"Go-Anywhere" Truck Sprayer Equipped With Tractor Tires

"Go-Anywhere" Truck Sprayer Equipped With Tractor Tires SPRAYING New Sprayers 22-2-2 Bill Wahouske likes spraying crops with truck-mounted sprayer. He recently put together a new rig that outperforms anything he's used in the past. What's unique about the Crookston, Minn., farmer's new sprayer is that it's equipped with tractor tires, front and rear, for improved flotation and traction. "I've been through big mud holes with it and have never gotten stuck," Wahouske says. He started with the cab and chassis of a 1972 Chevy C-40 1 1/2-ton truck that he bought for $700. He equipped the truck with a 650-gal. tank and 90-ft. rear-mounted manual-fold boom from NYB (R.R. 1, Box 5, Brooks, Minn. 56715; ph 218 698-4668). He mounted a pair of used 14 by 9 by 30-in. front wheels off a MFWD Deere tractor on back of the truck. "We had to make a doughnut-shaped adapter plate out of 1/2-in. thick steel so the original truck hubs would fit the larger Deere bolt pattern," he says. On front, he used a pair of 9 by 22 in. rear tires off a Deere utility tractor. Holes in the wheels were simply redrilled to fit the truck. "The speedometer now reads double what it did with the original truck tires," Wahouske notes. "For example, if the speedometer reads 30 mph, you're really going 60." He installed an after-market cruise control sensor on the engine's crankshaft to allow him to spray at a constant 10 mph without having to keep his foot on the gas pedal. Wahouske uses the sprayer to broadcast postemerge herbicides on 2,500 acres of wheat a year. The wheels are spaced 66 in. apart so the sprayer can also be used on his sugar beets on 22 in. rows, he notes. Out-of-pocket expense was under $12,000, 1/10th the cost of what a commercial rig of comparable size might cost, he notes. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Bill Wahouske, 818 Lowell St., Crookston, Minn. 56716 (ph 218 281-7966).

To read the rest of this story, download this issue below or click here to register with your account number.