Grain drill questions

NYOlivers

Member
Lets try this again, I posted this below in the Oliver section with really no response. So I figured I would try it here. I have some questions about Oliver grain drills, how they work and how to use them. If someone can give me some pointers or answer some of my questions I would really appreciate it. I know I sound like a complete novice here but I am just trying to Learn.

I have been looking to buy a Oliver grain drill for the past few months, I want to use it to plant soybeans and small grains for deer food plots. I have found a few for sale a few hours away, they do not seem to be common in my area. I would like to find a 8ft or 10ft wide planting width. I want to keep it on the narrower side due to some tight areas/fields I have to get to. Anyway the one I am thinking about going to look at and possibly buy is a 8.5' width just what I am looking for! I believe it to be a model #64 {no serial number yet} with rubber tires and I think it is a trip style not a hydraulic lift. It has what appears to be three different compartment/boxes, I assume: 1 front box for seed, 1 middle box for fertilizer, and 1 for grass seed this being the smallest of all and on the rear of the drill??? The drill looks to be in ok shape but definitely needs some TLC, the price is definitely in my budget even if I need to spend some on getting it field ready. How available are parts for these drills? In the 2nd box, the one I believe to be for fertilizer there seems to be something missing from the pictures I got of it. The gear looking plates that sit on the bottom of the box and appear to turn are all missing. I think they turn and when the notch part goes over the hole in the box it lets the fertilizer drop in the tube? I do not plan on using the drill for fertilizer, so I may not even need those parts. My other questions are does the trip style lift/drop for these drills work ok? Or should I just look for one with a hydraulic lift cylinder? The tractor I will be using to pull it does have remotes so I can run a external cylinder. What size tires are usually on these drills? The tires look pretty rough so I will have to come up with some rubber for it. I have never actually used a grain drill before so I am just trying to get all the info I can before I make a purchase. I do think I understand the basics of how a grain drill works and that it needs to be calibrated for the type of seed you are planting etc. Thanks in advance to anyone who replies. Also if anyone has one for sale or knows of any for sale in the NY, PA, areas let me know please.
 
Doesn't sound like you are doing much drilling but I would still pass that by. I have never owned Oliver but most old drills and planters that I have seen or owned had similarities. If you decide to buy it you need to hook it up and drive it around on a field a bit to make sure everything works. There are a lot of moving parts that can get rusty and start putting pressure on the drive line(s) making the clutch slip. Every unit I ever looked at had some version of a toothed slip clutch and these get worn out from slipping. So you look for the clutches and make sure they are not rounded over and you drive it around with it down and observe everything is moving as it should. I rode on the board across the back and watched it work. If everything moves as it should without a periodic stop or hesitation where the clutch slips then it may be OK. If not then it may be lawn art. I would get one with hydraulic lift and as new as I possibly can afford. Even then, you are going to find problems but at least the parts may still be around.
 
I grew up in spring wheat area, only seen 1 Oliver superior press drill. As far as getting parts new or used your chances are much better with a John Deere or a International 100 series drill. Both brands offered end wheel drill's and 6,7,8, and 12 foot press drills, Good Luck!!
 
I wouldn't be afraid of a drill with the rope trip I have 2 of them john Deeres though they work just fine an old drill can do just as nice of job as a 100.000$ drill if you get it set right . as far as calibrating the drill check out the link below the seeder meter takes all the guess work out of setting up a drill a lot of times old drills don't have the charts still with them and other times the seed you want to drill isn't listed on the chart
Untitled URL Link
 
I have two International (McCormick) drills.

1. Wheel lift will be fine for you, both mine are, as long as it works. Grease things regularly. Trip rope is fine.

2. On rubber tires is really good. I don't know the size, my rubber tires International is on old bias 16 inch rims, changing the tire size would change the seeding rate, and the depth settings. As well as not letting it rise up high enough to travel if you got a smaller tire.

3. I am not familiar with fertilizer on a drill. A drop fertilizer uses the cog deals you mention, it is very very wise to remove them and store in a pail between uses. Hopefully the seller has them stored in a bucket with the drill. It is good they aren't rusted into place at least.

4. If testing an unknown, long stored drill, take a Cresent wrench, adjust to the square shaft that runs all the seed cups, and gently wiggle, turn the square drive shaft. It will spin in one direction. This loosens up any rust or debris without busting anything.

Paul
 
Oh, and never, ever, back up with a drill in the dirt. Ever. Don't back up more than short distances even out of the dirt.

And don't be like me and back out of the shed over a 4" high door bracket. It really sucks when you hear that cast iron shoe snap off.......

Paul
 
Thanks for the answers and comments. Maybe that's why those cogs are not in place which should be a good thing. I do believe that he said he had them, but he called them something different so I was not sure what he was talking about but now it makes more sense. I took a metal note: no excessive backing up, and not EVER while down in ground!! Thanks....
 
That's what I was thinking about the rope trip, it should work fine for the small about I will be using it for now. Thanks for the seeding chart info.
 
I will be sure to try and check over as best that I can any drill I go look at. I like the idea of watching it if possible. Awhile ago I seen a really nice oliver drill for sale, looked hardly even used like it just came off show room floor! Unfortunately at that time I was able to buy it. It seems that's always the way it goes when your not looking for something you see it for sale all over, but when its time to buy one you cannot find what you want!!
 
Lots of luck with your search. My advice would be to expand your search to include John Deere and IH. You will have much better luck finding a drill with your requirements. I like Olivers too. Own several of them. But sometimes a person needs to let common sense come into play.
 
I think that would be the steel box drill and what I have see of the steel box drills they used a special design 20" tire. altho a standard 7:50x20 implement tire I think should work. Those fertilizer feed wheels should be stored in a bucket of oil and inside of fertilizer box conered in oil as fertilizer eats everything. I don't know on that if it would be a fluted feed or double run. The ones I am familuar with are the wood box models and the number was 26 on both the steel wheel and low rubber models and took a 6:00x16 or 6:50x16 tire and were double run. Me I had IH double run and Deere fluted feed and hated that fluted feed. I am in prosses of making up new paper charts for the No. 26 as that is prefered drill for a lot of Amish I work with. And drills of that age should be measured by the number of openers and space between openers, Popular size older drills were a 13-7 meaning 13 openers on 7" spacing and would drill a strip of 7'8", a 12-8 was 12 openers and 8 " spacing and would drill a strip 8", while a larger size that was not a popular would have been a 15-7 that would do a strip of 9'2" with a 17-7 drilling a 14" wider strip or 10'4". Now if one with the 20" wheels and steel box then it might have openers spaced on 10" so with od planting you would have to count openers and multyply by 10" and devide by 12" to get coverage width. Actuall gate width will hardly ever be avaible without measuring the unit.
 
And older drills the seed charts are figured as quarts per acre and not pounds per acre so for them the only reason to know pounds is to be able to buy enough seed as the drill goes by measure and does not go by seed placement as a corn planter does. Might be pints per acre for smaller seeds or for high volume seed in pecks per acre and there is 4 pecks per bushel and 32 quarts per bushel.
 
Wow that's a lot of info there! Thanks It is a steel box drill, I am hoping he has cogs or wheels for the fertilizer, and soaked in oil would be good but who knows. It looks like it has been sitting for a while. I may have found another drill.
 
I am willing to go with a different brand. I just thought it would be nice to have a Oliver. I may have found another one that looks to be in better shape. Only a few pictures though I am waiting on more, It is a #76 model rubber tire, with hydraulic lift. It is a hour further away than the other but in the same price range. So we will see what the other pics look like when I get them.
 
I have two 147 or 14 on 7 inch spacing and I have 2 1010 or ten on ten inch . here in dry farm country spacing was available as wide as 16 inches . the widest I've seen is 14 inches deep furrow hoe drills
 
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There you go now that's some drill.. What year is that add from? The only problem is that it is the wrong color green!!!
 
Only ever saw 1 press wheel drill in my life, Not something that was sold in Ohio and the one I did see his family years earlier had been Case dealers before I knew of him. Wonder if it was something Case insisted he try to sell here that they could not and so kept it for their own farm.
 
According to the date code it's from 1969 . we pulled 4 ten foot sections of how drills behind a 40 foot cultivator .
 
So, 90% of the farms around here had a grain drill, 10-14 feet, some on steel wheels, some on rubber, and would plant 10-40 acres of small grains or alfalfa a year with them. Along with the rest of their farming. Hasn't been that way for 20 years,but the auctions had/have the grain drill on them yet.

Then, along comes a city fella and runs 30 acres of farm land, along with his real job. Went to his auction 15 years ago, he had a combine bigger then mine, and he had the biggest grain drill I have ever seen in person, was somewhere around 30-35 feet. Was a red cpverson of what you have pictured. I marveled at that for years. He hardly had enough acres to turn that thing around. Would take longer to fill it than to plant the 30 acres - if it even needed to be filled.

Paul
 
Proably only had to fill it once or maybe twice depending how much seed he was planting per acre . we don't have any of the 70 foot grain drills around here about the biggest is 45 feet they are air drills though. I pulled a case air drill like this one for a lot of years they were a good old drill but the box was to small
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Lots of Oliver drills down my way,I have a hardly used Oliver 9 spout I bought off a guy back in the early 80's been sitting in the barn ever since.They were a very popular drill
no matter what brand tractors people had here they mostly had an Oliver Superior drill and an AC combine.
 
You could not give a hoe drill away here for anything but to a scrap yard. And I don't think any were sold after about 1920 or close. As soon as the factories learned how to make a disk opener the how was done. I have only seen a couple of 1 horse drills to plant wheat between standing corn rows that were hoe units, even most were disk openers and they were the first no till drills probably a hundred years ago.
 
I'm in Virginia but don't want to sell the Oliver drill,neighbor has a good JD/Van Brunt drill sitting in a shed in good shape he'd probably sell cheap,also has a David Bradley 2 row 3pt corn planter in good shape.
 
That's ok I think my search is over! I found a model 76 oliver drill, rubber tire and hydraulic lift. It looks in really nice shape (at least it looks good in the pictures) the seed box is clean and no sign of rust the shaft, gears and other moving parts look good and clean, no real sign of rust. Again I have only seen pictures, but the guy sent me close ups of what ever I asked him for. Its a little further away but if it is in nice shape I don't mind going the extra distance. He's going to hold it for me and hopefully if the weather breaks soon we will go pick it up in a few weeks.
 
Uh John Deere and Case IH both made hoe drills into the 1990s they work the best on dry farm and they also work good in irrigated ground and a lot cheaper to maintain a new shovel point Is 7$ new . New discs for a disc drill are about 60$ an opener. The hoe drill puts seed deep and ridges the soil to ketch water
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Might have been made but not shipped to this part of the country and here you want the field smooth, no ridges
 
I?m glad I never farmed where you do . I?d hate to think of every piece of equipment I?ve never seen or don?t know how or why it is used as worth no more than scrap
 

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