Vos openers and drilling legs to use

farmerman

Member
Location
Leicestershire
Ok looking to have a go at direct drilling and doing a bit of pimping to a cheap drill to get there so I know the best option would be to use a sprinter leg but I know they are very pricey and wouldn’t make it viable to use.. wondering if anyone else used another leg arrangement and was haveing good results with the vos?

mzny thanks
 

farmerman

Member
Location
Leicestershire
It’s a simba freeflow so probs the strongest frame out there I would say.. yes good point sorry I didn’t explain properly i didn’t just mean leg I meant the whole assembly I like how it’s spring loaded and how it works in general.. I suppose you could copy a tine of a horsch and have it rigid to the frame with rubber packers in between similar to the sabre tine conversion..I suppose next question is anyone got a cad drawing of a horsch leg?
 
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alomy75

Member
It’s a simba freeflow so probs the strongest frame out there I would say.. yes good point sorry I didn’t explain properly i didn’t just mean leg I meant the whole assembly I like how it’s spring loaded and how it works in general.. I suppose you could copy a tine of a horsch and have it rigid to the frame with rubber packers in between similar to the sabre tine conversion..I suppose next question is anyone got a cad drawing of a horsch leg?
I have a freeflow with sabretine conversion and a sprinter on metcalfes and would say there’s a place for both; the sprinter will keep going where the freeflow will get stuck and maul but the freeflow will do a better job at levelling and seed depth consistency will be better. I would suggest a metcalfe conversion to your freeflow is your easiest way into DD but I like your idea of a cross between the two and by adapting the coulter bottoms you could fit whatever coulters you like. Simba did actually fit a shearbolt leg to the last freeflows just before the CO came out. Laser cutting is surprisingly cheap so you could get a lot of legs cut and either weld them straight on, weld them to a bracket and bolt them on or have a shearbolt arrangement; all you need is the hole spacing/diameter to accept metcalfe/vos/Dutch. There are many possibilities but when the conversation turns to rubber sausage suspension and bending steel it becomes quite an advanced project (which may be well up your street!). It would be a lovely drill though; as many coulters as you want and a nice simple drill that will last for years to come. Assuming you drop the coulter number to low 20’s on a 4m and carry out the wire rope scraper conversion it would be lighter too. Personally I think I’d lose half your coulters on your standard freeflow and fit metcalfes to the remainder. If hell bent on the horsch leg you could buy a rough CO just for the legs; I wager it would be significantly cheaper than just buying the legs from Horsch. Incidentally I tried to get a price for the multigrip leg to do just as you say from 2 different dealers before I bought the sprinter and they’re weren’t keen at all 😂 ‘it would be very very expensive sir’ 😂😂
 

farmerman

Member
Location
Leicestershire
I have a freeflow with sabretine conversion and a sprinter on metcalfes and would say there’s a place for both; the sprinter will keep going where the freeflow will get stuck and maul but the freeflow will do a better job at levelling and seed depth consistency will be better. I would suggest a metcalfe conversion to your freeflow is your easiest way into DD but I like your idea of a cross between the two and by adapting the coulter bottoms you could fit whatever coulters you like. Simba did actually fit a shearbolt leg to the last freeflows just before the CO came out. Laser cutting is surprisingly cheap so you could get a lot of legs cut and either weld them straight on, weld them to a bracket and bolt them on or have a shearbolt arrangement; all you need is the hole spacing/diameter to accept metcalfe/vos/Dutch. There are many possibilities but when the conversation turns to rubber sausage suspension and bending steel it becomes quite an advanced project (which may be well up your street!). It would be a lovely drill though; as many coulters as you want and a nice simple drill that will last for years to come. Assuming you drop the coulter number to low 20’s on a 4m and carry out the wire rope scraper conversion it would be lighter too. Personally I think I’d lose half your coulters on your standard freeflow and fit metcalfes to the remainder. If hell bent on the horsch leg you could buy a rough CO just for the legs; I wager it would be significantly cheaper than just buying the legs from Horsch. Incidentally I tried to get a price for the multigrip leg to do just as you say from 2 different dealers before I bought the sprinter and they’re weren’t keen at all 😂 ‘it would be very very expensive sir’ 😂😂
Yes how have you found your freeflow on metcalfe and did you change the leg too? Yes you have two very good combinations but can imagine the freeflow was substantially cheaper... yes that wouldBe an option we would have too look into but your correct we want to make a leg that will accept various coulters so not limited just to one.. yes we would buy a leg and then copy as we know A very good laser cut man not too far away which gets drawn up on cad and saved to make more if needs be.. yes I like rubbers because there’s a bit of give but we’ve found with rubbers after age they deteriate and then rubber moves around and out meaning buying more rubbers to replace again. Don’t mind cutting a tine at angle to get best set up to accept the vos point as we’ve been talking to Stuart at Martin Lishman he recommends you are best to have an angle arrangement as that’s best for the vos yes I know the simba drills you mean I think
We are going to copy that arrangement of the later simba drills to fit the leg as it looks very professional and saves on haveing rubbers.. yes there such a well built and well thought together drill so very happy with the frame we are starting with.. regarding the wire rope the drill we have already has that conversion onit so that’s a bonus. Yes we’ve got too look at leg spaceing and best bet we’re looking at haveing 3 rows of legs and possibly 200mm spaceing makeing 20 legs or we might go to 250mm meaning only 16 but will look into that a bit more. Yes looked at co’s but there not too cheap no more and finding one isn’t easy plus the co assembly and the spring that hold time has less than half the sprinters spring force so could flick back in hard ground..not ideal...
No Iv phoned a horsch dealer about the spring leg and holder for the leg and for one bit he it was £365 I said roughly how much for everything the answer was over £700 conversation soon stoppped there lol 😂😂 as you say they price it so you don’t buy them and buy a sprinter instead clever I would say from horsch
 

farmerman

Member
Location
Leicestershire
Thats how we want to configure the drill to then get the tines to fit and can then drill a while to get best angle for the leg even if we use straight legs
 

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alomy75

Member
My freeflow is
Yes how have you found your freeflow on metcalfe and did you change the leg too? Yes you have two very good combinations but can imagine the freeflow was substantially cheaper... yes that wouldBe an option we would have too look into but your correct we want to make a leg that will accept various coulters so not limited just to one.. yes we would buy a leg and then copy as we know A very good laser cut man not too far away which gets drawn up on cad and saved to make more if needs be.. yes I like rubbers because there’s a bit of give but we’ve found with rubbers after age they deteriate and then rubber moves around and out meaning buying more rubbers to replace again. Don’t mind cutting a tine at angle to get best set up to accept the vos point as we’ve been talking to Stuart at Martin Lishman he recommends you are best to have an angle arrangement as that’s best for the vos yes I know the simba drills you mean I think
We are going to copy that arrangement of the later simba drills to fit the leg as it looks very professional and saves on haveing rubbers.. yes there such a well built and well thought together drill so very happy with the frame we are starting with.. regarding the wire rope the drill we have already has that conversion onit so that’s a bonus. Yes we’ve got too look at leg spaceing and best bet we’re looking at haveing 3 rows of legs and possibly 200mm spaceing makeing 20 legs or we might go to 250mm meaning only 16 but will look into that a bit more. Yes looked at co’s but there not too cheap no more and finding one isn’t easy plus the co assembly and the spring that hold time has less than half the sprinters spring force so could flick back in hard ground..not ideal...
No Iv phoned a horsch dealer about the spring leg and holder for the leg and for one bit he it was £365 I said roughly how much for everything the answer was over £700 conversation soon stoppped there lol 😂😂 as you say they price it so you don’t buy them and buy a sprinter instead clever I would say from horsch
The freeflow is on sabretine. The freeflow and tine conversion prob stands me at around 7500 in parts...surprising how costs escalate! I did all 32 coulters which is great for crop competition but it’s terrible in trash. It also struggles when trying to put stuff in deep; hence the sprinter. I would just say that most of the Horsch multigrip is cast rather than cut out of steel plate; it’s quite a complex mechanism but you’re right it’s stiff enough to do anything...especially with the metcalfes on. I’ve looked at my freeflow and often wondered if losing the front packer and putting an extra row of coulters in would help...there would be more space but you would need something to maintain depth at the front. I’ll try and post some photos over the weekend of crop from both drills (I have a side by side trial going)
 

alomy75

Member
Thats how we want to configure the drill to then get the tines to fit and can then drill a while to get best angle for the leg even if we use straight legs
That looks awesome...is that 14 legs though? Quite wide spacing...but looks to have loads of room in it 👌
 

farmerman

Member
Location
Leicestershire
My freeflow is

The freeflow is on sabretine. The freeflow and tine conversion prob stands me at around 7500 in parts...surprising how costs escalate! I did all 32 coulters which is great for crop competition but it’s terrible in trash. It also struggles when trying to put stuff in deep; hence the sprinter. I would just say that most of the Horsch multigrip is cast rather than cut out of steel plate; it’s quite a complex mechanism but you’re right it’s stiff enough to do anything...especially with the metcalfes on. I’ve looked at my freeflow and often wondered if losing the front packer and putting an extra row of coulters in would help...there would be more space but you would need something to maintain depth at the front. I’ll try and post some photos over the weekend of crop from both drills (I have a side by side trial going)
Yes your quite rite can get to the stage when it can start running away with money then what started out as a cheap way to dd suddenly is not so cost effective. Yh can imagine would be a pain in the asse for blocking being so tight together didn’t you take every other leg out as a cheap alternative to doing it? Yh apprecaite what your saying I can imagine the multi grip is fantastic but I think the only way to go down that route is like yourself and buy a sprinter drill not cost effective to buy them separate and adapt another drill.. I think the front packer as you say is needed to keep depth rite but instead of coulters I would be looking to maybe add discs to help with thrash flow.. I think as you say there’s too many legs on your drill and not enough spaceing creating it to block up.. yes if you could please that be handy and illd appreciate that👍
 

farmerman

Member
Location
Leicestershire
That looks awesome...is that 14 legs though? Quite wide spacing...but looks to have loads of room in it 👌
Yes nice set up and I can imagine works well in dd as being so wide gaps between legs yes I think the spaceing is at 280mm giveing you 7 legs every 2 metres but yes that was on 5 inch Dutch openers in the seed row which could be an option for what we want to do also
 

alomy75

Member
Yes your quite rite can get to the stage when it can start running away with money then what started out as a cheap way to dd suddenly is not so cost effective. Yh can imagine would be a pain in the asse for blocking being so tight together didn’t you take every other leg out as a cheap alternative to doing it? Yh apprecaite what your saying I can imagine the multi grip is fantastic but I think the only way to go down that route is like yourself and buy a sprinter drill not cost effective to buy them separate and adapt another drill.. I think the front packer as you say is needed to keep depth rite but instead of coulters I would be looking to maybe add discs to help with thrash flow.. I think as you say there’s too many legs on your drill and not enough spaceing creating it to block up.. yes if you could please that be handy and illd appreciate that👍
9077DCFB-8D29-4EDE-AE6A-8BA4334F83FD.jpeg

Freeflow with sabretine; discaerator and toptilth before
 

farmerman

Member
Location
Leicestershire
Looking well there when was it set? Your lines a bit straighter than ours 😂yea carnt tell the difference can you both look the same how was the other field cultivated or was it not? Do you do much dd with your freeflow?
 

alomy75

Member
Yeah I’m really pleased so far. Freeflow field had McConnell discaerator and toptilth pre-drilling. I tried to dd some osr with it once but it wasn’t very successful; there’s just not enough room in it; between coulters and under the frame. It’s strength is going into prepared seedbeds that haven’t quite been prepared enough!
 

alomy75

Member
Looking well there when was it set? Your lines a bit straighter than ours 😂yea carnt tell the difference can you both look the same how was the other field cultivated or was it not? Do you do much dd with your freeflow?
Sorry; 20th October and photo taken yesterday. I do drill deep so it takes a while to come up but did get the dd stuff in too deep on that field
 

case44

Member
I have a 3m Freeflow on standard tines.I am considering putting Metcalfe narrow tines to try more direct drilling,
I direct drilled some OSR this year and it worked well.Also drilled Wheat after a pass with a short disc.
Do Metcalfe tines help with trash compared to standard tine,also is there a simple option to band sow if tine numbers are reduced.
 

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cb387

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Cotswolds
Have a look at post #20 here

 

alomy75

Member
I think it certainly wouldn’t hurt to swap the freeflow points to metcalfe and they will cover the seed better in DD. As for trash flow I’d say you would do more good reducing the number of coulters. I’m not sure if metcalfe do the freeflow conversion tine with the wing on as per the reference to the CO ULD thread 🤔 and if they did whether the freeflow leg would take it at any depth...prob be ok in easy going i guess 🤷‍♂️
 

farmerman

Member
Location
Leicestershire
Yeah I’m really pleased so far. Freeflow field had McConnell discaerator and toptilth pre-drilling. I tried to dd some osr with it once but it wasn’t very successful; there’s just not enough room in it; between coulters and under the frame. It’s strength is going into prepared seedbeds that haven’t quite been prepared enough!

yeah they’ve come well for saying the year It’s been. Yes light bit of cultivation then on with drill did you dd with sprinter? I think your rite wouldn’t work as dd’ing very successfully as it is. I think it would work very well if you had 250mm spaceing between each leg being only 4 legs per metre this is why we are going Down the vos route. Yes your rite pretty much like A Vaderstad drill there as will work the ground why your drilling.
 

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