Low-Profile, 1,000-Gal Fertilizer Cart

Low-Profile, 1,000-Gal Fertilizer Cart FERTILIZER APPLICATION Fertilizer Application (58f) 19-3-9 When Dale Thiel decided to apply liquid fertilizer in wheat rows at planting, he found his two main options limiting. Putting individual tanks on each of his five 7-ft. Versatile 2000 drills would only add to the rig's considerable weight. It would also limit the amount of fertilizer he could carry. He could have bought a commercial pull-between fertilizer cart but the ones he looked at would have obstructed his view of the drills. "I wanted something that would ride as low to the ground as possible so I could keep an eye on the drills but with enough capacity to permit me to plant 100 acres without stopping to refill," says the Levant. Kan., tanner. So he borrowed a few ideas from a couple of commercial pull-between carts, blended them with some of his own, and built a 1.000- gal. low-riding cart that suits his ::seeds perfectly. "I built it last spring for $3,200, instead of the $10,000 one of the commercial units would have cost, " Thiel says. "The drills trail behind it as solid as if they were hooked to a locomotive. There's absolutely no sway on the road like there was before. I pull the rig with a Case 2470 4-WD and I can actually turn shorter now than I could without the in-between tank." The heart of Thiel's cart is an underslung front axle off an old Allis-Chalmers L2 combine. It provides 14 in. of clearance from the ground to the cart's main frame. The main frame is cross-shaped, 15 ft. long, and made out of 7-in. square steel tubing running through the combine axle. It's fitted with used 30.5 by 32-in. combine tires. Width of the cart from the out-side of the tires is 12 1/2 ft. A commercial tank mounts on a subframe made of 4-in. square tubing that clamps to the main frame. Overall height of the rig at the top of the tank is 6 1/2 ft. Two rear-mounted Shurflo electric pumps deliver 10-34-0 fertilizer through 3/ 4-in. dia. plastic tubing from the tank to the manifolds mounted on each drill. Plastic 1/4-in. dia. tubing delivers fertilizer from the manifolds to each opener where it's applied 1 to 1 1/2-in. behind the seed. For convenience and safety, a 30-gal. fresh water rinse tank mounts on front of the cart. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Dale Thiel, 1216 Co. Rd. 8, Levant, Kan. 67743 (ph 913 694-2211).

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