Fertilizers buggies, pto or ground driven?

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tom4018

Dumb Old Farmer
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Seeing more of the dealers getting the ground driven spreaders around here. Do they do as good as the pto driven spreaders? One of the dealers said as long as you go 1 mph or faster they had the same spread width.
 
It's been a long time since I used a pto spreader,but I have noticed a difference in the spread pattern between 6 and 7 gear on our 4020 with the ground drive units.I have been baseing it on a 40ft pattern this year and it's comeing out about right,but on a 60 acre load I have enough left to do another 3 or 4 acres.
 
Only noticable difference for me, on the ground drive, doing a 180 turn at the end of a field slows the slinger enought to be noticable. Slower ground speed in makeing the turn plus and inside turn on the drive wheel. With a PTO drive rpm's can be kept at a steadier speed by downshifting. This helps keep the spreading distance more even.
 
I like the ground driven. No U-Joint going out and the ones here have a cylinder so you can turn off on the ends then just go around the field, We also plant soybeans with them and I really like being able to turn off.
 
Our dealer uses the ground driven. I like them. I get an even spread, and no worries about dirty hydraulic oil from the previous user. Spread pattern seems to stay close to the same width even when I slow down to turn or climb a hill, but the feed rate drops to keep the application rate close.
 
Ground driven are okay for really smooth terrain, once they are set properly. The problem I have is monitoring the actual rate. I prefer the PTO simply because they are easier to adjust and I don't have to stop to adjust the spread rate or concern myself with crossing a terrace etc.
 
Thebuggys that I have used locally all have a Briggs& Stratton engine on them so it's a moot point.
 
jkwilson":3do0h1te said:
Our dealer uses the ground driven. I like them. I get an even spread, and no worries about dirty hydraulic oil from the previous user. Spread pattern seems to stay close to the same width even when I slow down to turn or climb a hill, but the feed rate drops to keep the application rate close.


Everything around here is also ground driven. Seem to do an adequate job.
 
Definitely ground drive. You don't have to maintain a constant speed with a ground drive unit. PTO rigs vary their rate depending on ground speed (given a constant PTO speed that is). Its too much headache in rough ground, since you have to constantly recalculate your application rate everytime you use a new gear. A ground drive unit, you drop a couple off the power shift and the unit is still spreading at the same rate/acre.

Rod
 
I had never thought of that when using pto spreaders. For some reason, I guess I thought that the feed chain thing was run by the ground on them, too. Have not used a pto spreader in a long time. Just put out 6 tons of 43-0-0 the other day. It was $345 / ton. I may have not gotten it totally even, but I did get it all inside the fences. :lol:
 
Jim62":3gegv3wh said:
I had never thought of that when using pto spreaders. For some reason, I guess I thought that the feed chain thing was run by the ground on them, too. Have not used a pto spreader in a long time. Just put out 6 tons of 43-0-0 the other day. It was $345 / ton. I may have not gotten it totally even, but I did get it all inside the fences. :lol:


Good point Jim, in the good ole days when fertilizer was cheaper, my goal was: just keep it on MY farm. I've tightened up now with prices higher; I too try keep it inside the fences. :)
 
Jim62":18d57jrn said:
I had never thought of that when using pto spreaders. For some reason, I guess I thought that the feed chain thing was run by the ground on them, too. Have not used a pto spreader in a long time. Just put out 6 tons of 43-0-0 the other day. It was $345 / ton. I may have not gotten it totally even, but I did get it all inside the fences. :lol:

You think correctly .

Larry
 
Larry, what,

Depends on the breed of PTO unit. Full PTO drives, a couple of which we happen to have in the shop right now, will turn both feed chain and fan by PTO. Since the PTO is RPM dependent, not ground speed dependent, reducing ground speed without reducing PTO speed means that you will leave more fertilizer behind. Its like a crop sprayer without ground speed regulators. As a general rule of thumb, these tend to be fancier units with in-cab rate controllers. To be fair, when they are used properly they are capable of very good accuracy (do your headlands, then shut the unit off at the ends when making your back and forth passes).

Other units include PTO (or engine) driven fans with ground speed feeds. These units will of course not vary application rate/acre since the rate is still controlled by ground speed, only fan RPM is PTO (or engine RPM) dependent. I haven't seen many of these, although fan spreaders in my country aren't used all that much anymore. Most guys float it on with a truck or Valmar-style spreader since the application rates are more accurate. Either that or they put it on with a bander (absolute best way of doing it).

And then of course there are full ground driven units, which I prefer due to simplicity.

Rod
 
Looks like a variety of types around. So far, all I've used and seen around here, were ground fed with ground or pto driven spinners. Ground driven spinners and feeds are surely convenient if you are only doing a few acres. Don't have to switch from your 2-ton 4x4 dually to your tractor and back. :p :lol:
 
DiamondSCattleCo":1h0mdjzy said:
Larry, what,

Depends on the breed of PTO unit. Full PTO drives, a couple of which we happen to have in the shop right now, will turn both feed chain and fan by PTO. Since the PTO is RPM dependent, not ground speed dependent, reducing ground speed without reducing PTO speed means that you will leave more fertilizer behind. Its like a crop sprayer without ground speed regulators. As a general rule of thumb, these tend to be fancier units with in-cab rate controllers. To be fair, when they are used properly they are capable of very good accuracy (do your headlands, then shut the unit off at the ends when making your back and forth passes).

Other units include PTO (or engine) driven fans with ground speed feeds. These units will of course not vary application rate/acre since the rate is still controlled by ground speed, only fan RPM is PTO (or engine RPM) dependent. I haven't seen many of these, although fan spreaders in my country aren't used all that much anymore. Most guys float it on with a truck or Valmar-style spreader since the application rates are more accurate. Either that or they put it on with a bander (absolute best way of doing it).

And then of course there are full ground driven units, which I prefer due to simplicity.

Rod

Rod, I guess I've never seen one like that . Most of the ones we use here run the spinners PTO and the chain is ground drive . One like you're talking about would be difficult to use .

Larry
 

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