Front fert hopper for 750A - still lost

[Neddy flanders]

Still no further with this. really dont want to go with liquid as dont want the work or expense of plumbing in 36 coulters.

Is there not a hopper that will fit on front links of tractor with two smallish air pipes that will dump 50kg/ha of P into the two venturis on the drill? just seems so simple, yet i cant find the right hopper manufacturer. any suggestions.?

 

[Nearly]

Hi, a mate has one with 2 x 3" pipes on. He's taking pics tomorrow of maker etc.
Dark blue colour.

 

[Clive]

Still no further with this. really dont want to go with liquid as dont want the work or expense of plumbing in 36 coulters.

Is there not a hopper that will fit on front links of tractor with two smallish air pipes that will dump 50kg/ha of P into the two venturis on the drill? just seems so simple, yet i cant find the right hopper manufacturer. any suggestions.?

yes, it’s been done

a farm i did a AHDB monitor farm thing on in Scotland a few yrs ago had a similar set up iirc and i think they were members in here

 

[Clive]

pics from my phone - not great but might help a bit

 

[Clive]

iirc it was just an accord hopper

 

[Neddy flanders]

thanks Clive, was trying to avoid the separate mushroom and perforated pipe connectors which let moisture in when drilling green. want to go straight to drill venturi.

 

[Clive]

thanks Clive, was trying to avoid the separate mushroom and perforated pipe connectors which let moisture in when drilling green. want to go straight to drill venturi.

you will still need to meter the fert though so maybe just any brand of front hopper then get a Y pipe grafted into the distribution head feed tube and connect it to front hopper ?

with distribution heads being inside the 750a tank you will have to cut a way into the hopper i guess to do that

 

[Alistair Nelson]

It can be done whereby you run the fert into venturi through the plates on the other side of the metering device as you said but you will need some form of cyclone to loose the air pressure before it goes into the venturi. Next limit will be forward speed as you will have added to the volume of material considerably going up the upstack into the head but with this being a 6m machine effectively 2x 3m that will work with you as opposed to a 4m.

 

[Will Blackburn]

It can be done whereby you run the fert into venturi through the plates on the other side of the metering device as you said but you will need some form of cyclone to loose the air pressure before it goes into the venturi. Next limit will be forward speed as you will have added to the volume of material considerably going up the upstack into the head but with this being a 6m machine effectively 2x 3m that will work with you as opposed to a 4m.

I’ve thought about a hopper within the hopper to feed the 2nd venturi.

 

[alomy75]

It can be done whereby you run the fert into venturi through the plates on the other side of the metering device as you said but you will need some form of cyclone to loose the air pressure before it goes into the venturi. Next limit will be forward speed as you will have added to the volume of material considerably going up the upstack into the head but with this being a 6m machine effectively 2x 3m that will work with you as opposed to a 4m.

This. With that amount of air on top of whatever air you’ve got pushing your seed out you will royally mess up the airflow. I’ve got a one outlet stocks rotormeter with a 12v fan blowing slug pellets into the Venturi and even that’s enough to backfeed so slug pellets blow out of the air intake for the Venturi.

 

[Sharpy]

Could you mix the seed and the fert and just sow that?

 

[Timbo1080]

I think you’re thinking of something like this….we used a Horstine Airstream 2 to blow granular Fert into the bottom of the distribution towers & disconnected the drill fan and pipes. The Horstine fan blew the granular Fert from the front to the back of the tractor, where we split the supply pipes into 2 using some farm built stainless manifolds. From there, we used regular slurry pipes to connect it to the bottom of each distribution head riser….connecting the slurry pipes to where the 750A fan pipes would have joined. Worked really well, but did need a fair hydraulic capacity from the tractor (Horstine fan, 750A hydraulics etc)….hence we used the big tractor as the little one didn’t have the capacity.
For micro granular we mounted a rotor meter and fed it into the side of the metering a-la-Venturi style like you mentioned.
if you want to put granular Fert down with the seed, you won’t manage by feeding into the side of the metering area.

hope that helps!

good luck,

Tim

 

[Timbo1080]

Trying to find some decent pics….but won’t seem to let me add them from an album on an iPhone. Will keep trying!

 

[Timbo1080]

Found the old stainless manifolds….

 

[Timbo1080]

Had to screenshot the album photos….hope the resolution is ok. Hopefully you’ll be able to get the gist of what we did….!

 

[r80dub]

Had to screenshot the album photos….hope the resolution is ok. Hopefully you’ll be able to get the gist of what we did….!

That seems a pretty good solution. What have you done about the fan speed sensor if the JD fan isn't being used?

 

[Timbo1080]

That seems a pretty good solution. What have you done about the fan speed sensor if the JD fan isn't being used?

The drill fan sensor alarm was turned off ( Screen settings for fan speed parameters/hopper sensors etc )
Just fact checking myself with our 750A guru & he mentioned that for cereals and DAP (Spring Cereals for example), we actually did use the drill fan as well as the front hopper fan - Coupled together with a rubber Y-Piece that would normally be used for flexible junctions on a drainage system. For Rape, we just used the front Hopper fan direct, with the rape going through the Rotormeter.