OT - Missadventures

An old friend of the family's sold me his very well maintained Van Brunt 10' grain drill this week.

The drill was on the east side of town, so I brought the truck home with me from the farm yesterday before supper with the idea that I would pull it home and then today take it the remaining 10 miles to the farm.

I got back into town with the drill behind the truck right around 5:30 last night. I'm a block away from home at the second busiest intersection in town (intersection of busy state and federal highways) when the right wheel of the drill freezes up. I stop - I'm blocking the south bound lane of the federal hwy and the turn lane as well as any eastbound access from the state hwy. I can't tell what happened, but the chain guard is all mangled up.

I have to get out of the road, so I put the truck in low and pull as hard as that little Ranger can, with the locked wheel squealing, about 50 feet to the street where my house is. I pull over, walk home, get tools, jacks, blocks, and tell my wife that instead of being on-time for supper, I'll late.

Turns out that the counter shaft sprocket completely disintegrated. When it did so, it jammed up the drive chain which crushed the chain guard and locked the right wheel. Sprocket is in 7 pieces. There are a number of lengthwise cracks in the sprocket sleeve that slips over the square counter shaft. Looking at the other shaft, this looks like the primary wear point.

Thankfully the machine appears to work with no other damage other than a broken chain, chain guard, and sprocket. I got the drill to the farm this afternoon. I'll have to order the sprocket from JD, which runs 97 bucks! The 8N better like this drill

Colin, MN

Apparently it didn't like that high speed Ranger!
Should have pulled it behind the 961 in 1st. At idle. LOL

I actually thought about using the 961. Would have at least given me something to smile about. The best I could do pulling the drill was a little over 10mph. Does not trailer well.

Colin

Ours didn't either. If we had to go far, we set two 2x8's up on the
side of hay rack to use as ramps and pushed it up on the wagon.
We did the same with our JD pull type disk.
I think that wagon has an "Electric" running gear.
You can pull it down the road at 60 MPH empty or loaded as long
as it is loaded evenly. Best dang light duty gear we've ever had.

(quoted from post at 19:30:44 04/05/14) I actually thought about using the 961. Would have at least given me something to smile about. The best I could do pulling the drill was a little over 10mph. Does not trailer well.

Colin

Click to expand...

I was out today and fired up one N and the IH M. Took the N up the drive to check mail.

Now I gotta get that head gasket changed on the little ole 1206.

Rick

For us non farmers would someone please explain what a 10' grain drill is?

For us non farmers would someone please explain what a 10' grain drill is?

Click to expand...

A no till planter. (sorry for the color)

Thanks Jon :wink:

Look at the picture above. Now think about this drill as a 1995 year model. The Van Bunt would be like a 1950 year model. Not very new but certainly good enough to use if it's all there. I'm guessing the Van Bunt has steel wheels?

The Van Bunt would be like a 1950 year model. Not very new but certainly good enough to use if it's all there. I'm guessing the Van Bunt has steel wheels?

Click to expand...

Guess I coulda went a little less modern!

Why is it called "no till"? It looks to have discs under it for turning the soil. I don't understand the no-till stuff at all?

John, This one is on rubber, which is nice. I don't think I could have pulled it 15 miles on tar roads otherwise without doing some extra damage somewhere.

This is the JD Van Brunt model B. Made from approximately mid 1940s to late 1960s ('68, possibly). I don't actually know the age of mine, but it's in good shape and should do plenty of planting yet.

Colin

The disks are there to lay the seeds down at the correct depth. You adjust their height depending on the type of seed you are planting.

No till simply means that you can seed in a field without prior tillage (disking or moldboard plowing). No till planters (grain drills, corn planters, and bean planters) all use hydraulic pressure to dig into the soil and bury the seed at the appropriate depth. No till equipment requires lots and lots of HP to both generate the hydraulic pressure as well as the forward motion through untilled soil. Well beyond the scope of our Ns.

An older grain drill such as the one Jon posted (essentially the same as mine), relies on a prepared seed bed using tillage and then digs in using the weight of the drill and the forward motion of the tractor.

Colin, MN

Those old drills if kept inside hardly ever where out. We had a old Moline drill that was just to small for our use but even though it needed nothing, no one wanted it. I'm with you on this one Keep it dry and your great grandkids may be using it in years to come. Btw, I spent many hours riding on the step platform on the back of our drill. Most of the time we jumped off and picked up rocks for fun.

They are well built machines. I had my eyes on a 8 foot Moline, but it's been sitting outside unused for 10 years. I figured the JD was the better way to go with parts availability, etc, as well. I'm going to carefully tarp this one until I get a shed build in the next 18-24 months.

Colin