Half a day to change over? From oats to beans would require that the hinged doors be flipped to uncover the large seed side of the double run and cover the small seed side. Requires about five minutes. Then you might need to reset the gate levers and if required might take another 5-10 minutes. Reset the transmission to the seeding rate another 3-5 minutes and you are good to go. In contrast a fluted feed requires that you shift the shaft driving the flutes and change the gate levers. I just don't see the fluted feed being all that quicker. Perhaps ten minutes. Do agree that with hard seed such as wheat or oats difference in seed damage isn't a major issue. However with large seed particularly soybeans, I seen many farmers complain of excessive seed damage with the fluted feed; some claimed near 40%. I never saw that much damage but it was easy to determine there was more damaged bean seed with the fluted feed drill as compared to the double run. Also prevailing opinion is that the double run speed spacing is also better than the fluted feed. My experience supports this observation. Again not a great issue with wheat or oats but certainly an issue with beans and for the few who would dare try, corn. Fluted feed has such a poor record with beans that many have opted to convert it over to the SR belt system which not only helps seed spacing but is also easier to set accurate seeding rates. We had a steel wheel, wooden box Oliver drill with double run and single disk openers for primarily wheat and oats. It did sow some beans but that was before my time.
Never worked in purchasing but had a few years in design and from that experience I can manage a fairly good cost comparison/analysis of competing designs. The double run has twice the seed wheels, hinged covers to close one side of the feed wheels, and twice the number of lever controlled gates. But the true stake thru the heart for the double run is the need for a transmission. Older drills use a disk with bumps in a circles at different radii. You set the "follower" on the bump circle that provides the desired drive rate. A crude but effective transmission. My JD is much more elegant. An oil bath gear box has external levers that are used to move the internal spur gears. Choose the desired seeding and set the two levers so the correct gears are engaged. I would conservatively estimate the double run manufacturing costs are more than twice that of the fluted feed version. I've seen design changes made to save 25 cents, so not at all surprised that the superior double run was eventually discarded for the lower cost fluted feed.
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Today's Featured Article - History of the Nuffield Tractor - by Anthony West. The Nuffield tractor story started in early 1945. The British government still reeling from the effects of the war on the economy, approached the Nuffield organization to see if they would design and build an "ALL NEW" British built wheeled tractor, suitable for both British and world farming.
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