Is this a good planter

Cae IH 12 R No-till planter Model 500. They are asking $1500. A bit larger than I want but would really like to stick with no till for some of the highly erodable land that I will probably be putting in. Did they make these in 4,6, or 8 rows. That would be more my need.

Around this part of Minnesota, the 400 & 500 series of planters about killed IH. You saw a _lot_ of red tractors pulling green planters for several decades around here. The 400/500 series sell at farm auctions for $300 or less. They just are not liked - at all.

Nowadays, you see a lot of green tractors pulling red planters - the 1200 series planter is finally a good solid product again - liked more than the new air planters from JD.

I would not ever pay that much for a 400/500 IH planter. They were a cool new design, but pretty light, and had a few hiccups, and didn't plant corn very evenly.

An 800/900 is an ok red planter, would go for that.

--->Paul

Today's Notill is different than it was then, the new stuff works the old ideas didn't then or now.

I have a 6 row 400, I had a 4 row wide 400 but I made it into a side dresser for applying 32% and stole some drive parts from the 6 row as well as floatation tires and bars.

I planted several years with the 400. It was generally good at counting out seed, e.g. once I cured it of double planting small flats, I didn't run out of seed by the end of the field but had less than a quarter sack left over. What it wasn't good at was spreading the seed evenly in the row. Those seed seemed to be lonely rattling out those long pipes (worse a neighbor says in 8 row) and so the clump. Three or four to a hill, then an 18" or 2' gap... It might be that a new set of pipes would have helped that, it might not. I'm not going to find out. I paid $1200 for a JD7000 4 row wide that not only counts good, it singulates the seed into a nearly uniform picket fence whether corn with the finger units or beans with Kinze brush bean units. I also made it narrow and this year added Dawn trash wheels. By next year I'll steal coulters off my plow to cut the straw so the trash wheels can part the trash and it will be a nice working full fledged no till drill. This year I planted beans into corn stalks that I'd lightly disked last fall to work in potash. In the future to disk is going to be left to rust also. I may have spray early, but the planter is going to do all the dirt stiring and the ground will grow increasingly mellow as the result. I sure could detect the hard pan from that light disking.

I won't call my 400 cyclo a planter, I call it a seed counter, though if you are happy with clumpy seed pattern and consider seed planted that is covered even if clumps, then its a planter. I think its a source of scrap metals when I need some steel in the future.

Oh, I paid $180 for my 6 row 400 close to 15 years ago and less than that for the 4 row wide 400 that I bought for parts maybe ten years ago. I've seen 500s at auctions not get any bids at all. $1500 is way out of line based on those prices.

Gerald J.

You know how darned biased I am, however, I still gotta say it: Always did think you were pretty darned sharp. :>)

I think they are the best darned rig ever invented to shove seed in the ground and another example of those "they've gone out of favor with the in crowd" deals.

What are you gonna pull it with? Takes a mule to pull 'er. :>)

Allan

FWIW, the planter uses what they call a "Simultaneous Lift" and the tractor has to be fitted with a special hydraulic plug to allow the 3-point hitch and the remote on those rear assit wheels to operate at the same time. No big deal; can be picked up at the local Case/IH dealer.

The planter is basically just two 6-row units married together on a single tool bar. It holds 22 bushel and that sucker is heavy with a positive seed placement depth. Also, you'll want the CAT III hitch.

The only "bad story" I can think of on these planters is the hydraulic pump. Make sure that pump is okay as they are over $1K to replace; tractor needs 1,000 rpm PTO shaft also.

Two rules apply: Keep that tractor engine wound up and drive at the ground speed given in the seed chart.

When set up correctly, any and all other problems incurred with this planter can be traced directly back to the nut behind the wheel. They do not miss, skip or double and if they do, there is always a reason for it.

Fortunately for you, they have a bad reputation because people just don't know how to run 'em. At $1500, I think this is an out and out steal for that planter if the openers and runners are in good shape.

Just my opinion,

Allan