Near Intersection of I-35 & I-90 Southern Mn. | I can see advantages/disadvantages to both. A lot of the decision depends on your particular situation.
One of my neighbors has a swinging/folding support for his fill hose. It is a clever design and allows him to fill from either side. It is mounted on the rear of his trailer with a pivot on the trailer and another fold point about halfway out. This allows him to swing the fill arm out toward the sprayer with a great deal of flexibility as far as in/out movement.
We use a semi tractor with an L&D skid on it for tending the planter and sprayer. The skid mounts on the 5th wheel and frame so the tractor becomes a "straight" truck for planting/spraying. The skid has a large tank, gas powered transfer pump and 3" hose reel. We have an air "blow down" system to clear the product out of the 3" hose when done filling. For corn planting, the truck pulls a separate trailer for starter fertilizer.
The reel could have been mounted in various locations but we decided to mount it pointing out on the drivers side. This allows the driver (usually the old crippled guy - me) to drive closely along the shoulder of a road or driveway without the fear of driving in the ditch. A disadvantage is that if we are loading on a gravel road we are parked against traffic. For us this is not a real concern since all our filling is done on lightly travelled gravel roads or driveways. Another disadvantage is that if the driver gets out to help, he needs to walk along a fairly narrow path.
We mix all loads at the mixing shed in my dooryard so we do not do any mixing on the tender itself. This means that typically I pull up with the tender truck and just stay in it while my great nephew handles hooking up the fill hose, starting the pump etc. This might not work out so well for other operations where the driver helps with the mixing/filling.
Edited by tedbear 11/30/2023 06:48
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Which side to load sprayer from a tender trailer?
