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| I mounted 12 used Dawn Plurbis strip till units on a cyclo 800 tool bar and used it this spring. I am curious if anyone else has done this, and what modifications you had to make to make it work better.
The first thing I did was beef up the wings so they would not flex back when going through the field. I welded an arm that goes forward from the frame about 34", then put a chain with a turnbuckle that goes from the outer portion of the wing, over the arm, and hook into the mid section of the tool bar. That kept the wings nice and straight and tight when going through the field.
I thought I wanted to disable the 5 degree wing lift that lifts the wings slightly on the ends, but found that when I disabled them, the wings don't stay rigid and level when lifting the unit up, but go limp and sag down lower than everything else. I assume that is the the frame can flex better going through the field. I counldnt' have them hanging down when turning on the ends, so reconnected the 5 degree lift. Seemed to work ok. I suppose there would be a way to weld something onto the wing to prevent it from going lower than level with the main tool bar. (basically put in stops so that 180 degrees is the max versus something like 190 or 200 degrees that is allowed now)
Most of the time the units worked great, and I am happy with the job it does. The main concern I have is that I may not be able to adjust the depth of the front coulter. All I have to adjust that is the front wheels that were on the tool bar. I felt that the front coulter was running too deep and getting into too wet of soil, then it would pull up muck and soon it would plug the trashwhipper. I could usually tell it was going to plug when the front coulter wasn't scouring clean coming out of the ground. I think I either need to rebuild the front wheels on the tool bar so I can add a screw jack in there to raise the front end up higher, (to bring the front coulter up and pitch the angle back) or add a 3 point top link so I can pitch the toolbar back, bringing the front end up. Others I have talked to about adding a 3 point top link to the cyclo tool bar don't think it can be done. They think it would just break right away from too much pressure on it.
Any thoughts on this issue? I can tell the Dawn units are great, I just was having a tough time spending more monty on a heavier toolbar that I didn't think my Case 2390 would be able to lift (and keep the front wheels on the ground at the same time). Maybe I will have to bite the bullet and get a bigger tractor, but I am trying to run a low cost strip till operation.
Also, I am not putting any fertilizer on, just making the strips. I would have built the strips in the fall, but the guy I used to hire to make them, didn't get them built last fall, so that motivated me to try and build my own strip till rig. FYI, Northwest Iowa, where it was abnormally dry this spring, so I had about as dry of conditions as you would ever get in the spring, but still I was pulling up wet mucky ground if I ran it too deep.
Any help will be appreciated! Thanks | |
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Anyone else used a cyclo tool bar for Dawn Strip till set up?
