john deere plateless planter

hey guys, did anyone have any experience with deeres first plateless planters?
i think they had a 1240/1250 models and a 1300, i dont think ive ever seen a 1300 planter
were they good, bad ? i know they made them for several years,
i was just curios to hear your thoughts?
thanks

A few 1240 planters around back in the day. Plateless planters were slow to be adopted by farmers because it was new technology that most did not want to get acquainted with. JD came out with the 7000 series which offered more new desirable features such as depth wheels at the seed drop point so then farmers were willing to learn about plateless technology. A similar occurrence happened with White and IH when the 5100 and 800 planters came out. They all offered too much to stay saddled with an IH 56 or JD 494A.

I had a platelets 1240 for years. Seems like if you read up on them they dont have the best reputation but mine worked perfect and was for the most part trouble free. It was basically a chain driven 494. As the other poster said a 7000 compared to a 1240 is no comparison

That is why the early plateless planters failed regardless of brand because nobody wanted to read the manual or learn about how they worked. Nobody wanted to learn
about the service and maintenance of the early finger pick up design. Nobody wanted to read the manual concerning proper PTO speed and air pressure on a Cyclo
planter. Nobody wanted to learn about basic automotive electrical systems which was the principle behind AC's Air Champ planter. So after the first public bad
experience the dealers could not sell the newer designs because everybody insisted on the old standby design. Like I said before the 7000 changed all that because the
performance was so superior it would have made a farmer look like he was standing still while his neighbors were gaining in the field. Sure, there were still stubborn
farmers who refused to change but by the 1980's if you were not broke you were ready to adopt modern planter technology.

If I remember right the JD 1300 planter had bulk boxes on it for seed and other attachments not many sold in my area maybe seen 1 in my life

The corn-metering concept of the JD plateless planter was the same for the 1200 - 7000. The 7000 had better depth control and closing. Also, the metering system was simplified with throw-away parts.

There are two main wear areas: The face of the meter with a hump built in the shake out doubles and around the perimeter. 1200 had a replaceable face plate and a separate stainless steel band that lined the aluminum housing. When that band wore out, it could get caught in the fingers and make a tangled mess. Also, the aluminum housing would eventually corrode, making refitting difficult. 7000 eliminated this by making one throw-away plate to perform both functions.

Feed cup meters for volume seed (soybeans, sorghum, etc.) were also similar. 1200 had two-sided aluminum cups built in- you switched a gate to let seed fall a different way IIRC. For 7000, you detached the hopper bottoms and replaced the entire system- simpler and cheaper.

The 1300 was a good concept that never caught on, though it probably should have. The idea was kinda like AC: Sell a frame big enough to take 4 wide-row units and then, when the farmer was ready to switch to narrow rows, he only had to buy two more row units to make a 6-row. Probably was too 'New-Fangled' and expensive.

thanks for the information