double disk openers for the 28% nitrogen, as depth control isn’t critical, just wanting to get dirt on 3 sides of the N. Trash flow looks like it will be ok since the yetter is out forward 10-12 inches, giving a bit of stagger.

Redball monitors to each opener will tell me if I have plugged or broken lines. When I looked at the back of the tractor, my first thought was I hope the hitch never fails because it looks like a plumber and electrician’s nightmare. Quick disconnects on everything make unhooking the machine a 5-minute job: monitor, two 28% lines, 3 sets of hydraulic lines, seed stop system to shut off either half of the planter and harness for folding the planter.

After 100 hours or so in the shop, it was able to get out in the field and start positioning coulters and learning the machine. My neighbor, semi-retired was there to watch and help, but I figure the first couple acres will take 3 hours before everything is adjusted just right.

Like any piece of used equipment, there is some unknown gremlin to kill once in the field but will get confidence in this machine as time goes on. The odd thing is, this could last me the rest of my farming career if acreage stays the same.

Biggest problem right now is remembering to lower the 3pt when backing into the shed so the markers don’t crash the roof……….