Planter rebuild project.......not really a garage project!

[golfnut]

I've been a member of this forum for many years. Read lots of stuff but not really participated. I'm active on several ag forums but thought I'd show the members here what happens in my "garage". It's really a farm shop. 70x80, heated, and used for some storage and general farm equipment maintenance and repairs. My current project is rebuilding/upgrading my planter. This began life as a 2014 John Deere 1720 16R/30 planter. That means 16 row 30" spacing for a total of 40 feet. We used it as a stock machine for about 4 years and then upgraded it the first time with after market products from Precision Planting. That upgraded was hydraulic down pressure and electric driven seed meters instead of hydraulic driven. We are now upgrading it to have a Central Commodity System (bulk fill) and high speed seed tubes (SpeedTubes). Since I had the machine half apart I decided to replace all the bushings on the parallel arms (linkage that connects row units to tool bar). This was a massive undertaking that just finished today. Here are some pics.

 

[jrsavoie]

Green on red! Very Christmassy!!

 

[mv213]

That is an impressive machine!

 

[tdkkart]

Dad used to do stuff like this all the time, built or rebuilt most of his equipment.

He was doing narrow row soybeans in the mid-70s, cut up and rebuilt an Allis planter to run 8 18" rows, then when he went from 36" to 30" corn so he rebuilt the bean planter to run 9 15" rows, then rebuilt it once more to 15 15" rows.

When he decided to go to an 8 row 30" corn planter he bought a 8 row 44" planter cheap(because it was 44" and everyone was going to 30s) and cut it down to 30". Built/modified his cultivators to use with the all these also.

Built his own sprayers, started with a 3 point 100gallon 20', moved to a 40' bar on trailer with a 500 gallon tank, then finally to a 60' boom and 1000gallon tank.

Rented a farm with bigger grain bins, didn't have an elevator or auger long enough to reach, so he bought 2 storm damaged elevators and made one LONG one and then doubled up the paddles on the chain. That was a grain movin' SOB.

When he switched to quik-tach bean and corn heads he bought the feeder house from a burnt combine and rebuilt it.

Bought a damaged diesel combine to switch his gasser over to diesel

Grain trucks were bought with blown motors or transmissions and fixed.

Tractors were bought on their last legs and refurbished.

Seemed like he had projects like this going every year.

 

[golfnut]

Dad used to do stuff like this all the time, built or rebuilt most of his equipment.

He was doing narrow row soybeans in the mid-70s, cut up and rebuilt an Allis planter to run 8 18" rows, then when he went from 36" to 30" corn so he rebuilt the bean planter to run 9 15" rows, then rebuilt it once more to 15 15" rows.

When he decided to go to an 8 row 30" corn planter he bought a 8 row 44" planter cheap(because it was 44" and everyone was going to 30s) and cut it down to 30". Built/modified his cultivators to use with the all these also.

Built his own sprayers, started with a 3 point 100gallon 20', moved to a 40' bar on trailer with a 500 gallon tank, then finally to a 60' boom and 1000gallon tank.

Rented a farm with bigger grain bins, didn't have an elevator or auger long enough to reach, so he bought 2 storm damaged elevators and made one LONG one and then doubled up the paddles on the chain. That was a grain movin' SOB.

When he switched to quik-tach bean and corn heads he bought the feeder house from a burnt combine and rebuilt it.

Bought a damaged diesel combine to switch his gasser over to diesel

Grain trucks were bought with blown motors or transmissions and fixed.

Tractors were bought on their last legs and refurbished.

Seemed like he had projects like this going every year.

That's cool! I'm not that resourceful but this planter is like a child to me. It's the most important piece of machinery on my farm because I only have on chance to plant my crops. I joke (kind of) that every farmer should be able to take is planter apart and put it back together which their eyes closed. That is how well one should know their machine. I won't use this machine for another 5 months but I want to have it ready to go early so I can tackle some other projects.