Huge Sprayer Built From Deere Combine

Huge Sprayer Built from Deere Combine COMBINES Conversions 15-3-16 An Iowa farmer who didn't like the sprayers he saw on the market built his own 60-ft. wide self-propelled sprayer from a 1974 Deere 6600 combine. "I had been using a 3-pt. mounted sprayer, but I got tired of having to hitch it up all the time and disconnect the front-mount cultivator on my tractor," says John Spera, of Winterset. "My combine sprayer lets me get on and go and doesn't tie up a tractor. Because the sprayer has the combine's hydrostatic transmission, I can operate at variable speeds for different rates of application. I paid $4,000 for the combine and spent a total of about $7,500 to build the sprayer which was only about half the price of a new sprayer of comparable size." Spera stripped away everything but the 404 cu. in. diesel engine, axles, and cab. He cut off the rear half of the grain tank, slid the tank's rear panel forward, and welded it back on. He lengthened the frame 18 in., reinforcing it with 6-in. channel iron, then mounted a 1,000-gal. tank on back. The rear axle was widened to 120 in. and trussed for strength. He salvaged a fuel tank from an International 715 diesel combine and mounted it in the remaining half of the grain tank. He removed the combine's front tires and replaced them with smaller 18.4 by 26 tires, leaving the original 11.00 by 16 rear tires in place. "The smaller front tires make the front of the tank 3 inches lower than the rear so liquid runs to the front outlet," says Spera. A 3-in. dia. outlet at the rear is used to fill the tank. He moved the fan mill shaft about 12 in. lower and 12 in. forward. The fanning mill shaft is belt-driven by the unloading auger control shaft and is used to engage and disengage an Ace centrifugal spray pump. Spera mounted the boom on feederhouse pivot points and supported it with parallel linkage built from 4 by 4-in. steel tubing. The feederhouse hydraulic cylinder is used to raise and lower the heavy-duty boom which is built in five sections. The center section of the boom is built from 4 by 3 steel tubing, the two sections next to it are built from 3 by 3 steel tubing, and the outside sections are built from 2 by 2 steel tubing. The four outside sections ride on 13-in. gauge wheels salvaged from a Dodge car and mounted on 4-bolt implement spindles. Each section of the boom floats independently. The outside sections fold forward by hand while the inside sections fold hydraulically into a vertical position. When the outside sections are folded in the boom is 30-ft. wide and can be used to spray 12 rows at a time. Four electric shut-offs in the cab allow individual control of four separate 6-row sections of the spray line. A 5-ft. breakaway section built from 1-in. steel tubing is mounted on each end of the boom. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, John Spera, Rt. 4, Box 32, Winterset, Iowa 50273 (ph 515 462-3566).

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