Horsch Sprinter operation

[alomy75]

Morning all; just bought a Horsch Sprinter with the 2 guide wheels up front; instruction manual seems a bit useless-at the ends do you lift the tractor arms up and then drop again in operation and when drilling do you set the arms at a height so the guide wheels have a little weight or put them right down so the wheels are literally holding the drill? I’ve come from a freeflow so I would say the latter but tried it and drill seemed to nose-dive...so I’ve been leaving the arms at 40% all of the time...nice drill though; metcalfe coulters having come from weaving sabre tines on my freeflow (which I’ll never part with, but starting to experiment in DD). Thanks

 

[PSQ]

Contact the Horsch UK tech for your area (not the dealer, probably be chargeable) and give them a call. If they're anything like mine (top bloke) they'll go out of their way to answer your questions and help you with setup tips.

 

[warksfarmer]

Morning all; just bought a Horsch Sprinter with the 2 guide wheels up front; instruction manual seems a bit useless-at the ends do you lift the tractor arms up and then drop again in operation and when drilling do you set the arms at a height so the guide wheels have a little weight or put them right down so the wheels are literally holding the drill? I’ve come from a freeflow so I would say the latter but tried it and drill seemed to nose-dive...so I’ve been leaving the arms at 40% all of the time...nice drill though; metcalfe coulters having come from weaving sabre tines on my freeflow (which I’ll never part with, but starting to experiment in DD). Thanks

We leave the rear hitch in position and just lift the rear Packer to turn, then push it into float to return to work.

 

[Wheatland]

There should be an equal amount of colour codes spacers in the front depth wheels, the front centre packer and the rear packer. Set the drill in work so the drill is level, depth is correct and there is some weight on the front packer/wheels but still some weight on the tractor. Then use the hydraulics to lift and lower the rear packer for the headland turns. As @warksfarmer says make sure the drill is in float while working or the metering will cut out

 

[Red tractor]

Morning all; just bought a Horsch Sprinter with the 2 guide wheels up front; instruction manual seems a bit useless-at the ends do you lift the tractor arms up and then drop again in operation and when drilling do you set the arms at a height so the guide wheels have a little weight or put them right down so the wheels are literally holding the drill? I’ve come from a freeflow so I would say the latter but tried it and drill seemed to nose-dive...so I’ve been leaving the arms at 40% all of the time...nice drill though; metcalfe coulters having come from weaving sabre tines on my freeflow (which I’ll never part with, but starting to experiment in DD). Thanks

I always lift and turn. The reason being that occasionally in damp conditions the outside coulters can get plugged with dirt as they skim the ground. Especially with a single seed outlet. Keep it moving forward when the front is lowered and all will be well. Cracking drill

 

[alomy75]

Thanks all; appreciated. Very pleased with it; I’ve got a side by side trial this year; both fields wheat after beans. One discaerator; toptilth; freeflow...one straight in with the sprinter. Same seed, same rate, drilled a day apart. Has anyone tried to fit wider front tyres ‘guide wheels’ to a sprinter/CO? It’s fairly moist here and I was thinking with this and some wire-rope scrapers on the rear packer the drill would take some stopping...the staggered packer is a huge step forward but doesn’t lend itself to scraper fitment!

 

[HarryB97]

Thanks all; appreciated. Very pleased with it; I’ve got a side by side trial this year; both fields wheat after beans. One discaerator; toptilth; freeflow...one straight in with the sprinter. Same seed, same rate, drilled a day apart. Has anyone tried to fit wider front tyres ‘guide wheels’ to a sprinter/CO? It’s fairly moist here and I was thinking with this and some wire-rope scrapers on the rear packer the drill would take some stopping...the staggered packer is a huge step forward but doesn’t lend itself to scraper fitment!

Have a look at page 26/27 of this thread

My new drill #pimpmydrill part 2 !

Great minds... Basically a bigger version of this: Yes pretty much but with seed / liquid seed cart and ability to have front hopper only as a lightweight / student friendly version !

thefarmingforum.co.uk

 

[alomy75]

Have a look at page 26/27 of this thread

My new drill #pimpmydrill part 2 !

Great minds... Basically a bigger version of this: Yes pretty much but with seed / liquid seed cart and ability to have front hopper only as a lightweight / student friendly version !

thefarmingforum.co.uk

Yep I have a couple of wider wheels awaiting fitment but I need to modify the rim offset so may be a winter job. At long last my wheat is coming through; I think I got it waaaay too deep. The metcalfes really do tuck it in behind/under the point; 50-75mm when I was aiming for 40. Just hope the whole field will follow these ‘photo patches’

 

[HarryB97]

Yep I have a couple of wider wheels awaiting fitment but I need to modify the rim offset so may be a winter job. At long last my wheat is coming through; I think I got it waaaay too deep. The metcalfes really do tuck it in behind/under the point; 50-75mm when I was aiming for 40. Just hope the whole field will follow these ‘photo patches’

You rnt alone that's a Horsch for you! I had seed from an inch down and upto 5 inches deep but it's all up in row with only a few days difference in emergence time. First year with a Sprinter for me, running 1 inch Dutch openers. I didn’t want to cultivate any land but did a shallow pass on the ex bean land as it was full of trash.

 

[alomy75]

You rnt alone that's a Horsch for you! I had seed from an inch down and upto 5 inches deep but it's all up in row with only a few days difference in emergence time.

Which coulters? It is a bit of a shock coming from a freeflow where you can set your watch by it! Come back full width front packer; all is forgiven

 

[HarryB97]

Which coulters? It is a bit of a shock coming from a freeflow where you can set your watch by it! Come back full width front packer; all is forgiven

If you move a lot of ground then a front packer is helpful but I just see it as more cost, weight, wearing parts and bad visibility. 1 inch Dutch openers here, the narrower the point the harder the depth control I find.

 

[alomy75]

I agree; it’s a breath of fresh air not dragging a heavy drill around when it’s a bit sticky.

 

[alomy75]

Have a look at page 26/27 of this thread

My new drill #pimpmydrill part 2 !

Great minds... Basically a bigger version of this: Yes pretty much but with seed / liquid seed cart and ability to have front hopper only as a lightweight / student friendly version !

thefarmingforum.co.uk

Drill is in the workshop now for the winter; I’ve had another thought regarding the depth control...after watching a video I took whilst drilling I’ve realised the front gauge wheels actually run IN the tractor wheelings (my 7530 is set out at 80” on wide tyres) so when the tractor sinks the drill sinks. What I’ve done is swapped the whole guide wheel assembly from left to right so now they stick ‘outwards’ rather than ‘inwards’ and will run on fresh ground right at the edge of the drill. I’m painting the rims while they’re off but will post a photo in the spring. Apologies if this is a common ‘hack’ but I hadn’t seen it so hoping it might help someone, if it works better of course!

 

[alomy75]

Thoroughly happy so far with the metcalfes

 

[Sorbaer]

@alomy75 Update? Also how wide is your sprinter if you're pulling it with the 7530

 

[alomy75]

@alomy75 Update? Also how wide is your sprinter if you're pulling it with the 7530

Thoroughly happy with the drill/coulters; it’s been a game changer and got us a 50ac field drilled last back end that I wouldn’t have moved in with the freeflow. Offset change on the guide wheels has helped enormously but I have also fitted slightly longer coulters behind the tractor wheels (off the shelf at metcalfe; 1” longer) to try and improve emergence and this is noticeably better now in the spring crops (didn’t have them for autumn drilled). Spring beans look awesome after it. Dd spring wheat ok but highlighted how unlevel the seedbed was. A level seedbed is of paramount importance with it; especially when drilling shallow. Mine’s a 4m behind a 75. It doesn’t know it’s there; even on beans at 4”. 6930 or 150hp would be ample. I wager even my 6430 would pull it drilling cereals. With this and probably any direct drill you need to watch the tractor wheelings when it’s anything other than perfectly dry. I’ve wired up the crawler to pull it if we have another wet back end. Following this year the discaerator will be staying in the shed after harvest; I have made up a low disturbance subsoiler that I will do headlands/tramlines with and then straight in with the Sprinty. If the combine sinks too much may do whole fields.

 

[Northdowns Martin]

Reading with interest, run a JD750 and a Horsch CO4 with Gen openers, prefer using the 750 as drilling depth is more even due to contour following coulters. Currently altering legs on a subsoiler to make lower disturbance. How do you think the best approach to levelling fields? Any pics of your subsoiler?

 

[Sorbaer]

Interesting! How do you think the 75 would cope with a 6m? Any pics of your guide wheel set up?

 

[alomy75]

75 would easily pull a 6m on metcalfe coulters; but I don’t have any hills at all here. There’s a pic that shows the wheel offset quite well in some extreme drilling we did this spring ! I’m really working on the LD subsoiler part at the moment; before I commit to anything expensive I’m trying some full width simba LD points in a flatliner for where we have serious issues (after cereals mauled in after beet) but I’m hoping to do most with the shallower 7 leg with cut down wings. I used it briefly last year with full wings on; did a good job but took the crawler to pull it at a sensible speed. Hoping the 75 will pull it properly with shorter wings. I’ve also bought a set of Great Plains sprung loaded disc assemblies so will try and bodge one on each subsoiler to see where they work best. I quite like the look of the opico stealth subsoiler ultimately but both these together stand at me at less than a third of one of those while I’m testing the concept; hoping there might be grant money for one too in the future.

 

[alomy75]

This is the job after the blench 7 leg with full width wings behind the crawler. You can tell it’s taking some pulling as it battled with the gps.