Spray bowsers

[dontknowanything]

Would like to hear good and bad reviews of peoples' bowsers please? Looking for either 6,000l or 12,000l, with an IBC holder and plenty of lockers. Have dealt with this guy before

http://www.loggin.org

who seems pretty good, but I'm open to other suggestions?

Thanks

 

[warksfarmer]

Would like to hear good and bad reviews of peoples' bowsers please? Looking for either 6,000l or 12,000l, with an IBC holder and plenty of lockers. Have dealt with this guy before

http://www.loggin.org

who seems pretty good, but I'm open to other suggestions?

Thanks

Come to the conclusion instead of pre mixing your better off fitting a high capacity pump to the bowser to fill the sprayer quicker and have the bowser man ready with kids of cans as the sprayer pulls up.

So sprayer pulls up, pipe on and start filling normally with water. Chemicals go in then flick the switch to high capacity to finish adding the water.

Bowser man sorts empties out and gets the next full cans out as well as topping the bowser up with more water if required.

That way your not contaminating the bowser.

Pre mixing works if you do what Tom H does where he mixes a full tank then drives the mixed load down the headland tramline to the sprayer.

 

[dontknowanything]

Come to the conclusion instead of pre mixing your better off fitting a high capacity pump to the bowser to fill the sprayer quicker and have the bowser man ready with kids of cans as the sprayer pulls up.

So sprayer pulls up, pipe on and start filling normally with water. Chemicals go in then flick the switch to high capacity to finish adding the water.

Bowser man sorts empties out and gets the next full cans out as well as topping the bowser up with more water if required.

That way your not contaminating the bowser.

Pre mixing works if you do what Tom H does where he mixes a full tank then drives the mixed load down the headland tramline to the sprayer.

This was my initial thought. I borrowed a bowser a couple of years ago, and it worked really well. Like you say, bowser man gets cans opened, caps rinsed etc. We could fill a 4500l sprayer in 15 mins, from when it stopped to when it was off again.

But then I was speaking with @Tom H and he told me about his system. The last 500l is always clean water so that the pipe is cleaned out every time. If you're looking at a 1,000l/min pump, that would be 4.5 mins to fill up, so saving about 10 mins per fill. Multiply that by 6 loads in a day, and an extra hour is very worthwhile chasing IMO

And also it makes much better use of the bowser man's time...

 

[Chalky]

Pre mixing & pumping across better for us. 3 2000L chafer tanks, all can be isolated, one purely clean water for flushing. Mixing 40+ ha of product, for us, takes a lot longer that 15 minutes. Think about it CCC, Mn, Cu/Zn, fungicide, wetter. Fairly standard GS30 spray. It is not unknown for the sprayer to be arriving at the next fields just as the mixed load turns up & he has only been 5 minutes away at the store. Don't underestimate opening, cleaning, rinsing & filling time for many of these complex mixes- that's where all the dead time is.
Hydraulic centrifugal pump for massive water flow as we use a lot of solids; Mn & Mg. Induction hopper etc etc. Never use for SU's- hardly ever herbicides. We add any herbicides into the sprayer induction hopper as the mix is pumped across- therefore always clean. Tend to use for main spring/summer wheat timings & OSR/bean spraying- that's when the pressure is on. Also works as a handy washing down unit & fire tender(though hopefully not needed in that capacity)! Best day about 900 acres- would never get near that without it.

 

[warksfarmer]

This was my initial thought. I borrowed a bowser a couple of years ago, and it worked really well. Like you say, bowser man gets cans opened, caps rinsed etc. We could fill a 4500l sprayer in 15 mins, from when it stopped to when it was off again.

But then I was speaking with @Tom H and he told me about his system. The last 500l is always clean water so that the pipe is cleaned out every time. If you're looking at a 1,000l/min pump, that would be 4.5 mins to fill up, so saving about 10 mins per fill. Multiply that by 6 loads in a day, and an extra hour is very worthwhile chasing IMO

And also it makes much better use of the bowser man's time...

I think if your going to do what tom does by then taking the load to the sprayer so it's not folding the booms then it will save a lot of time.

 

[dontknowanything]

I think if your going to do what tom does by then taking the load to the sprayer so it's not folding the booms then it will save a lot of time.

Not sure it's necessary because often it works to fill up between fields.

 

[dontknowanything]

Pre mixing & pumping across better for us. 3 2000L chafer tanks, all can be isolated, one purely clean water for flushing. Mixing 40+ ha of product, for us, takes a lot longer that 15 minutes. Think about it CCC, Mn, Cu/Zn, fungicide, wetter. Fairly standard GS30 spray. It is not unknown for the sprayer to be arriving at the next fields just as the mixed load turns up & he has only been 5 minutes away at the store. Don't underestimate opening, cleaning, rinsing & filling time for many of these complex mixes- that's where all the dead time is.
Hydraulic centrifugal pump for massive water flow as we use a lot of solids; Mn & Mg. Induction hopper etc etc. Never use for SU's- hardly ever herbicides. We add any herbicides into the sprayer induction hopper as the mix is pumped across- therefore always clean. Tend to use for main spring/summer wheat timings & OSR/bean spraying- that's when the pressure is on. Also works as a handy washing down unit & fire tender(though hopefully not needed in that capacity)! Best day about 900 acres- would never get near that without it.

Well it took 15 mins for us, with complicated T2 mixes with herbicides etc. All caps off, foils rinsed and part cans measured out. One man tipping in to hopper the other rinsing. Worked well.

Interesting what you say about SUs, but if you can rinse the bowser tank like you can a sprayer (nozzles inside) then I can't see it being a problem?

 

[Chalky]

My other man is still spraying- that's the point!

SU's. Such small discreet amounts- why take the risk. The sprayer is dirty, the bowser never is.

 

[dontknowanything]

My other man is still spraying- that's the point!

SU's. Such small discreet amounts- why take the risk. The sprayer is dirty, the bowser never is.

Yes, one man spraying, the other does all the cans, foils, measuring etc. But I agree pre mixing is better, not having tried it personally.

 

[dontknowanything]

No one got a manufacturer to recommend then?

 

[clodshopper]

www.vegcraft.co.uk

Looked at Lamma, seems the dogs b*****ks, ideal for what you are describing, not cheap!

 

[dontknowanything]

www.vegcraft.co.uk

Looked at Lamma, seems the dogs b*****ks, ideal for what you are describing, not cheap!

They look pretty nifty, wish I had seen them at LAMMA. What sort of money were they talking about?

 

[warksfarmer]

They look pretty nifty, wish I had seen them at LAMMA. What sort of money were they talking about?

30ft low height bale trailer on a drawbar.

Split it into 3 areas.

1. Clean water tank 3 times size of sprayer.
2. Mixer tank same size as sprayer tank.
3. Chem storage
4. Mobile shredder with tank for shredded cans.

Then it's your own suited exactly to your requirements.

 

[dontknowanything]

30ft low height bale trailer on a drawbar.

Split it into 3 areas.

1. Clean water tank 3 times size of sprayer.
2. Mixer tank same size as sprayer tank.
3. Chem storage
4. Mobile shredder with tank for shredded cans.

Then it's your own suited exactly to your requirements.

Great set up, but a bit of overkill for our situation! With a 6000l bowser we will easily be able to spray all our wheat acreage in two normal length days as it is...

 

[Chalky]

This is a bit like chaser bin argument.

What point something absolutely massive that WHEN it needs filling itself(emptying in case of chaser) it takes so long it ends up holding the very machine up that you are trying not to stop.

Second man/tractor involved whatever, so take one load at a time. He gets faster turnaround & is always there to service the machine in question. Forget the monumental expense of the behemoth!

A combine doesn't cut faster because he has a 30T chaser rather than a 17T Horsch- but if it is slow over the ground & takes an age to empty- it will stop him & make him wait. How long to load the massive spray bowser with all that water & chem cans to return??

We built a demountable skid onto an old 10T Bailey trailer. Tanks (s/h) pipes, pump, valving, hopper & steel about £4k. Welding & work in winter.

 

[Banana Bar]

Merrick is a good bloke to deal with and will build what you want.
When we were looking at this we decided that as we don't have lots of internal roads and tracks to park a big bowser on we would build a nurse tank. We went from 2 32m Batemans to one JD 5430i. Now one operator drives the sprayer for as many days as they want and then the 2nd operator takes over spraying and the other goes on the nurse tank. Our nurse tank runs back to the store every load, is filled with chemical and then pumped into the sprayer on the headland tramline. The sprayer doesn't go back to the yard in the day and never has to even fold the booms to fill, takes 6mins / fill in the field, (only just enough time for a pee)!
I would think very seriously about the limitations of a big bowser, they are fantastic things but you cannot get them into the field.


BB

 

[clodshopper]

5000lt version, tandem axle, 560 tyres. lots of locker space, hydraulic pump, Rear cabinet consisted of stainless chemical induction, can rinse, can drain etc. A lovely piece of kit, well though out and engineered but proberly more overkill than over priced for me @ £12k

 

[dontknowanything]

5000lt version, tandem axle, 560 tyres. lots of locker space, hydraulic pump, Rear cabinet consisted of stainless chemical induction, can rinse, can drain etc. A lovely piece of kit, well though out and engineered but proberly more overkill than over priced for me @ £12k

Interesting, I'll give them a call next week.

 

[Oscar]

The veg craft in my aviator picture is for sale and cost £ 14500 2 years a go. It's 5000ltrs with 3 inch petrol pump and separate pump does the pro fill unit in the rear. Really good outfit but due to loss of acres now not needed. I did put it in the for sale section on 12 th August 2014 time but don t know how to do links. Pm me if intrested or ask on here.
When I was looking, both firms you mentioned were who I was dealing with and veg craft have been very good to deal with and doing what they said they would do. Google the pro fill and there has been a thread on here about it also in the last 12 months , it is very good.

 

[Mdt]

I can recommend Philip Watkins he built our bowser to our spec and works well, I would like to put a simple mixer unit on the back but have to put the idea forward yet, just a simple setup with a 1000l Ibc which the bowser man puts chemical in while the sprayer is spraying then suck that out and top up with water, I never get all the chemicals in when it's a fair list before right amount of water.