I am thinking of buying a second hand self propelled low ground pressure sprayer

Another vote for a small Bateman. In 15years I never got my RB25 stuck on poor treaded flotations.
People who have never had a hydrostatic machine always talk about wheel motors, They forget all about the gearbox and axles in their mechanical drive sprayers.

I thought the issue was with motors that if you neglect the seals they end up chewing themselves up?

It can't be difficult to get the things off in the winter, perch the machine on stilts and get the seals redone every couple of years to avoid them lunching themselves?
 

bumkin

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
pembrokeshire
Simple answer stop buying John Queers with their shite engines!!!
There are loads of simple sprayers out there that are good an Agri buggy is just horrid!! Don’t rush keep yours open and you can find some nice machines and sensible money. If the trailed you have is good keep it? Run 1 on rape 1 on wheat? Use light machine in wet and comfy tractor on front of trailer rest of year???
we intend to keep the trailed sprayer and use the low ground pressure machine in the wet it's not only the oh dears anything I've had with engine management bollox has been a pain the deers haven't been too bad in our environment anything electric is a pain in the ass
 

traineefarmer

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Mid Norfolk
I thought the issue was with motors that if you neglect the seals they end up chewing themselves up?

It can't be difficult to get the things off in the winter, perch the machine on stilts and get the seals redone every couple of years to avoid them lunching themselves?

If only it were that simple. Sadly the common Poclain motor needs to be dismantled back to front - the hub seal would be the last component you'd remove. Also parts are very difficult to get hold of if you aren't a registered service agent and specialist tools and techniques are required to reassemble.
 
If only it were that simple. Sadly the common Poclain motor needs to be dismantled back to front - the hub seal would be the last component you'd remove. Also parts are very difficult to get hold of if you aren't a registered service agent and specialist tools and techniques are required to reassemble.

Fine then, remove them and send them away to have the seals done in winter?
 

traineefarmer

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Mid Norfolk
Fine then, remove them and send them away to have the seals done in winter?

The best labour only quote I could get for repair was £600 per motor and you don't have to add too many parts before you are close to the cost of a service exchange unit with warranty.

Don't get me wrong, I believe in preventative maintenance and doing as much repair work as possible in my own workshop, but with hydro wheel motors, (and it pains me to say to say it) the only way is to wait for them to fail and then replace.

Keep them clean and dry (ie. don't run them through deep muddy water), regular oil and filter changes, don't let the hydro oil over heat and don't overload them with oversized tyres or payload and they are very reliable.
 

chaffcutter

Moderator
Arable Farmer
Location
S. Staffs
Snag with the wheel motors is that if you get one break down to the point of chewed metal, the swarf contaminates the oil and can damage the others, we ended up with a whopping bill once when this happened, machine had a holiday in Devon before it was sorted. Have to say that was the only time in 15 plus years that we had that problem, I think it was caused by limping the machine back to the yard to get it off the A38, giving it time to do the damage.
 

Classichay

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
The moon
I always got told wind the stud in on the wheel motors to disengage the brakes then drag somewhere out of harms way rather than under power. Can always do a flush of the hydraulics 40L of hydraulic oil isn’t the end of the world can always paint that rusty plough with it afterwards 😏 but that’s dependant if you have brakes in your hubs..... aren’t the Deere’s using the oil as braking force too?
 

chaffcutter

Moderator
Arable Farmer
Location
S. Staffs
Yes it was definitely self inflicted collateral damage, but it was in such a dangerous position we didn’t really have a choice at the time. Never imagined it would make it into such a big job, reacted to the danger situation first for our driver and other traffic.
A friend had recently been rear-ended by a truck on that dual carriageway, tipped his trailer of wheat over and the tractor onto its side, he was lucky to not be seriously hurt.
 
I put some new bridgestone 540/65/24 tyres on my rb25 this week so to set the tyre pressure correctly I filled the tank (3000ltrs) and the clean water tank and put it over the weighbridge, I was surprised how heavy it was, for anyone who is interested with the booms folded the front axle had 5040kgs and the back axle had 4880kgs.
 

Hard Graft

Member
BASE UK Member
Location
British Isles
I put some new bridgestone 540/65/24 tyres on my rb25 this week so to set the tyre pressure correctly I filled the tank (3000ltrs) and the clean water tank and put it over the weighbridge, I was surprised how heavy it was, for anyone who is interested with the booms folded the front axle had 5040kgs and the back axle had 4880kgs.
Was looking at a rb25 and phoned Bateman for axel weights and they did not know so thank you
Did the same with My old 1996 gem sapphire 2500 with 3000lt ( internal wash tank removed giving 2700lt and a 300lt external wash tank) 9060kg total with a front weight of 4280kg and rear axel of 4760kg booms folded

but for reference got next doors mounted amazon 1800lt 24m on the weigh bridge in With 1500tl on a 160 hp John Deere it was 8500kg on the rear axel
 
Last edited:
Househam sprint 4 tonne empty 7 tonne full
on 540 24 tyres at 20 k max speed When full 10 psi in the tyres
will go any where you dare go. Not over powered so gentle pullback on the Swash lever to keep the engine revs up and it floats on the soil once you have done it you know the knack
bigger machines with more power just dig a deeper tramline needing higher tyre pressures
RB209 15 Case emerald Are a little heavier but with skilled driving will go just as well
when you have taken a 4x4 across sand and got bogged then let The tyres down and driven out you Learn the benefits of the right tyres and pressure


the machines on smaller lap wheels run out of traction

of the currently available machines the househam spirit will travel as well with 12 psi in the tyres
many of the 12 tonne plus machines just leave wide deep ruts as do most tractors
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 79 42.9%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 63 34.2%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.3%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 6 3.3%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

  • 1,287
  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
Top