36m back to 24m

[Beefsmith]

Who’s done this?
We love the extra output 36m offered over 24m and less wheelings etc.

But the negatives - trailed machine:

1. uneven liquid fert application as it takes longer to get the required rate out of the booms due to the extra length and size of the pipe work (400l pump) so all our field corners are a mess basically.

2. If your spraying around a curve the trailed sprayer steering follows and corrects to stay in track which is great but these corrections move the booms agreesively causing more rate fluctuations with what hits the crop.

3. reversing into corners, two of us who drive just cannot get used to it. The large tank means you can’t see anything.

4. auto boom height systems cannot deal with 36m booms properly. Yes I know Horsch’s system works but we can’t justify one of those as we’ve priced one.

5. Mechanically the sprayer is fine and has been checked by two different companies. On static jug tests it’s spot on but when in use the sheer size of the pipe work, boom movement etc is making our crops messy.

6. I’ve been to sit with two neighbours running different brands but also 36m and they get very similar if not identical issues so it’s not our particular machine.

On the plus side the work rate is phenomenal and with backup 60ac per hour at 10km/hr is achievable. Our old 24m was half that as it had a smaller tank as well. And we can stay on 600mm tyres all year round which we like as the tractor does other jobs whichrow crops wouldn’t suit.

One suggestion is we swap it for a used 36m SP which would sort the field corners out and some boom movement spraying around curves as part of our issue we think is the length of the outfit which exaggerates the boom movement but it wouldn’t help getting field corner even fert wise as it’s still 36m and wouldn’t help auto boom height control.

 

[Clive]

sounds like the problem is the machine not its boom size to me ?

we are not getting any of those issues / problems with our Horsch but as you say they are not a cheap machine

 

[Lewis821]

a neighbour has gone back to 24 mainly because of field shape and size and weight as his 36m machine was making some rather large tramlines.
personally I think your better going 8-10kph at 36m than trying to go 14-16kph at 24m

 

[Brisel]

I have never heard of anyone going down a size unless they have lost a big % of their area.

What brand of machine have you got? In what way are your crops messy?

I sympathise with some of the issues. The dose rate does vary on curves which is why Pulse Width Modulation systems are becoming more common.
Corners - you get used to it and learn to use your mirrors to back into corners.
Boom stability - play around with your dead band settings to adjust the sensitivity of the reaction. It took us a while to tune our Chafer Contour system properly. A slower forward speed will help.
Wheelings - we went to direct drilling which meant ruts were a thing of the past. With a 6000 litre tank it was a heavy old rig but we needed it for liquid fertiliser output. The narrowest tyres we could run with the axle weights were 480mm. 650s for the rest of the year with good quality tyres.

 

[Bobthebuilder]

We went from 24 to 28m mainly for the use with 4m drill system and no half widths, can still get fert to spread easy at 28m, booms on sprayer don’t move around too much, it is a horsch machine but we needed a change anyway so went to 28 with the new machine, still small enough in smaller fields but can fairly crack on in the bigger fields, if your on a 4m drill I’d say go to 28 or a 3m 27m tramlines it does make a difference without going too big

 

[Beefsmith]

With our sprayer and our two neighbours it’s Amazone, JD and Chafer all with very similar complaints. As said this isn’t mechanical and just the nature of the beast. I’m wondering if we fit twin pumps it would eradicate the messy corners where the flow of product appears to be an issue. On a static test the sprayer is fine but when moving from start it’s not until it gets going so is one pump enough? 36m boom is asking a lot? There’s a lot of pipe work not just in the boom but also in the pipes running from the tank to booms and then all round the pump.
Also they aren’t pto driven so can the tractors cope? . All cvt gearboxes which share transmission with hydraulic reservoirs so tractor transmission setting off, oil driven pump on the sprayer trying to push to 36m, oil driven boom height control, oil driven steering systems so are we are a bit under powered tractor wise and would twin pumps on the sprayer hold the pressure better? As said on static tests they all test perfectly. I think Horsch fit a bigger pump compared to other brands as standard?

 

[Brisel]

I haven’t noticed much of a pump speed drop on the hydraulics when using power beyond. You can hear it from the cab when it does alter. I had 1” bore spray lines for liquid fertiliser and 3” pipes at the filling end, so I can’t see flow rates being an issue at 100 litres/ha spraying when it copes with fertiliser at much higher flow rates. I do wish that we had looked harder at PWM for more even dosing across the boom in curves.

 

[snarling bee]

We have gone from 24m 3000l SP to 36m 4000l SP. TBH we gain more output from the bigger tank than we do from the wider width, especially in smaller fields. We had just as many ruts with the 24m, but now the ruts are less frequent. I was worried about throwing fert to 36m, but that has not been an issue, although about half of our fert is liquid anyway.

 

[Clive]

With our sprayer and our two neighbours it’s Amazone, JD and Chafer all with very similar complaints. As said this isn’t mechanical and just the nature of the beast. I’m wondering if we fit twin pumps it would eradicate the messy corners where the flow of product appears to be an issue. On a static test the sprayer is fine but when moving from start it’s not until it gets going so is one pump enough? 36m boom is asking a lot? There’s a lot of pipe work not just in the boom but also in the pipes running from the tank to booms and then all round the pump.
Also they aren’t pto driven so can the tractors cope? . All cvt gearboxes which share transmission with hydraulic reservoirs so tractor transmission setting off, oil driven pump on the sprayer trying to push to 36m, oil driven boom height control, oil driven steering systems so are we are a bit under powered tractor wise and would twin pumps on the sprayer hold the pressure better? As said on static tests they all test perfectly. I think Horsch fit a bigger pump compared to other brands as standard?

glad we went horsch by sounds of all that ! we see none of these issues, it has twin pumps which probably helps

only issue we have had in 3 yrs is a few sensors failing on boom fold - a bad batch apparently so affer the 3rd time they changed them all

i would agree that bigger tank is more responsible for rxtra output than wider booms - but both help

 

[fudge]

As a disinterested observer wouldn’t a bowser give a greater output boost than either tank size or a boom width increase? Also shouldn’t agriculture be moving to systems where spray liquor isn’t transported on the road? That practice is an obvious environmental risk in an RTA.

 

[Chae1]

As a disinterested observer wouldn’t a bowser give a greater output boost than either tank size or a boom width increase? Also shouldn’t agriculture be moving to systems where spray liquor isn’t transported on the road? That practice is an obvious environmental risk in an RTA.

What about hgv tankers?

What are you going to do about those transporting hazardous liquids?

 

[Farmer_Joe]

What about hgv tankers?

What are you going to do about those transporting hazardous liquids?

Ha ha I was gonna say the same at least its diluted when it’s in sprayer, how does he think it gets to the farm?

very strange perception of risk.

 

[T Hectares]

My Horsch doesn’t seem so expensive now after reading these issues !!