[Forever27]

Last fall I bought a 16R22" John Deere 7300 planter. It is not ground driven. It has an older aftermarket hydraulic transmission that powers the plates. It's an Accu-rate system made by Rawson. I have a lot of questions on how to set this thing but Rawson is not in business anymore. Anybody have an answer on how to set this complex planting system?

 

[5stateag]

We have a rawson drive. You just turn the knob to the population you want. Really simple.

 

[Forever27]

We have a rawson drive. You just turn the knob to the population you want. Really simple.

I tried cranking the dial. After counting seeds on the ground I could only get the population up to 155,000 from the original 137,000. I want 175,000 plants but when I type in that number on the AccuRate processor nothing changes. Who does a guy call for something like that?

 

[okpanhandle]

Rawson is owned by Trimble now. Trimble's website is terrible, but they do have .pdf files of installation and operating manuals. For some reason I can't get the files to display properly, but maybe you'll have better luck. There is a process to calibrate the Accu-Rate. It seems complex at first, but once you do it a few times it becomes simplicity itself. I do it all by muscle memory so I can't really type it out step-by-step, but hopefully the manual will download properly for you.

Trimble – Rawson Drive | Trimble Agriculture

http://trl.trimble.com/docushare/ds...TEController_9.2A_UserGde_USG10333_ENG_AW.pdf

As for your rate problems, there could be several things wrong. In no particular order: make sure it's calibrated correctly, make sure the ground speed is calibrated for your tractor, and see if the double reduction sprockets have been installed.

edit: I got the manual to display correctly. I had to open it directly with Acrobat Reader, not in a new tab in Firefox.

 

[Forever27]

There are 5 plug-ins on the back of the accu-rate processor. I only have 2 chords. I have the Main power chord and the main B terminal. Do I need the B com chord? The planter seems to plant ok but I am wondering if I can even change the planter rate

 

[okpanhandle]

If you only have one motor, it plugs into Drive A. Our older system uses two motors; the left is Drive A, and the right is Drive B. The COM ports are for integrating a GPS system for automatic rate control. The new Trimble instructions don't even mention the COM ports, so I would guess that isn't supported anymore (they want you to use their Field IQ system for prescription planting). Page 30 of this document has a simple schematic:

http://trl.trimble.com/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-480667/Rawson_77699-00-ENG-B_AW.pdf

If you don't have a population monitor, I strongly recommend getting one. It's the easiest way to tell if you're planting the correct rate or not.

 

[Forever27]

Thanks guys.