A Novice and his Aitchison Grassfarmer.

Wigeon

Member
Arable Farmer
I've had a bit of a rush of blood to the head and have got a slight pimping project on:

Mount a harrow bar to take claydon type z harrows on the back.

Make it 4 metres wide rather than three.

Run it off a front hopper that I've got kicking about.

Anyway, most of my workshop projects are total disasters, but I'm hoping not this time. More pictures to follow as the project develops...

20210212_152129.jpg

20210219_201530.jpg
 

Stuart J

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
UK
I've had a bit of a rush of blood to the head and have got a slight pimping project on:

Mount a harrow bar to take claydon type z harrows on the back.

Make it 4 metres wide rather than three.

Run it off a front hopper that I've got kicking about.

Anyway, most of my workshop projects are total disasters, but I'm hoping not this time. More pictures to follow as the project develops...

View attachment 942232
View attachment 942233

Interesting.
Wi there be enough weight on the drill without the hopper?
 

Wigeon

Member
Arable Farmer
Hope so, but will have to see. Can always put some water weights on if needed, but I'm hoping not. Will depend on the ground of course, but the pigtail usually goes in ok, so I'm hoping this will too.
 

Wigeon

Member
Arable Farmer
I reckon the hopper on mine cant have weighed much more than say 300kgs. I'll have probably added 200-250kgs of steel with the wings and harrow bar and pipes. No more legs, so not that much in it, assuming an empty hopper. I do have a set of jd wafers that I can ratchet strap on though.

Dont get me started on ibcs though, or I'll want to turn it into a liquid fert system, which I will inevitably c*ck up!

I shouldnt admit this but I had a dream last night about mounting an old small seed box on the back for inter row clovers too.

Oh dear, oh dear...
 

Bury the Trash

Member
Mixed Farmer
So all that money spent on a nicely painted ? drill and its still not fit for purpose :unsure:


P.s, all this ' not heavy enough ' and 'adding dead weight ' seems fundamentally wrong but maybe that's just me and my 'old fashioned' mindset :sneaky:
 

Wigeon

Member
Arable Farmer
So all that money spent on a nicely painted ? drill and its still not fit for purpose :unsure:


P.s, all this ' not heavy enough ' and 'adding dead weight ' seems fundamentally wrong but maybe that's just me and my 'old fashioned' mindset :sneaky:
Re the first point, it had occurred to me
.. but no paint harmed in the adaptations! 16 bolts undone and hopper off. Same bolt holes for wings. Harrows go on trailing kit mounts. Would all go back together good as new.


Much bigger spring area owing to wheat failure forces addition to drilling capacity! Drill is perfect, but this will make it more so.

V much hoping not to go down the weight route too.
 

steveR

Member
Mixed Farmer
So all that money spent on a nicely painted ? drill and its still not fit for purpose :unsure:


P.s, all this ' not heavy enough ' and 'adding dead weight ' seems fundamentally wrong but maybe that's just me and my 'old fashioned' mindset :sneaky:

I understand where you are coming from BtT, one of my drivers to take land back in hand is my unhappiness at the size..and Weight of the Contractors kit. Top dressing is a huge JD with 5t fert on the back and 3t on the front, God knows what the all up weight is...? Most of my grassland work can be accomplished with a 50hp lightweight on wide turf tyres... I will bale silage with it in November, and barely mark the land.. Unlike a neighbour with 180hp and a haybob... :)

But the decision of weight on a ground working implement is a bit like weights on a tractor. The need will vary from day to day, depending on conditions.

I always had my front weights on a 3pt so they could be dropped off in a minute, for grassland or lighter duties. I stopped ballasting rear ends once I moved to a dedicated Handler, back in the 80s. These days, my main tractor is a lightweight (relatively) Kubota 9960 100hp 4wd. I have a FeL on it and to be honest, it needs ballast as the back end is so light. But I have rescued the old front weights from the nettles and they now go on the back for loader duties... when needed. Come summer, the loader is taken off, again in a move to cut weight. If I was discing, then the FeL has a bucket on with some gravel in... INstant front weights foir traction.

For me, the drill is much the same, some days, I am barely tickling the surface and the load wheels need dropping as the land has "give". Last April, the ground was like concrete, and inevitably, it was hard to get the tines in and yes, a few more kios of weight would have been useful, especially as only had a few kilos of seed in the drill for cover crops.
 
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Wigeon

Member
Arable Farmer
Indeed, but my only other one is ancient, on narrow tyres, and with no front links.

Tbh on the clay hills here even this is aware the drill is on the back. For reference when I had a contractor drill here with a 4m mzuri it was pulled by 390hp. Same tractor pulls 6m sprinter now.
 

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