John Deere Manure Spreader

Navajo350

Member
Can someone tell me what are the pros and cons between a ground driven and a pto driven manure spreader?

I am looking at a JD L spreader. It has a bad wheel bearing, but looks in pretty good shape.

Robert
 
ive ran a L for many years spreading goat and horse poo... Ground driven..works well for spreading but you have to be
moving.. Ive never used a pto but figured it would work well lets say if you wanted to dump a load in a pile just back
up and turn on pto and unload one spot.. cant do that with L..
 
Dad had a JD model R ground driven spreader. I guess before my days using it corn cobs would get under the
unloading draper chain at the back end of the floor and knock the chain off the drive sprockets. The fix
was upset the spreader with the loader, typically a full 360 degrees, wash the spreader up and realign the
chain. Finally Dad cut the floor off 2-3 inches and it never bothered again in hundreds of loads I spread.
Only reason we had such a small spreader was the hog house we finished hogs in over winter, aisle was only
72 inches wide, R spreader was 70 or a bit less.

BTO I worked for fed 400 fat cattle per year, always manure to haul, had two #44 Deere PTO spreaders, one
with two beaters and a wide-spread, other had the single big drum spreader. Either one worked fine, both
hauled twice the load or more than Our R did. Just always spread INTO the wind.

Dad would have used the biggest spreader he could find and afford if it wasn't for that narrow aisle,
hauling manure was one of those jobs you wanted to finish as quick as you could after you started and go
onto something more pleasant and profitable.
 
I have two 44 spreaders here that I use. One triple beater and a single beater one as well. In bedding pack the single beater makes to many piles but the triple does a great job. Tom
 
Ground drive developed for horse use. No PTO on a horse. Then still was used for tractor spreaders untill knowlage came about to put a PTO shaft on the spreader. Early PTO spreaders only the beaters were pto powered and web was still ground drive so with that setup you still could not unload into a pile. Then came the spreaders that both the beaters and web were powered with the PTO and that one you could unload onto a pile. The bigger spreaders were PTO powered as that would not under load let drive slide as a drive wheel on snow or ice will do. The PTO will always be bigger but there are still some small ground drive being built. And some of them still on steel wheels as well.
 

The only pro to a ground drive I can think of is that if something binds up the wheels will often skid which helps avoid damaging things. And of course if you draw it with horses there's an advantage. Otherwise a PTO powered unit simply works better. They don't skid on mud or ice or in heavy snow. They usually don't bind up when they hit a frozen chunk or some heavy bedding. You can pile with a PTO unit, can't with a GD. GD units are usually smaller in size and cheaper.

I use both types and both work pretty good.
 
Jest as I surspiected. Comparrin sumthin like thet jest makes me beleave yer like thet spredder- full a chit........
 
Mine is an early JD model C or N forget which. It is driven by both. The PTO drives the slingers and the ground drives the sliding bars
connected to ladder chains that scoop the stuff on the floor to the rear where the slingers sling it out. By making the material mover
ground driven it's proportional to ground coverage by the implement thus providing equal material over the surface covered.
 
C was an early horse drawn spreader. Before the Model E that is still one that is wanted by a lot of Amish.
 
The fully PTO powered ones you have both a setting on spreader and tractor to adjust the web speed to ground conditions. The ones not fully PTO powered as in beaters only powered have just the adjustment on spreader because the spreader wheels are what controls speed and not tractor gear.
 
(quoted from post at 12:32:55 10/10/17) Can someone tell me what are the pros and cons between a ground driven and a pto driven manure spreader?

I am looking at a JD L spreader. It has a bad wheel bearing, but looks in pretty good shape.

Robert

If you have a tractor with a PTO and enough money and a barn wide enough for it...then....you want a PTO driven spreader.

If you are lacking any or all of the above; then a ground driven spreader will work. The amish still use them all the time...but they will have all of the limitations outlined in previous comments.

The other aspect of ground driven spreaders is parts. I think you should be OK with John Deere. I have a New Idea myself (until I get enough disposable cash for a PTO unit), and I can readily find parts for that. The previous ground driven one that I had was some off-branded mongrel that even people here in the forums couldn't identify. Obviously, once something broke that I couldn't cowboy engineer a replacement for...it became my ex-spreader.
 
I guess mine is an N. It still has the original tires, huge suckers, cracked like the skin of a 90 year old but still hold air and haven't added air for years..... You watch, next time I go to use it I'll have a flat tire....Murphy's law.
 
My N is long and narrow, easily fits in the width and height of my Ford 3000 (35-40 hp tractor) with the canopy up, or down with me sitting
in the seat when going in the barn where I keep it to keep the wood from rotting further. Still has OEM wood and has a rotten spot but it's
up front and at the bottom which is not where the "stuff" rides. I do keep it oiled to keep it from having to be replaced and that also helps
the chain and slide move the product to the rear.

On one or the other, I don't know how you can independently control the slinger speed and the ground speed and the feeder that pushes
the product back and into the slinger tines if you only have one drive type of mechanism. Can you take the one you are looking at for a test
drive?
 

Mark
IIRC the feed lever column(key 3) has several different notches(encircled in green) that lever can be put it. These different notches affects how far the eccentric moves determining how far floor chain moves on each engagement of accentric.

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