494A Planter set to 30 inch

Would like to plant 30" rows with a 494A planter. It was planting 36, and moving the row units in has the seed hopper hitting the tires. The manual talks about
using smaller diameter hoppers. Would they be like 290 hoppers? Thanks
 
The axles on the 494A were fixed! If You bought a 4-30" it had the narrow axle. The narrow axle would plant 28 - 40" rows. I grew up with a 494A, & dad sometime around 1982 +/- tried the same thing You did. The seed cans hit the tires. 34" was as low as it good go. The wide could be ordered with dual wheels that look like dual wheels on a tractor, or with 4 wheels; each one separated. I am looking at a picture right now in a 494A / 495A Operators manual. There is a paragraph that states in order for the 30" with the wide axle frame... You must change to narrow seed hoppers! unfortunately it doesn't give information on the hoppers. Why they didn't just make the narrow axle is beyond me since it worked on all spacing.
 
Forgot to mention... Tractor House has 7 494A's, one with 30" rows, & Narrow canisters. Take a look at the pictures. Also look at the 71 planter units. Metal hoppers look the about the same!
 
I once saw a 494a where they cut away one side of the hopper and welded it back flat to get the needed clearance. They did a neat job even cutting the lid so it was still waterproof. The 1240 plateless planters used a square box so maybe it could be attached to your existing bottom? Tom
 
There is a difference in the bottom of the hoppers and I am not sure where the change was made. I know my 494A came with the big hoppers and is on 30" rows. Would have to go hunt up planter to check but I don't think the boxes interchange with a 494. To change from older to newer you would have to change bottom mounting parts. Have 11 Deere planters setting here ranging fron a 4 row 450 from before 1942 and first complete tractor designed planter and first 4 row up to a 1969 model last year 494A was made with 290, 490 494 in mix. The 1957 494 I bought had narrow axle and large hoppers and like a fool I sold that narrow axle as I later found the 57 model is unique and different than the 58 model that is still different than the 59 model. A good check in the different planter books on the JD parts lookup site may give you the information you are needing. And the 1240 frame that followed the 494A is the same except it was avaible as both a plate or plateless planter so you might be able to find a narrow axle in parts yard to replace your wide one.
 
I saw one at the sale in Archbold one time that had the hoppers cut like that. When I narrowed mine up,I put 490 hoppers on it.
 
Our 495A is set to 32", that's as narrow as Dad could go without hitting the tires.

Donovan from Wisconsin
 
here ya go,my 495 is set on 30" rows
a224883.jpg
 
Our 494A had two short fat hoppers and two tall narrow ones. The fat ones did hold more seed.
 
(quoted from post at 07:04:19 05/01/16) We had 2 tall narrow hoppers and 2 fat ones.

Yep that is how Dad's 494A was able to obtain 30" rows. 2 skinny hoppers to barely clear the tires and 2 fat funnel shaped ones where there was easily enough clearance. One simply watched the narrower hoppers more closely as they need re-filled sooner than the larger funnel shaped hoppers.

Another option is if you can weld, you can cut the wheel wishbone frame and make it narrower and reweld. Or try to find the narrower wheel frame in a parts yard somewhere and replace...
 

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