Oliver 540 corn planter questions

Hey all, new member here with some questions about an Oliver 540 corn planter. I have the chance to buy an Oliver 540, I intend to use it for
my schools five acre plot. My ag teacher says this is okay as long as the planter can be set up for 30 inch rows and no-till.

The farmer who currently owns it says it is in good shape except for the wheels, which are rotted out. It has 40 inch rows right now, so can they
be adjusted down to 30 inch spacing?

I've seen John Deere 494a's set up for no-till with the fertilizer disc opener in front of the runner opener, and I was wondering if the same can be
done for this planter.

Thanks for any help.
 
Not a lot of steel in any of those old planters to hold a planter down in notill conditions. Hopefully, the soil is very loamy and/or sandy.
 
540 is a good planter. I still run one over about 40 acres a year. They were never offered with a no till bar however the 543 planter was and that bar can be back fitted to a 540 if you can find the complete setup. They do pop up every once in a great while but they arent to common. Like NY986 said though. They arent really that heavy so if youre ground is super tight you probably with have a hard time with keeping a consistent depth.
 
They were adjustable from 28" to 40". Weather yours will still go that narrow after being at 40" for 40-50 years is another question.
 
I thought of my answer below. The first one those parts may have been furnished by the South Bend plant because that planter was used on a no-till field day and as the other 2 have said they found the planter was too light as they hung weights on it to make work better. The John Deere had the same problem The other guy had sand. Also unless the planter has been converted to 543 planter units plate selection might be expensive. The 543 takes the plastic John Deere style plates
 
I have yet to see this planter in person, so it may be a 543 after all. Will I need different plates if I want to plant in 30" rows verses 40"?

Could I fill the tires with fluid to help with the weight issues?

If the disc openers are missing, could I weld them on the toolbar?
 
Filling the tires will not do a lot especially if the wheels can not be retracted from the ground. The planters of that day were not designed for notill or ballasting unlike later planters. Probably for 5 acres the planter frame will not stress too badly but I make no promises. If the soil is not very loose where the planter openers themselves run you may not get proper depth placement of seed. Any reason other than cost that the planter has to be this Oliver?
 
Further, if the drive system works from the wheels you don't want the wheels off the ground. I don't remember how the Oliver works. Some like the Allis Chalmers have the row press wheel drive the metering unit.
 
The main reason for this particular planter is cost. The owner wants to see it go to a good home, and is willing to let it go for a very low price. All of the Deere 494s cost 6-800 dollars, otherwise I would get one of them.

There won't be much use in this planter as the only thing I would use it for is the five acre plot and I didn't want to spend a lot on something that would see relatively little use.

Thanks again for all the help guys
 
Must have been a very late 540 if it came new with a no till bar. They don't even show up in the parts books until you get to a 543. As for plates, the 540 and 543 have the exact same drive hubs on the row units. All you need to run the JD plates is to get the plastic adapters that Lustran made to use the Oliver hub to run JD plates. I have my 540 that I use and 3 543 parts planters. My 540 and one of the 543's came with steel Oliver plates and the other 2 543's came with the adapters and JD plates. All still have the same Oliver drive hubs.
 
They had kits you could buy to convert a 540 to the 543 plates. We sold a good number of both including some 6 row 540 prototype planters set up for sugar beets.
 
The no till bar was added. We also had some for sugar beets that had harrows mounted on the hitch ( fall plowing) for planting no till beets,
 
540 and 543 still run the exact same plates though. The old 2 dog drive Oliver steels for a 540 flop right in a 543 unit. My 540 has correct 540 drives to according to the parts book so no conversion has ever been done to it.
 
Unless the first 540's used the even older 3 or 4 dog however many it was driven plates from the 202 and 404 planters, which my manuals would be to new to depict.
 
Well, I finally was able to see this planter, and it is a 540. Everything on it turns and it has fiberglass boxes with double disc fertilizer openers. When the former owner and I looked in the boxes we found 9 sets of plates, the manual, and two cardboard boxes full of parts!

The bad news is that the fertilizer box brackets are rusted off and there are no parts machines in the area. It needs new tires and some chains but other than that it is complete.

I asked what the price was and the owner laughed and said if I wanted it I could have it as long as I let him know when I would plant my high schools 5 acre plot.

Any suggestions on which plate to use for soybeans?
 

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