How do you transport a 12-row planter with a pull-behind "splitter" toolbar on back? That's the problem that faced Meteer Machine & Manufacturing, Athens, Ill., when it set out to make a 23-row split-row planter for J. Hopwood, also of Athens.

Bill Meteer of Meteer Machine has a well-earned reputation for the quality of its folding and stacking toolbars of all types. Hopwood asked Meteer to turn his 8-row Max-Emerge 7000 into a 12-row with an 11-row splitter toolbar on back. But he didn't want it to be any wider than an 8-row planter for transport.

Meteer revamped the existing toolbar, widening it out to 12 rows and hinging it so 3 rows on each side fold forward. Then they rebuilt a complete stacking toolbar to pull behind. The two outside rows on the back toolbar stack on top.

Hopwood says his new planter is easy to transport, can cross all bridges in the area, and takes up a lot less space in his machine shop for storage.