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pull sprayer?

10K views 41 replies 18 participants last post by  Christian A. Herrnboeck 
#1 ·
I am contemplating on getting a big 134' flexi pull behind with a 1000 or 1500 gallon tank last couple years I have been using a 60' summers sprayer with a 500 gal tank I probable sprayed about 6000 acres last year couple reasons why I am thinking about going this way . wife blew up engine in spray pickup this winter
get sick of taking gps auto steer from tractor to sprayer especially when I am spraying before and or after I plant in the spring some days that seems like all I am doing . I am also assuming that I can cover allot more acres in shorter time . My concerns were some of my steep ground ....looked at some of 98j picture not concerned there any more.. another concern I would especially in crop (small grains) I would probable be using my quad and in chem follow either my cat or quad. would I tear up much grain with my quad? thanks for any info ....OH yes after I cash in the winning lottery ticket I will buy a self propelled sprayer
 
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#2 ·
Cold over there?? When you cash in the winning lottery ticket,
just keep right on farming 'till the money is all gone.......


A pull sprayer behind a Quad.........will go places that a SP unit
could never go.....right side up anyway:




"would I tear up much grain with my quad?"

Nope.


 
#3 ·
montana,

I just a have a thought or two for you to ponder. We have always had a pull type sprayer up until a few years ago. It seemed like there was a limit on how fast you could travel, as the booms starting bouncing and stuff started breaking. Especially when you get to the big ones, those outside wheels move FAST when turning corners. After lots of consideration given to buying another wheel boom, we opted for a flexi-coil suspended boom, 90 foot.

Heres some of the major benefits:

No wheel boom bearings
Transport, fold and go
You can go as fast as you can sit in the tractor ( I spray between 12 and 14 mph)
Back it into the shed for winter storage.
Ability to do some dessicating ( assuming you can set your tractor up for it)
Lifting of booms over obstacles (ie rockpiles)

These are just some of the benefits I have noticed. I believe with the speed I can obtain, I can spray just as much area if not more then a 130' sprayer at a slower speed. I spray roughly 17,000 acres a year with it.

Happy shopping!
 
#4 ·
Dido to redgreen's comments...also the flexicoil suspended boom sprayers are very durable. I seed with a seed hawk, and in five years I haven't had a break in the sprayer yet..knock on wood.

Woody
 
#5 ·
This is very timely, I'm also considering a pull type suspended boom sprayer or as a friend of mine calls them "wannabe high clearance sprayers", a Flex-Coil in whatever color dress is the cheapest.

What system do you use for auto boom height? We are fairly rolling here and I'm sure you need that.
Is auto sectional control available or do you have to source that elsewhere?
Where do these roughly cash out at?
I just checked machine builder at CIH, this is the message you get:
We're sorry this model is temporarily unavailable. Pricing being updated. Please check back soon.
Yes, I'm sure it's like Wal mart, they're busily lowering the prices as we speak.

NH doesn't have a machine builder link. Go figure.

TIA.

Don
 
#6 ·
Currently don't have auto boom height system, as most of our land doesn't require it. However, since the cost of these systems has come down, and as an insurance, I am planning on installing one for spring. Our local CIH dealer sells the raven system, for about $5000.

A new CIH sprayer will run you about $60,000 CDN. Depending on options.

Our neighbor has one for sale in the WP. I think hes asking $25000. It hasn't done much in the two years hes had it, he hired a high clearance most of the time. It doesn't have a rinse tank though. A 'must have' for me.
 
#7 ·
montana; I have a flexi-coil 130 sprayer for sale. It is an 05 bought new in 06. It has 1250 imp. gallon tank,heavy duty axles,wind screens, triple nozzle bodies,rinse tank, rinse wand, dual markers,fence row nozzles,hydraulic fold out. The sprayer is in like new condition. I am asking 35000.00 obo. I am located about 90 miles north of calgary,alberta. If you are interested my number is 403-442-2359
 
#11 ·
I'm actually thinking of going away from a high-clearance. What do you fellas think of the hardi commander twin boom system? Was talking to company guy today and he said they build them up to 118 in a suspended air boom, 132 in a standard, they look good, but haven't seen any in our area. Costly no doubt, but couldn't imagine what an SP with 1850 gal tank, 120' air boom would cost...ouch!
 
#14 ·
Hardi is different. It uses normal nozzles, with an air curtain. Air curtain speed can be adjusted, as well as the angle of the blast, I suspect they have a similar effect, though they would both probably claim otherwise. Brian Storozynsky from alberta Ag? has done work on air assist sprayers and other newer technologies, but has been unable to see a benefit outside of fungicides and dessicants I believe. I wonder if you might get a better job spraying for fusarium if you could angle the air blast in such a way that your heads are waving back and forth, I suppose a good wind during application would have the same effect!
Local custom operator claims he has to cut his herbicide rates with his spray-air boom otherwise he hurts the crop, have heard others say this. Would be nice to spray liberty at 5gal and still get a good job.
Hardi looks to be better built and offers some enormous tank options, up to 2400gal, unbelievable.
 
G
#15 ·
That sounds good, congrats.

Am I going to be the last one in the area to go high clearance?


Don

Just a though Don. Macdon or someone used to make a sprayer to mount on the 9000 series swather tractors. Do you think something like that could be done on the new M-150/200 tractors. I was thinking that with the turn about cab, you could have the booms out back, saddle tanks along the engine.

Since they are all hydraulic now, running a hydraulic pump wouldn't be a problem. The real and table lift I'm assuming could be used to raise and lower boom, They offer GPS. Running in transport you could really go.

Just a thought. I mentioned this to one of the guys at the farm show, and along with the snow blower that they used to have for these machines and I really thought that he thought i was smoking crack. I think it could work, or is there some design flaw in the M series tractor that doesn't allow for this operation?
 
#16 ·
The pull type high clearance sprayers have their place. They will do everything a high clearance sp will except preharvest work (the pull type is lower and will shell out more grain). However, the extra cost will hire the preharvest work custom done. Harvest is when I am usually so busy that it is hard to find time to spray anyway.

A pull type with booms and wheels that have a windscreen will spray on days that a high clearance sp can't run. Most sp units can't get the booms closer than 3' and often 4' from the ground in rolly land. A wheeled version with windscreens and coarse airinduction nozzles could spray in a 35 mph wind and still do a great job.

The pull type sprayers with the suspended booms and windscreens can spray closer to the ground than a sp unit because they go slower. You could spray on days that a sp can't go, but not in as much wind as a true wheeled boom.

Most sp units are 750-800 gallons with 90-100' booms. You can buy 1500-2500 gallon pull types with 110-130' booms. With the bigger water tank on the pull type you will still do a lot of acres per day.

I own a spraycoupe 80' boom and spray at 16-20 mph. Last year I also bought a sprayair pull type suspended boom. Pulling it in crop with the quadtrac you could go through standing water and easily spray from 12-16 mph. It rides so smooth on rough no till ground! At the end of the day the spraycoupe and the sprayair could spray the same amount in larger fields. In smaller fields the coupe shines because it can turn so much faster.

One you move to a suspended boom sprayer you will realize that the booms don't need to be any closer than 4 or 5' from the ground unless it is windy. I did not feel like I needed a auto boom height for either sprayer, unless I was trying to hug the ground.

If you have lots of steep hills that you have to spray sideways on then you need a pull type with wheels on the booms. A suspended boom sprayer would not be very stable with the boom whipping up and down and rocking the cart. If you can go up and down, or at an angle on the slope a suspended boom will work excellent.

I spray about 15-20000 acres per year and if I was to do it all over again I would not buy a sp sprayer. I would get a pull type suspended boom with a large tank and then just hire a plane or high clearance sprayer to do the preharvest work.
 
#17 ·
We have a Spray-Air 2282, suspended boom sprayer.

It works extremely well. We just started with it this year; first burnoff was .3L/acre of Factor 540 roundup, in 5 gal of water. By the time we got to doing canola, I was down to .25L/acre, in 3 gallons/acre of water.

We sprayed wheat with Frontline+Horizon+Tilt, at 4GPM and the guys from the elevator were amazed at how well the chemicals worked, especially Tilt which is supposed to be used with 15gpa of water. In flax, we used Select and did 80acres with a single case, which should treat 40 - 60. In Oats, one case of Frontline is for 40 acres, we sprayed 66 with it, and had complete control. You have to drive slower (5 - 8mph), but you can still cover a LOT of acres in a day.


The nozzles actually use wind from the fan, powered by the pto to turn a steady stream of product into a 8" wide fan. The nice thing is the flexibility; you can make big or small droplets depending on wind velocity (adjustable from cab), and also shut the fan off and use the sprayer as a dribble bar.

-Christian
 
#18 ·
Ive heard that the small droplets will drift easily, which makes sense, but I figured that since the Spray-Air creates its own "wind", its possible to spray in windier conditions then a normal boom sprayer. All that down draft would cancel out wind gusts.
 
#19 ·
Agreed. Wind is your enemy.

If I'm spraying where it may hurt something, I'll go down to 2.5 - 3gal /acre, and run at only 45% of wind output (Can't remember what the Mag. says).

It won't drift then, but you have to be careful not to drive too fast, as larger amounts of solutions will make the spray pattern narrow down, and you'll have stripes in your field between the nozzles (been there, done that).

Of course, you get the best control when running so that the droplets turn into a very fine fog, it pretty much covers the entire leaf from both sides.


-Christian
 
#21 ·
Always lovely to reply to your posts Don


The best auto boom levelling system I have dealt with and seen a lot of is the Norac system.

In Australia we have a KEE/Topcon autoswitching system that can be fitted to any sprayer really. A lot of people here run Hardi Commander or Navigator using EZ Steer with a 500. You can plug n play a Rinex auto boom section controller.

I would imagine your sprayer / accessory market in Canada would be quite different to ours. If you need any info on any of this sing out.
 
#22 ·
It does NOT cancel windgusts the spray air or danfoil as they are called here are very good in some applications potatoes esp, but they have caused alot of damages to neighboring fields because of easier drift of small droplets if there is no hevy canopy to catch them.
Contractors here have swithced back to big pull type sprayers instead because they are easier to operate and they dont create dust if its dry when you do weed control in corn but like i said for fungicide control in heavy crops air assist is very effective.
As far as cutting rates try to do as much of your weed control spraying very early in the morning as the plant are still open then we do much of our weed control as low as 25 to 30 % of the manufacturers recommended dose.
Slowing down helps too as you get a better coverage of the crop we pretty much never exceed 5mph and use in general from 10 to 20 gal/acre

Bo
 
#23 ·
Christian: I have a 2282 also.. you mention using yours as a dribble bar.. what kind of gallons are you putting on with it?
does the pump have any problems with the heavier fert. compared to spray solutions?

I have been spraying most crops/chemicals at 2 imp gallons an acre.. went you to 4 imp. gallons with Liberty and Oddessy this past year.. didn't get as good of a kill as I did the year before with 2 gallons... used a higher rate of chem too this year..
 
#24 ·
We were putting on 4.5GPA of liquid sulfur.

Didn't have any trouble with the pump, but this year will be running it on a tractor /w a hydraulic cooler. Those lines sure get hot pumping liquid fert!

I noticed like you did, the less water the better control. Got to let the air do the job!

Do you have the Kee controler on yours too?
 
#25 ·
Raven controller..

the only real drift problem I had was with a cool morning, that heated up real fast.. I think the result was what is called an inversion.. it lifted the drift up and then settled it in a low spot of my neighbors field, then it followed the low areas .. it took a couple of weeks to figure out what happened.. chem reps. crop insurance, never touched the weeds along the side of the road.. and the road is a high grade.. found out what insurance is for.

I have sprayed in real windy conditions.. and not any trouble.. once last year i was scared the chem. solution wasn't making in to the crop canopy.. but everything worked out..
 
#26 ·
I can't figure out how they call a pull type sprayer high clearance when the hitch is 18" off the ground. Anybody around are area that have tried them hate to admit it was a mistake but shortly after having them, they are trading it off to a real high clearance sprayer. The sprayer is the most important piece of equipment on your farm besides your drill.
 
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