Simba freeflow - Simtech conversion

[Captain Mainwaring]

Following on from other drill pimping threads I thought I would add my own.

We've converted a 4m freeflow to run on Simtech tines based on 6 tines/metre rather than the freeflow's 8. Cost of conversion including the drill, tines, engineers time and a fair amount of refurbishment work was circa 6.5k so pretty reasonable.

The picture was taken whilst drilling a cover crop into a thick crop of chopped oat straw which the drill coped with really well.

 

[BigBarl]

did the tines bolt straight onto the box frame of the simba? I've thought about doing this as there are loads of cheap free flows about that are built to last a lifetime.

 

[Captain Mainwaring]

did the tines bolt straight onto the box frame of the simba? I've thought about doing this as there are loads of cheap free flows about that are built to last a lifetime.

Yes, they bolt straight onto the original box section. Some of the original tine holders need to be removed and we had to modify part of the folding wings to get the correct spacing (I'll post some pics of this later). Once we worked out exactly where everything needed to be it was a fairly straightforward job.

 

[BigBarl]

I bet you could go fairly well into standing covers as well with the front roller?

 

[Captain Mainwaring]

I bet you could go fairly well into standing covers as well with the front roller?

I plan to give it a try, albeit on a very small area as it could easily become a 4m rake! Other covers will be grazed so not particularly nervous about going into that, however plans are in progress to add opening discs at some point.

 

[BigBarl]

keep us posted on further mods

 

[Wessland]

How much does the Simtech tines cost?

 

[Captain Mainwaring]

How much does the Simtech tines cost?

It works out about £100/tine. That's for tine, tip, boot and brackets for the frame.

 

[RTK Farmer]

Didn't think they were to keen to sell the bits for others to adapt drills!

 

[knightsfarmer89]

Didn't think they were to keen to sell the bits for others to adapt drills!

I didn't think they were either... We're planning an adaptation as a winter project and it seemed like we had to sell ourselves to them, to buy their parts!

 

[Low ground pressure]

How have you got on with your simba conversion this Autumn? Any photos of established crops?

 

[Tractor tom7480]

Well done.. Looks like an ace job. Any Autumn drilled photos ?

 

[Captain Mainwaring]

Will get some pics when I'm out and about over the next few days.

 

[jjm]

Will get some pics when I'm out and about over the next few days.

Have you snapped many tines?. Do they find every hidden stone ?!.

 

[Case290]

How deep will they go will it drill beans straight in. 5inch

 

[normandyfarmer]

Interesting improvment !
What's the hp requirement for a 4m in this setup ?

Would it be possible to flip the front roller around or put it more forward to have more clearance between the legs ?

 

[Captain Mainwaring]

Have you snapped many tines?. Do they find every hidden stone ?!.

We've not snapped any yet but have managed to bend a couple seriously enough to warrant changing.

We only drill around 200ac a year of ground that has any amount of stone in and tine breakage/replacement has, so far, been no worse than when we were on the original simba setup.

Plenty of stuff like this which causes no problem at.

 

[Captain Mainwaring]

Well done.. Looks like an ace job. Any Autumn drilled photos ?

Oats, radish, vetch, phacelia cover crop. Sown 12th Aug post winter barley straw removed.

Same as above sown Aug 16 into chopped oat straw.

Oats sown mid sept into chopped wheat.

Wheat sown 10 days ago just beginning to appear.

 

[Captain Mainwaring]

How deep will they go will it drill beans straight in. 5inch

We've not tried to go that deep direct into stubble yet but have put beans into min till down to 4" no problem. Some of our wheat would have been close to 3" in very dry conditions trying to get it into moisture. Also no problem so 5" in the right conditions could be possible, but probably close to its limits.

 

[Captain Mainwaring]

Interesting improvment !
What's the hp requirement for a 4m in this setup ?

Would it be possible to flip the front roller around or put it more forward to have more clearance between the legs ?

We've had it on an mf6480 (150hp ish)which pulls it no problem between 8-12kph. This is on some reasonable slopes and light-medium soils though we have tended towards the lower end of this when going direct to cut down on the amount of soil throw. On 180hp 12-14kph is easy.

Moving the roller would be a big job. I contemplated doing it so we could fit opening discs in behind it but it's not practical.