Near Intersection of I-35 & I-90 Southern Mn. | It's been a while but in the past at least, the Ag Leader hydraulic drive module was designed to drive two or three separate hydraulic motors. You set the population for each of the motors. This means they could be the same or different populations if you prefer.
However, the Ag Leader hydraulic drive module was not designed to act as a section row controller to progressively shut off sections of a planter.
Ag Leader's idea was that you would have clutches beyond the hydraulic drives and use Ag Leader's Clutch control Module to operate those clutches. The clutches could be of various styles. This meant that with both a hydraulic drive module and a clutch control module that individual or sections of rows could be shut ON/OFF by the clutch module. The hydraulic drive for that "side" would continue to run until the planter was raised which then triggered an implement switch and all hydraulic motors stopped. The purpose of the hydraulic drive was for population control and not section control.
With Hydraulic Control module and no Clutch Module, the operator could stop "half" the planter from planting by flipping a switch on the switch box. The operator would then need to remember to turn the switch back ON when planting was desired on any of the units in that "half". This would be very tedious and probably not too desirable. If this only occurred occasionally, it might be tolerable.
I was working as a Tech at that point in time and a customer reasoned that it might be possible to have a Clutch Control Module in essence flip the switch for the left or right half. Between the two us we figured out a way to use a Clutch Control Module and some relays to intercept the switches leading to the Hydraulic drive module. This meant that the Clutch module would be setup as a two section planter and rather than having actual clutches, the module controlled a relay for each side. The end result was that the hydraulic motors would then start and stop independently based on the planting map.
This customer used a hydraulic drive module, a clutch module and row clutches on his corn planter. In other words the way Ag Leader intended.
He moved the hydraulic drive module and the clutch module to his bean planter and used the modified wiring harness. This meant he did not need to purchase clutches for the bean planter. He gained some of the advantages of being able to shut off "half" his bean planter.
With our own planter (Deere 1770), we still use ground drive so no hydraulic drive module is involved at all. We have Sure Vac clutches on each row which are controlled in pairs with an Ag Leader Clutch Control Module. Our drives continue to turn until the planter is raised. The row units are cycled ON/OFF in pairs based on the planting map. We do not have the ability to change the population on the go which I guess is pretty old fashioned.
For your situation you could use a hydraulic drive module to control a motor for each half. You could use your Clutch Control module to shut off the half width disconnect clutches or the modified wiring arrangement I mentioned to stop one of the drives. Some relays would likely be needed to control the Deere half wisth disconnect clutches due to their rather substantial electrical load.
Edited by tedbear 12/12/2025 15:34
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Hydraulic drive motor on a Deere 1790 16/32
