Mini High-Boy Powered By Garden Tractor

Mini High-Boy Powered By Garden Tractor SPRAYING New Sprayers 20-3-11 A couple years ago when the first application of his soybean herbicide failed, Bob Lamb needed to find a way to apply a rescue treatment in a hurry. So the Greenfield, Ill., farmer built a mini high-boy sprayer that can be powered by any garden tractor up to 20 hp. When spraying is finished, the tractor is taken out of the frame and used again for mowing. The 60 in. sq. frame is made out of 2 by 2 by 3/4-in. thick tubing. Wheels are taken off the garden tractor and its axles are placed in the frame. They rest in four V blocks which adjust up and down so almost any garden tractor will work. Lamb uses a mid 1980's Case two-speed hydrostatic drive 12 hp tractor, but says any tractor up to 20 hp will fit in the frame. The bottom of the frame is fitted with hexagon-shaped stub shaft axles that slide in and out on bearings. A #50 roller chain runs from tractor axles down to sprockets on the axles to power the tractor. Because width of axles can be adjusted, the sprayer can used in row spacings from 20 to 40 in. Lamb mounted a 20 gal. clean water tank up front and two 15-gal. poly spray tanks equipped with 12-volt electric pumps on each side. He fitted the rig with a 20-ft. boom with 14 drop nozzles on 20 in. spacings. He can also attach seats and hand sprayers to the booms for riders. The rig operates at up to 5 mph and 5 ft. off the ground so it can be used to spray corn up to 6 ft. high, Lamb says. More of-ten, it's used for spraying beans and corn, when it's 2 or 3 ft. high, he says. "You can hook up the power steering from some of the bigger tractors to it, too," he says. "Power steering would make it a real Cadillac." Lamb has about $1,000 invested in the rig. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Bob Lamb, 516 South Main, Greenfield, Ill. 62044 (ph 217 368-2131).

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