Home-Built Planter Marker

Home-Built Planter Marker PLANTING EQUIPMENT Planters 27-5-16 When the row marker assembly on his Deere 1240 planter wore out, Roy Monzo decided it would be easier and cheaper to make a new one rather than try to repair or replace the old marker. Monzo's home-built marker mounts on front of his tractor. He welded a section of electrical conduit to a metal plate which he bolted to the front of his tractor. At each end, another smaller pipe slides inside the main pipe and can be adjusted with a wingnut. At each end of the second pipe, Monzo fastened a 1/4-in. dia. rod at a right angle, and from the end of that he attached a 12-in. piece of flexible rubber tubing. The tubing hangs about 2 in. above the ground, directly over the outside planter row. "A rise in the ground will hit the rubber hose, but it won't break because it's flexible," he says. "With your marking system right in front of you, you can keep your rows exactly the same distance apart. It's too difficult to eyeball it." Thanks to the way it telescopes, Monzo's planter is adjustable for various sized planters, and allows him to set it in a compact mode for traveling down narrow lanes without worrying about it catching on trees and bushes. "I got the concept for mine from a neighbor who used a similar idea," he says. "It's really simple, so it's not going to wear out. I've got less than $15 tied up in it." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Roy Monzo, 1620 E. Grass Lake Rd., Clare, Michigan 48617 (ph 989 386-9910).

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