[jackaroo]

As I said above, I think a lot the same...we have been running 2 tanks. The TBH fan is driven by a Lombardini belt drive to fan. Bulletproof engine. Little 3 cyl diesel. Been great over the years, but I do dream of having capable tractor

 

[Steelin81]

Could you make a bracket to mount a pto driven pump on the back of the tractor?

 

[FarmRanch]

Could you make a bracket to mount a pto driven pump on the back of the tractor?

That is a good question. The short answer is yes. In fact, you can buy a prebuilt PTO system from Command Hydraulics in the US. A 40 GPM pump with reservoir, PTO adapter, etc was $11,000 US two years ago. I went down that rabbit hole once, but decided against it in the end. Mainly due to the fact that it wouldn’t give me more HP. In fact, the publication states that it uses up to 69 hp to run (depending on the pressure - max 3500 psi if my memory is correct).

 

[FarmRanch]

As I said above, I think a lot the same...we have been running 2 tanks. The TBH fan is driven by a Lombardini belt drive to fan. Bulletproof engine. Little 3 cyl diesel. Been great over the years, but I do dream of having capable tractor

Thank you. That is very interesting. It would be a lot simpler. Just would be more difficult to move from one airdrill to the next. Luckily for me we only change drills once a decade. Do you have any recommendations on brands or idea on where to source such a thing? Any idea how many hp that 3 cylinder puts out? Thanks.

 

[FarmRanch]

If you trade let’s say for 300k you will get 15% Capital cost allowance. So 45000$ then on year two you will have 30% cca.
So 76500$ So yes your saving on the price tag up front by MacGyvering something to your liking
but your going to pay the tax man. On the long run you would be better off trading.
Mathematics it’s the future use it Wisely. Lol.

I totally understand the point you are trying to make. And it is true in some ways. But, it sounds a lot like JD salesman to me. Spend $300,000 and you can write it off, have a newer tractor, and end worldwide hunger. I can’t delude myself into pretending $300,000 is cheaper than $15,000 no matter how high the CCA rate or how low interest rates are. I’m not trying to bash you. I’ve seen a lot of very well written posts by you on this forum. I just think you don’t understand how cheap I really am. For better or for worse.

 

[FarmRanch]

With the above facts being true, perhaps all you need is auxiliary hydraulic fluid coolers, they may as well be on the air cart fan intakes to eliminate parasitic loss to power the air supply.

You are certainly right. If I am sticking with this seeding outfit for another 2 to 4 years. Maybe $2000 to go with this option. And would allow me to comfortably seed when it is 35 degrees C. Which has never happened during seeding season where I live. Would make things much easier on the hydraulic system and tractor cooling capacity. It appeals to my cheap nature. And would allow me to see more hours a day while dumping on sulphur and urea - humidity.
You could be right. It just won’t allow me to trade to a newer parallel linkage drill with 550 + bushel tank. But, who am I kidding? How many people run their primary seeding tractor as one with over 8000 hours? Probably very few in Canada?

 

[Slip clutch]

I totally understand the point you are trying to make. And it is true in some ways. But, it sounds a lot like JD salesman to me. Spend $300,000 and you can write it off, have a newer tractor, and end worldwide hunger. I can’t delude myself into pretending $300,000 is cheaper than $15,000 no matter how high the CCA rate or how low interest rates are. I’m not trying to bash you. I’ve seen a lot of very well written posts by you on this forum. I just think you don’t understand how cheap I really am. For better or for worse.

I totally understand.
No worries. 🍻

 

[farmshop]

I dont think the hydraulic power unit is a terrible idea. We run into hyd issues on our corn planter tractor running vacuum fans and hyd seed drives and hyd air compressor. For us to limp by on hot days we have to slow flows down on non priority things and even then sometimes we just need to take a 20 minute break to cool things down

 

[Transaxial]

This dilemma has been around for decades. Since 1983 I ran a Friggstad AF1 air seeder with the Wisconsin/Teledyne 2 cyl air cooled diesel. It worked good but was always under powered a bit. The thing that killed mine was that I forgot to take the air shields off one year and remove the usual mouse nest and I cooked it in about 1/2 an hour. They were only rated at about 20 HP so marginal for higher rates of fertilizer. There was also a Lombardini air cooled diesel used on these Friggstads that had a little more HP, maybe 22, and therefore lived a little longer. These were not a bad setup really, under powered would be my biggest complaint. In the early 90's I had a very good Steiger CM325 with open center hydraulics that I wanted to use to pull a Bourgault air seeder with a 2195 tank with a hyd fan. To avoid the usual heating problems on open center with a lever tied back, I bought a 2-71 Detroit, about 60 hp, that had a Rockford clutch setup as shown in the pictures. This Rockford is a proper industrial drive that gives you an over center clutch and a 2 - 2 1/2" dia shaft to mount your 2 or 3B drive sheaves on and not worry about side load. I used this engine to drive a Chicago blower off an old Friggstad AF1 and mounted it all on an I beam frame that slipped onto the 2195 frame. I had the old Chicago fan balanced to 3000 rpm and with a 2 : 1 ratio off the 2 - 71 it just idled along at 1300 - 1500 rpm while making huge air which I then used for the BG air seeder instead of the hyd fan. This direct drive fan worked very well for many years. A little more maintenance, another thing to fuel up, but it ran more than a week on the 45 gal drum for a fuel tank. It allowed that CM325 to work for many more years without trying to figure out that magic of Capital Cost Allowance!!

On the subject of hydraulics, a rule of thumb is that 1 HP can produce 1 gallon/minute of oil at 1500 psi. So at 3000 psi it takes 2 HP to produce 1 GPM. And a 100 gpm at 3000 psi takes 200 HP. With your idea of using a Cummins 3.9 to drive a hydraulic pump, it is certainly doable and would have some of the nice features of, turning fan on remotely, being able to adjust speed remotely, although that would be easy with a linear actuator to the throttle on a diesel engine too. Nothing wrong with that Cummins 3.9 for sure, but now there are some real nice compact diesels like Kubota, Mitsubishi, Isuzu etc that are readily available and all play nice with SAE components from Hayes for making your flex coupler drive off the bell housing #5, 6, 7 etc. If you are serious about doing this I have quite a bit of what you need like new or used engines, hydraulic pumps, oil coolers etc. My vote is that for a lot less than $15,000 you can make your drill work pretty well.

HP = psi x gpm divided by 1714

Flow = RPM x cu/in (cc) divided by 231

A couple of useful formulas to do some calculations to see if your thoughts are in the ballpark. Keep us informed of what you learn.