Ideas for driving dry fertilizer boxes on an FM cultivator?

rockyridgefarm

Well-known Member
Hey all,

I'm looking for ideas on how to drive some fertilizer boxes on a Front Mount cultivator. I want to drop 100-150 lbs of poultry litter each pass while cultivating.

I recently bought a pair of IH 56 planters and plan on taking the fertilizer boxes and mounting them on a mounted cultivator. I have a 494 I'm scrapping and robbed the boxes off it to cut down for the inside rows (it's a 6 row, 30 inch cultivator). The tractor has dual hydraulics and both remotes will be occupied on lifting the cultivator gangs, so hydraulic is out. I was thinking about setting up a ground drive, but haven't thought of where I could mount the drive wheel. With the tractor being in the way, I figured I'll need a drive wheel for each side.

I also want to build a toolbar for behind the tractor to drop cover crop seed on the last cultivation. The planters have Gandy insecticide boxes and I was thinking they may work for this. Set up 7 of them on a common driveshaft and have them drop seed while cultivating. The Gandys gonna do the trick?

Any ideas?
 
You made no mention of what brand or model of tractor you have the cultivator on. Most side dressers in older days were driven by a two peice sprocket tha clamped to the rear axle of the tractor, and had a simple jaw clutch to disengage them when when raised.
How about a 3pt broadcast spreader on the back, It would be much simpler and save a lot of time and skined up shins trying to fill those small hoppers.
Loren the Acg.
 
Thanks for the replies so far.

Unless I rig up something, I need both remotes as the FM has a cylinder for each side. With my farm, I NEED the ability to lift each side independent for point rows in irregular fields. orbital motors are out.

I also thought of electric, but these are the 200+ pound hoppers, so I'd need a motor strong enough to turn augers through 600 + pounds of fertilizer. Maybe the Gandys could run off electric, but there will be 7 units on a 6 row. they're currently set up to run off a ground drive wheel. I'd need 7 motors or to run them off a jackshaft and one large motor.

The cultivator is a John deere FM 6row30", made from 1973 into the 80's. The tractor is a 4010 diesel.
 
Some ideas and concerns:

Hydraulic would be probably the most effective way. If the tractor is a 4010 and you are already using both remotes, you could rig in an extra circuit much like some of the discussions on here about mounting loaders.

You would need two motors one for each side.

A PTO powered hyd pump may be a good way... it would be separate of the tractor hydraulics.

A concern: Is the FM cultivator going to handle full fertilizer boxes hung on it??? Especially when you get sick of filling every 3 acres and build extentions?

Why not put the fertilizer down with a spreader in one pass (quick) and then come back and cultivate it in?
 
The Case planter dad used ran off the tractor rear axle. Clamp
on sprockets. Would be pretty easy to do?

Paul
 
The frame of the cultivator is 4 inch square tubing. The same square tubing is used all the way up to the 12 row planters. I think it's strong enough to hold 1000 pounds of fertilizer and equipment. If I have a concern, I can mount a set of caster wheels I got with an 8 row wide FM cultivator I just bought. I suppose I'd have to set it up to flex at the tractor, but that's not a big deal as all FMs could be set up to flex. All of them were set up to flex over 6 row wide.

The fertilizer boxes are off a 56 planter. I think they're about 200 pounds each. I'm gonna have to cut down two fertilizer boxes from a 494 I just scrapped to run on one row on either side of the tractor. Still, I should have 600 or so pounds of capacity. That should be 4.5-6 acres capacity at 100 to 150 pounds per acre.

My biggest field right now is 17 acres - 3 fills. Most of the farm is in CRP until 2016, but once it's out, I'm doing 80 acres of corn and 40 acres of beans. That's 20 fills at 100 lbs per acre

I do have a PTO powered hydraulic pump. It may come to that.
 

IIRC FM6 & up set up for 38"/40" row spacing had caster wheels. I should remember as I sold several new sets back in the 70's but a lot of water has run under the bridge.
 
dry urea is 46% so you will get 46 pounds per 100 applied besides the fact straight urea attracts moisture making it sticky which will gum up the augers, you are setting yourself for a big train wreck, I can't believe the lengths people will go to to make more work for themselves. If you want to sidedress N either use 28% or put on dry with a spreader at around the 5th leaf or so and cultivate it in
 
Old 1960's Noble insecticide units had a cultivator mounting option that used a ground driven wheel and a long flat-link chain to power their aplicators. Two drive wheel assemblies were used on a four row front mounted cultivator, one for each side.
 

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