Hardi Twin air assisted sprayers?

Rob Holmes · Jul 12, 2013

Anyone use them? I know they've been around for decades but never really taken off, have they been developed to be more user friendly?

Been looking on the website and Hardi claim a 30% reduction in chem? Is that true?
How effective are they?
Are they easy to use?

All opinions welcome

colhonk · Jul 12, 2013

I have one, can`t understand why everyone does not use them.

Rob Holmes · Jul 13, 2013

Are they straight-forward to use?

Jim Bullock · Jul 13, 2013

We had one of the first Hardi Twins...superb piece of kit, we were able to cut any contact chemical inputs by 50,60 even 70% and you could spray when it was far too windy for other machines, the only problem was that it literally fell to pieces...we had two sets of booms on our 20 meter mounted machine...after the third set we exchanged for a Clean acres Airtech..which was OK but fiddly to use and very expensive if knocked a nozzle off...we changed this for a Gem with low drift nozzles and have had it for the last 12 years..simple.. never breaks down..

SimpersTradeCounter · Jul 14, 2013

They are by far and away the best air bag sprayers, I believe that the Hardi Twin is the only Whole Sprayer to achieve a Lerap 3 star rating (await someone to correct if wrong) But they are indeed a simple to use piece of kit with way more pro's than con's.

colhonk · Jul 14, 2013

I think a lot of people who had other makes of air bag sprayers which did NOT have the adjustable slot, were put off the idea because they were not very good (which they weren`t).
Yes the booms are weak, A couple of years ago I imported an 18 metre one from Holland to use the booms to upgrade mine, but before I fitted the booms I welded a length of 80mm thin wall tube inside the main boom and braced it all along, this was to strengthen it especially to stop it twisting when folding and unfolding.
Agrovista had some OSR trials up my way for a few years (They were very imformative) and they also did some wheat trials, 12metre wide strips sprayed with most of these fancy nozzles and a strip in amongst with ordinary flat fans. The flat fan strip was picked by everyone as easily being miles cleaner of disease than the others, which were all quite poor, also there was strips of water sensitive paper, and the problem with all the nozzles was very poor penetration down the plant, ie: needs an air bag sprayer to get it down the plant.
would of thought people with blackgrass ect would of been benificial to get the chemicals covering all the plant.

Rob Holmes · Jul 14, 2013

Now i've read somewhere that the hydraulic fans can take up to 70 hp to drive! With my spraying tractor being a 4cyl 145 hp tractor, she won't have much power to pull the thing up hills, right or wrong?

Mark C · Jul 14, 2013

I remember when I was up at Harper in the 90's , several of the big spud growers had Bateman Hilo's with Kyndesoft(sp)? Airbags for blight spraying. They were covering huge spud acreages and had to go in less than favourable conditions

colhonk · Jul 14, 2013

My sprayer has its own oil tank and pump for the air fan (mind it is 23 years old now) but I can`t see it using much power as the motors are not very big and not working hard.

Bruce Almighty · Jul 15, 2013

Jim Bullock said:
We had one of the first Hardi Twins...superb piece of kit, we were able to cut any contact chemical inputs by 50,60 even 70% and you could spray when it was far too windy for other machines, the only problem was that it literally fell to pieces...we had two sets of booms on our 20 meter mounted machine...after the third set we exchanged for a Clean acres Airtech..which was OK but fiddly to use and very expensive if knocked a nozzle off...we changed this for a Gem with low drift nozzles and have had it for the last 12 years..simple.. never breaks down..

We had a 12m Hardi new in 95, it was great to start with until the booms started falling apart with the extra weight. We replaced it with a 24m Hardi Mega in 99.

Tom W · Jul 15, 2013

I ran a Hardy Alpha with airbag and it was a good bit of kit.Mostly spraying salad crops and celery, gave great penetration into dense crop, allowed me to keep going in less than favourable conditions, but you had to be bloody careful on early plantings so as not to shotblast the seedlings.

SimpersTradeCounter · Jul 16, 2013

Tom W said:
I ran a Hardy Alpha with airbag and it was a good bit of kit.Mostly spraying salad crops and celery, gave great penetration into dense crop, allowed me to keep going in less than favourable conditions, but you had to be bloody careful on early plantings so as not to shotblast the seedlings.

On shroppies by any chance Tom?

Tom W · Jul 16, 2013

Yep, that,d be the one !

SimpersTradeCounter · Jul 16, 2013

Ahhh I remember you Tom and I'm pretty sure you'd remember me to!

Tom W · Jul 16, 2013

Probably would do, reckon you were that big ugly bugger used to be in the stores at Anglia

SimpersTradeCounter · Jul 17, 2013

that'll be me, Ugly Pah, Pot, kettle black!!!

Hardi Twin air assisted sprayers?

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