Drill modification advice

[BillTC]

Hi all.
First off I'm new here so apologies if this is in the wrong place.

I'm currently in the early stages of resurrecting an old 3m farmforce 3 row tine drill. It currently has 20 coulters at 150mm and an Accord 24 outlet distribution head with 4 outlets blanked off and no tank or metering system.

The plan is to feed the drill with our current Accord DF1 front tank and have the option of mounting it on various cultivators power harrows etc or to go solo to give us as many options as possible to match conditions.
As we have drilled with nothing else but 4m Accords with suffolk coulters for over 40 years I have a few questions.

Coulter width. Any advantages disadvantages of 150mm over 125mm or 166mm. My thinking was go 166mm and I could easily widen the drill by making some side extensions/wings to match our current 4m powerharrow and keep the same distribution head. Or go 125mm but would need to buy more coulters and a new distribution head.
Calibration. The front tank is currently setup for 4m but a different set of sprockets is available for metering wheel drive to make it work for 3m. Could I keep the 4m sprockets and just recalculate for 25% less?
Parts. Are the farmforce spring tine type coulters still available? Are they any good? If not any recommendations for an alternative that are readily available?
Depending on rotation we only drill about 300 to 350 acres a year, mainly cereals a few acres of beans and a small amount of grass and stubble turnip so don't want to spend a fortune just need more options than plough and combi.
Any input or ideas would be greatly appreciated as I'm bound to have forgotten something.

 

[Alistair Nelson]

What does this tine drill look like? I was part of farmforce and can probably help as well as anybody put a few photos on. Personally row width is a date that can go on forever and nobody is wrong at one point Amazone were pushing 100mm row spacing with the RPD combi. 125mm is relatively std but I don't think you would notice any difference at all at 150 or 166mm particularly if the coulter you have is the one I think it is as the actual row is quite wide. No problem leaving you 4m gearing in and running at 3m although you have to be on it to get the calibration right but again I have a template for the calibration chart on excel so you could create a new one with the correct adjustment put in, only problem I foresee is if you want to drill at low seed rates you may struggle to get low enough

Cheers

Alistair

 

[BillTC]

Thanks for the reply Alistair.
It says bootimate on the plate and has a row of straight tines at the front with holes to adjust the height, then a levelling board, then 3 rows of spring tine coulters a packer roller and a single row s type harrow at the rear.
I don't think low seed rates will be an issue in the near future as not been able to grow osr or stubble turnips since the loss of neonics.
I'll try for 166mm spacing if the frame will allow, will have a measure up tomorrow and see where they end up.
Most wearing parts on the drill I recognise or look similar to bits from other machines, apart from the coulter box on the rear of the tine. Are any Farmforce specific parts still available?

Thanks
Bill

 

[Alistair Nelson]

The tines, clamps abd points etc are off the shelf available from MDT and others the seeding boots were made by farmforce but again check with MDT mark may have got some copies made otherwise your local fabricator could make copies relatively easily. As to stretching to 4m big question would be how do you stretch the packer at the back? Otherwise very achievable with simple cutting and shutting. Would be crazy heavy on the back of a p/h as that packer would be way back. So not the best idea.