Doubled-Up IH Early Risers Plant Narrow Row Beans

Doubled-Up IH Early Risers Plant Narrow Row Beans PLANTERS Planters 15-4-8 George Thomas, Radnor, Ohio, switched to no-till narrow row soybeans by hitching two Case-IH 800 no-till air planters together, one behind the other, and splitting the rows to plant 10 15-in. rows at a time. A pair of "dolly wheels" between the two planters allows the rear planter to operate independently of the front planter and provides enough clearance for sharp turns at the end of the field. Thomas used siderails off an old truck frame to make the hitch mounted on back of the front planter, which is a 6-row 30-in. model. The rear planter is a 4-row 38-in. model that Thomas modified to plant 30-in. rows. "Everyone told me it couldn't be done," says Thomas, who has used his "doubled-up" planting system for three years. "I had been using a Tye drill to plant soy-beans, but I wanted to use a corn planter because it provides better depth control and seed placement. I already had the 4-row planter and I paid $7,000 for the used 6-row planter. Commercial add-on planters cost about $15,000. The two-wheel dolly is equipped with a 4-ft. long tongue in front and an 8-in. drawbar behind. The hitch behind the front planter is actually an extension of the planter's tongue. The rear planter pulls through the dolly and directly on the tongue instead of on the front planter itself. It takes only a minute to unhook the rear planter. All I do is pull two hitch pins from the dolly and unhook three hydraulic hoses - one to raise and lower the planter, and two to operate the hydraulic motor that runs the blower. I installed extra valve outlets on the tractor. "I plant corn with the front planter. When I'm ready to plant soybeans I simply hook up to the dolly and rear planter." He used the axle, spindle, and wheels off an old Deere model 12A pull-type combine to build the dolly and used tires off an old wagon. Thomas moved the front planter's markers in 7 1/2 inches on each side to narrow up the outside rows to 15 in. "I've used the doubled-up planter for three seasons with very good results. About 90 percent of my crop is no-till," says Thomas. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, George Thomas, 5878 Hedley Road, Radnor, Ohio 43066 (ph 614 595-3385).

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