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NW Ohio | Looking at investing in a better way to tend the sprayer. Right now when I need to refill, I just drive back the farm, refill on Chems and water, and make another run.
Sprayer holds 1000 Gal, so my current production is around 500 acres a day. I'm happy with this figure, looking to be more efficient.
Right now I'm at different options.
First, Gooseneck with a 3200 Gal tank, 2 bulk chem tanks, inducer ect.
Second, Semi (I would have to purchase one) with a 40-30 Ft Flat Bed, 3200 Gal tank at the back, 1100 Gal tank at the front, 2 Bulk Tanks Ect.
I will have more room with this option. We could use a semi, but the farm doesn't necessarily NEED one currently. Worried about insurance, and other hidden items associated with the cost of ownership.
Third Option, Purchase a 30Ft Stainless Tanker. Its a single compartment, 5000 Gal, has the pump installed, 3" Plumbing. Would like to know if anyone has used one of these to any success. Planned on using the space under the Tanker for chemical storage. I see guys running around with a single 250 Gal tote, and they get by just fine. I know I can fit 400 Gal of "space" under it with some custom SS tanks. Tanker looks like http://www.truckpaper.com/listings/trailers/for-sale/5033773/1985-h... Again, Worried about cost of owning and insuring both the tanker, and semi. I do not plan on hot loading anything currently. Price
First Option - Buy Trailer, Tank. = $17,500 Second - Semi, Trailer, Tanks = $17,000 Semi, $7,000 Trailer, Tank = $28,000 Third - $17,000 Semi, $18,500 SS Tanker Trailer, = $35,500 (Without the Custom Chem Tanks, I can build those myself.) I looked at this http://talk.newagtalk.com/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=636462&pos... for the idea of using the military trailers. |
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| If you want the best efficiency get a trailer that you can haul both water, chem AND sprayer. Setup a bulk tank at the farm to quickly refill the trailer
Having a water trailer only will tie up another person to help move it around.
Having a single unit will allow one person to do the job, saves a lot of road wear on the sprayer |
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North Central Kansas | x2. have a goose neck you can put a water tank on, and a couple chem shuttles/2.5 gallon jugs.
Have a tank at home that is always full. If you can put it up on stilts, or an old wagon frame better. Thus you pull in yard to refill, if you supply tank is level or higher, you don't need to pump the water across, you can let gravity assist you. If you elect to pump it across, then you hook hose to your pump, then your current discharge line to your trailer tank.
You could get a little single axle semi for your goose neck and not be out so much $$ |
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Fullarton Ontario | If you not hauling the sprayer anyway then just go a little smaller. I just use a 1000 gal on a gooseneck. Driver has easy get back to the yard and fill water and grab the chemical jugs i need for that load. I hardly ever wait. I do have room on the deck for totes etc. This way if plans change the water hauler can grab different chemical. Or my lunch. Otherwise you are stuck with what your truck rig will hold. Its faster for us roading the sprayer between jobs. Takes an extra person tho. Anyone can haul 1000 gal tho behind a good pickup. |
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Boone, Iowa | I have a couple semi tractors that are used to haul grain. I ended up finding a deal on a 45 ft van trailer and converted to a water trailer. It has 2-2500 gallon tanks for water and leaves plenty of room for chemductor, motor/pump and boxes of products. Hose reel is mounted under the trailer. I mounted a roll up door on the passenger side of the trailer. |
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Flat Rock Indiana | Joe
We are looking at building a setup using a military frame just like what you mentioned. We are trying to figure out what guys are looking for. I can email you some pics as to what we are thinking. If you would like to work with us and give us some ideas we would discount the complete unit for you. My email is [email protected]
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Central IL | I put pics of mine on here before. Search tenders. I have a 4500 gal double conical. I mix at home, no jugs messes or lost time following me.
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| You can forget about putting a 3,200 gallon tank on a gooseneck, that would be 27,000 pounds of just water, add 5,000 pounds for a couple of full shuttles and 8,000 pounds for the trailers weight, that's 40,000 pounds on a 20,000lb capacity trailer.
Watch the del Peterson auctions and I bet you could buy a pretty nice tandem axle tender truck for under $10,000.
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SESD | I think you may be disappointed in the gooseneck with that big a tank along with all the shuttles. I can haul 3600 gallons with our tandem gooseneck setup and it's way to much for a 3/4 pickup. Park slightly downhill and you can forget about backing up with a full load. I ended up putting a ball on a semi and it handled the weight much better but you still have to be careful because the trailer is maxed out if the tanks are full. I am going to be looking for a semi trailer for this task knowing what I know now. More room and much more capacity.
Edited by cornhog 7/30/2016 08:05
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Hazelton, Kansas | Joe,
Are you sure you're not over-killing this? I think sprayer guy is on the right track.
Are you working alone? If you can draft a family member or hire someone, I think a 1000 gallon nurse trailer with an extended tongue would meet your needs at less cost.
Put in a 1500-2500 gallon stationary tank at your base, so you always have water there.
We have a Heil SS 5000 gallon ex-Army tanker for nursing liquid when we plant. But we use a 1000 gallon bumper trailer to nurse the sprayer. Our farm is fairly compact, with a maximum distance of about 8 miles. We only spray 10-15000 acres a year.
Regards.
MDS
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NE Saskatchewan | Picked up the lead of an old aluminum fuel tanker and built a mixing platform on the back. 2 compartments hold 7800 gallons total and can fit up to 3 1000 L totes on the deck.
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Rivers, MB | Have you considered putting a front fill on your sprayer? That would let you shorten up your fill hose and let you pull up directly to your hose and keep the sprayer off the road. |
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| Couple of other ideas. Do you have somebody to run the tender truck? A lot of operations in our area have gone to picking up hot loads at our retailer. (They do it here for $.50 per acre.) No time spent mixing whatsoever, and much less hassle. A second option would be to mount a 300 gallon SS tank on the back of your trailer to have your tender driver (if they are capable enough) mix up the chemicals in a mini hot load while you are spraying. Either of these will speed you up a bunch. |
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Northeast Louisiana | You gotta be kidding? People pay 50 cents an acre to avoid mixing chemicals?
At 1000 acres in a 10 hour day that's $50/hr. No wonder so many people are critical of farmers.
Edited by Five Lock Boll 7/30/2016 09:08
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Mitchell, SD | FlatRock are you sure that front tank is rated for mobile use? DOT were writing guys up for using tanks like that. If you ever haul liquid N you would not want to move it 3/4 full for risk of rupturing. |
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WC MN | Agreed. |
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NW Tennessee | We used 1600 gal tandem axle water trailers up until this year. Still need one for small jobs occasionally. But we built a water hauler earlier this year on a 38' semi trailer. Has two 3200 EnduraPlas black tanks with room for two totes or box chemical on the back and box chemical or empties on the front between tank and bulkhead. Built a step down on the back with our 60 gal mixing cone and pump on it. Used all 3" plumbing and refill from a 6000 gal vertical tank here at shop. It's worked out well and really speeds things along with a lot less road miles hauling water. We already had semi trucks that we haul grain with. I plan to build two raised racks to set my totes on so I can use gravity flow into my mixing cone and eliminate those pumps before next spring.
I have a neighbor who went the tanker route. Built a rack on the back to haul a tote, mixing cone and pump. As far as I know, it's working out fine also.
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| I can mix and load a 120 acre load in under 8 minutes, that $7.50 a minute for mixing not including the $500 they overpaid for the chemicals for the convenience of having them mixed. |
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| Yes, there is a convenience factor, but the idea is to keep that $250,000 sprayer SPRAYING. The cost also includes the cost of water. In a limited application window, it is definitely worth it to get a couple more loads per day. For what capital items cost these days, I never want them to stop while I am using them. I know you guys down south have larger windows to work, and put more hours on stuff in a year, but in our area, our options on when to go are more limited. This means that we have more equipment, which means that capital efficiency is more of a challenge. Next time, become more educated before accusing people of laziness. |
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NW Tennessee | Jim,
Question for you and others that mix up "hot" loads at shop in your water hauler. Just curious how you keep chemical from settling out if it rains, sprayer breaks down, truck has problem, etc? And how do you rinse out and keep tanker from contaminating next load? With all the mixes we have to use "here" with resistant weeds, I'd be afraid I'd wind up with a load of sludge. But maybe I'm misunderstanding what's meant by "hot" loads. No doubt that would be much easier and save tons of time. |
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SW Illinois | A setup with a SureFire QuickDraw would be a good option if looking to maximize acres. And in the long run, it's much cheaper than the $0.50/ you say people are paying for mixing. I've been loading 90 acres loads in 5 minutes. No hot loads to clean out of a trailer and a load isn't mixed until I'm ready to spray it. I can change chemicals or rates when I get to the field if I want.
Edited by dgramenz 7/30/2016 09:43
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| We're changing chemistries quite a bit and using a bunch of different things at once. We used to mix our own, but going to the hot loads, a very common practice in our area, has increased productivity 20%. The Surefire looks interesting and would be something to investigate. Thanks for being helpful. |
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haskell county, ks | why not look to the commercial market of trailer builders such as jd skiles, neville and many other that have already been produced and take from them the ideas that will build what fits your needs. many trailers look top heavy and hard to access herbicides on the trailers so my advice is to spend time looking at the multitude of induction systems available and trailers to see what you can either build, purchase, or combine for your needs. the custom sprayers that spray thousands of acres already have what is very efficient in time and mobility but are high priced as complete units. mixing herbicides needs to have proper equipment in place to not have backfill and accuracy of product mixed to have confidence in proper job. consider the consequences of having to light of a trailer collapse or turn over with the incredible amount of risk of spill on that trailer. if you are going to spray have proper equipment. |
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| I can see no convenience in being dependant on somebody else to mix my chemicals and I certainly don't see what's convenient to have to travel off the farm to get them.
Not saying it doesn't work for some people but if your covering enough acres to have a $250,000 sprayer the $5,000+ they spend to have somebody else mix their chemicals each year would go a long ways towards buying their own facilities to do it. |
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Central Ohio | 1700 gallon tank, place for shuttle, mix cone and clean water hand wash tank, pulled with 1 ton pickup works great for us.
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S.W. Indiana | Looks like a lot of options, this was what we settled on.
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| I simply know what difference it has made for us in getting more acres covered. Having a local independent supplier mix chemicals at his mix plant has been a boon to us, both with speed and flexibility in chemistries. I was simply trying to help the OP with what has worked for me. However, since you have superior knowledge of my local conditions, my supplier, and my business from 500 miles away, I guess I shall be seek your sage wisdom anytime I leave the house. Good day, sir. |
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NW Ohio | Thanks for the replys.
Sprayer is a front fill, front boom.
I really didn't want to hot load if I didn't have to, but would like to build with it in mind for larger acres blocks, and chem changes.
I'm currently setup with plenty of water at home base, so refilling 5000 gal in one shot, or overnight isn't a problem.
Currently, I'm a one man show, but if need be another man can be put in with no problems. I put the gooseneck option in, as then I don't need a CDL or the driver doesn't either this free up things considerably. crowbar - 7/30/2016 08:09
Put in a 1500-2500 gallon stationary tank at your base, so you always have water there.
We have a Heil SS 5000 gallon ex-Army tanker for nursing liquid when we plant. But we use a 1000 gallon bumper trailer to nurse the sprayer. Our farm is fairly compact, with a maximum distance of about 8 miles. We only spray 10-15000 acres a year.
This is more inline with where were at with our current operation. I do think I am overthinking this, I can already only do 500 perday as it stands, and having another guy in a small truck wont be too much of a problem anyways. I like the tankers, but those seem to be geared more easily for running hot loads, but I will say dwh039 setup looks quite nice. I'll keep looking, this will be a winter project, so I have time to fully plan all this out. |
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| http://www.sprayers.com/2016Catalog/248-249.pdf
If you are thinking a smaller trailer with a smaller tank, this might be worth a look. Priced without the discounts they give. |
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| Ours is a 45' flat bed semi trailer. Has one 2550 gal on the front, room for 3 totes, a wooden crate for jugged chemicals & a imductor in the middle, & another 2550 gal tank behind the crate. At the back of the trailer is room for two more totes, one we carry water only & the other can be used for another chemical if needed or liquid ams. Pump is located under the side of the trailer. It can get a little tight if I have three totes in the middle, usually only need two. The water tote has it's own separate gas pump so I can have plain water for the sprayers rinse tank, flushing chem jugs or washing the sprayer down at night. |
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| Also running front boom front fill. 1400 gallon sprayer. Used to use 1000 gallon tow tank and would load chem in inductor hopper on trailer back at farm while filling with water, or load at field when filling sprayer. Debated many ways including gooseneck. Didn't like what it was going to cost, and tying up a pickup. Ended up buying a $7000 single axle straight truck with roll up door on back. Has worked extremely well. Now has a 1600 gallon tank in it, and just have a driver shuttle back and forth to field. All my mixing setup and pumps are all in. Hopefully pics show enough.
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Northeast Louisiana | You could not be more wrong. Our windows "down here" are incredibly small. Not uncommon for us to need to get 3000 acres sprayed in 24 hours. Anyone who would pay that for getting chemicals mixed is an idiot. I can pay a full time man to tend the sprayer and have money left over at that rate.
As for the "education" comment, I'd wager I have more experience with machinery and have sprayed more material in more varied circumstances than most anyone here. I can load most any combination of products as fast as the pump can fill the sprayer because I know what I'm doing and know how to set things up for efficiency.
Have a good one now.
BTW, the "more equipment" comment is hilarious. We are all envious down here of just how absurdly low the machinery requirements of a Midwestern farm are compared to what we're accustomed to. Perhaps you're the one who needs educating.
Edited by Five Lock Boll 7/30/2016 14:41
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Qulin, MO | I used a 10 Wheeler with a grain bed on it that we weren't using any more. I took the back panel off and built a platform to stand on on the back with the mixing cone. 2 1500gal tanks in the front of the bed. Leaves room for a tote and chemical boxes on the back. |
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MIDDLE OF IOWA | 2000 gallons on a walking tandem from a 3000 gallon manure tanker with electric over hyd brakes. It's a load filled with 32% fertilizer, but my wife has hauled enough fert and water so far this year for 15000 acres and we still have 1500 to go. It now has 3 cone tanks on the back, never any chem in main tank. Fill cone with what we need for a couple fills from cage tanks at shop, Use 3 inch fill water at chem shed, sprayer sucks with it's own 3 inch pump. Farthest fields are ten miles, but most within six or less.
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Clarke county, IA | Currently have a 48' van with 3 1500gal tanks in it. have room for 3 totes and a pallet of ams in the rear. Next year going to move to a flat or possibly a tanker depending on price. |
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Schlegel Farms, Hagerstown Indiana | Indiana Andy - 7/30/2016 19:47
I think we all need to be careful in judging what others do from afar with an incomplete set of facts, especially when insults are levied. I wish you well and good day.
Indiana Andy - 7/30/2016 09:32
Next time, become more educated before accusing people of laziness
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Indiana Andy - 7/30/2016 10:42
I guess I shall be seek your sage wisdom anytime I leave the house. Good day, sir
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Looks like you are the one throwing out insults.
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NW Ohio | hagieman71 - 7/30/2016 18:26
2000 gallons on a walking tandem from a 3000 gallon manure tanker with electric over hyd brakes. It's a load filled with 32% fertilizer, but my wife has hauled enough fert and water so far this year for 15000 acres and we still have 1500 to go. It now has 3 cone tanks on the back, never any chem in main tank. Fill cone with what we need for a couple fills from cage tanks at shop, Use 3 inch fill water at chem shed, sprayer sucks with it's own 3 inch pump. Farthest fields are ten miles, but most within six or less.
That is about the closest one I have seen to what I was thinking. Did you make the trailer yourself? |
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MIDDLE OF IOWA | yep, I like some of j d skiles trailers but decided to buy a plasma cutter with what I would save and went at it. been real happy with it. Next trailer might use a cone bottom tank as I switch between fert and water often in spring and it would fully empty easier.
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West central Ohio | NT |
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Northeast Missouri | . |
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Sprayer Tender Setup/Ideas
