They Made Their Deere No-Till Drill Easier To Service

They Made Their Deere No-Till Drill Easier To Service DRILLS John Mills Howell Mich recently sent FARM SHOW photos of how he and his grandson made their 2014 Deere 1560 no-till grain drill easier to park and also easier to service The 15-ft drill is equipped with 24 row units on 7 1/2-in spacings “My grandson and I farm 1 100 acres in southeast Michigan We were concerned about soil erosion so 4 years ago we decided to convert to no-till ” says Mills “We sold our old end-wheel drill and bought the Deere drill equipped with a 2-pt hitch We use our Deere 8200 tractor to pull it Even though this drill is a fine piece of equipment it requires more maintenance than any other machine on our farm ” The 2 men found it difficult to maneuver the drill into a tight parking spot in their shed while it was hooked up to the tractor Their solution was to bolt a couple of truck pintle hooks onto the quick-tach plate on their skid loader “The driver matches the pintle hooks up with horizontal pins on the drill’s 2-pt hitch ” says Mills The drill has a lot of moving parts so twice a year - after planting wheat in the fall and soybeans in the spring – Mills and his grandson look everything over on the drill to make sure it’s ready to go again “The drill isn’t equipped with a mechanical ‘transport link’ that would keep the row units from settling over time to the floor ” says Mills “We can use valves to close off the flow of hydraulic oil to the drill’s lift cylinders but the cylinders aren’t perfectly sealed so after the drill has been parked for a couple of weeks the row units settle to the ground making the drill difficult to move ” To solve the problem he placed an electro/hydraulic unit from a 1-ton dump truck on an old Red Ryder kids wagon and hooked a 12-volt battery up to it A pair of hydraulic hoses attach to the pump and the battery is wired to a switch on the wagon handle Mills connects the hoses to the drill’s lift cylinders then pushes the switch to raise the row units “Using an electro/hydraulic unit is a lot easier than backing the tractor up to the drill and hooking the hydraulic hoses up to it ” says Mills “This electro/hydraulic unit also comes in handy for many other tasks where hydraulic pressure is needed only for a short period of time ” Due to low clearance Mills and his grandson found it difficult to crawl around under the drill for service work Their solution was to use 4 heavy-duty truck landing gear jacks to raise the entire drill They welded a short length of metal tubing alongside each jack then welded slightly bigger tubes on all 4 corners of the drill for the jacks to fit into “It takes just a few minutes to crank the jacks until there’s plenty of room under the drill ” says Mills “We paid $120 apiece for the jacks They’re rated at 8 000 lbs apiece so we know they’ll hold up ” Contact: FARM SHOW Followup John E Mills 1750 Oak Grove Rd Howell Mich 48855 ph 517 404-8530

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