Simba Metflow

bovrill

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
East Essexshire
Would it be possible to fit a John Dale coulter on the Simba tines?
Yes, I've been looking at doing exactly that.
I had a long conversation at Cereals with James Dale and then the engineer that's done the Freeflow conversions on their stand.
They said they don't have a set way of doing it, you can purchase a full tine, including spring, to fit to the frame, or as I was more interested in, the lower part to attach to a cut down Simba tine, as in the original post here.
My idea at the moment is to weld a piece of angle to the Simba tine, effectively wrapping around the front and side, and protruding behind enough to drill holes to bolt the Dale coulters straight on. That way it's not just the weld you're relying on, and if there's a breakage (they always seem to snap in the coil in this stiff clay, probably average one every 50 acres with normal points) there's no cutting welds to transfer the Dale coulter, just bolt it onto a fresh prepared tine.
 

Howdenshire Farmer

Member
BASE UK Member
A teaser pic of the Metflow showing drilled ground. More to follow at some point....
DSC_0029.JPG
 

Adeptandy

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
PE15
Really interested in this, how was penetration/seed covering, job to tell from the picture. What sort of Hp requirement for the drill straight into stubble please ?
 

Case140

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Wicklow, Ireland
Hi . i would love to hear more about your conversion - how did it work out and what were the 'hitches'? i am thinking of converting a 3 m miniflow with dale/weaving tine ends to the existing springs as you have done. Any problem with trash buildup? Any advice would be appreciated. Also did you roll after or was the rubber packer doing enough? Tidy looking job by the way- love to see good simple conversions. Did the welds hold? Thanks Nigel
 

Howdenshire Farmer

Member
BASE UK Member
Hi . i would love to hear more about your conversion - how did it work out and what were the 'hitches'? i am thinking of converting a 3 m miniflow with dale/weaving tine ends to the existing springs as you have done. Any problem with trash buildup? Any advice would be appreciated. Also did you roll after or was the rubber packer doing enough? Tidy looking job by the way- love to see good simple conversions. Did the welds hold? Thanks Nigel
In short, it worked well. Welds held. No broken tines. Everything I drilled with it has established well.
Did have an issue with trash in extreme circumstances. Reduced tine number to 12 from 16.
Will update more fully when I get time.
 

Case140

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Wicklow, Ireland
Thanks for reply. Did you roll after or just packing roller? Have you tried beans or do you think you would get enough depth? Was the "extreme" trash from chopped or unchopped straw? Sorry for all the questions but you have done a class job on the tines and I am thinking of doing the same. Nigel
 

Howdenshire Farmer

Member
BASE UK Member
Thanks for reply. Did you roll after or just packing roller? Have you tried beans or do you think you would get enough depth? Was the "extreme" trash from chopped or unchopped straw? Sorry for all the questions but you have done a class job on the tines and I am thinking of doing the same. Nigel
Drilled 200 ac of covers, osr and wheat. Only thing I rolled afterwards was 12 ac of 2nd wheat. It was into October and the soil surface was surprisingly wet under the chopped straw. I was a bit concerned about open slots as it was my 1st ever attempt at dd 2nd wheat and I was ultra cautious about slugs. I rolled it crossways to be sure any open slots were closed.

I drliied some beans with my 750A but not with the Metflow. I think it would go deep enough but the ground was rock hard clay and has a blackgrass issue. I used the 750 to minimise disturbance.

Regarding trash:
I drilled some covers for a neighbour on very light soil that was cultivated last year. The stubble was very long (12-14") and tended to hang on the tines and pull up into clumps which then blocked the 2 rear rows of tines when they released themselves. The stubble wasn't sufficiently well anchored in the puffy light soil.
On heavier soil and on my own light land that was dd last year the stubble was better anchored and I had no problems.
I decided to change the tines from 16 over the first 3 rows of tine bars to 12 tines over the first and third tine bars. This meant that they were slightly closer together in each row but with increased stagger between the front and back rows. This was a big improvement for trash flow but the row spacing increased to 25cm. I had no worries about that for osr and covers but was concerned about it for wheat. Having read that others on here were doing it with apparent success I did the one field of wheat to see how it goes.

I am still weighing up the option of fitting some straight discs infront of each tine. More to reduced soil movement than for cutting trash.

A note of caution on the covering harrow:
I fitted the angled Kvernland TS covering tines because I thought they would be better at closing the slots. However, the tine bar is very heavy and it can trail up long stubble and chopped straw into lumps. It doesn't really move much soil anyway when into cereal stubble and chopped straw because the roller firms it down well. I would try with the original tines first before changing them if you decide to make a drill.

One other thing: I cut the tines shorter before welding the coulters on so that the overall legth is the same as the originals with the Simba coulters on.

Got to go now but will post some pics when i get a chance.
 

Case140

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Wicklow, Ireland
Thanks so much for such a detailed reply - you have pretty well confirmed what I thought! Last question and then I ll leave you alone! What grade of welding rods did you use to weld the tines?. Please let us know how the crops did in the end which after all is all that matters. The seed doesnt care what colour the drill is! Thanks again for all your imput and well done on a bit of classy engineering!
 

Howdenshire Farmer

Member
BASE UK Member
Thanks so much for such a detailed reply - you have pretty well confirmed what I thought! Last question and then I ll leave you alone! What grade of welding rods did you use to weld the tines?. Please let us know how the crops did in the end which after all is all that matters. The seed doesnt care what colour the drill is! Thanks again for all your imput and well done on a bit of classy engineering!
I had the welding done by some local engineers who do ship repairs. I wanted them done properly. I don't know what rods they used or if it was a mig. I do know they heated the tines up before welding the coulters on.
 

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Howdenshire Farmer

Member
BASE UK Member
Looks good. Would you say it's been worthwhile as you also have the 750a?
I think it is worth having the tine drill for drilling into chopped straw in autumn. I do not think my winter covers or crops would look anything like as good if drilled with the 750. I did try drilling some wheat into a heavy mat of chopped straw with wet soil underneath with the 750 and abandoned it because of hair pinning.
Having both means I have complete flexibility.
 

Case140

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Wicklow, Ireland
Well done! Hope the crops perform as well as they look and hopefully you will get lots of acres covered with your drill. Hopefully in the new year Ill get started on my project! If i get going Ill post pix here - mind you the bar is set pretty high!! N
 

fendtfan

Member
Location
Bury St Edmunds
Has welding directly to the freeflow tine been successful or brought about tine failure due to the weld or due to the extra force involved in direct drilling.
I am considering welding a bracket directly to the tine to take a narrow low disturbance point and seed tube holder
 

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