Bugkiller

We've had a Gandy Orbit Air mounted on a JD CCS planter for 5 yrs or so now. First it was mounted on our 1790 (16-32), then later a 1770-16r. We actually bought the Gandy quite a few yrs back to mount on the back of a Hagie 254 & apply DiPel for ECB. That was the yr of ECB Bt intro & the rest is history. Never used it & it sat. Then we saw that Gandy was making them available later on for CCS "pro shaft" planters which had no way of driving conventional insecticide boxes. So, we made brackets for our unused Gandy & mounted it on the 1790 vs having to go w/SmartBoxes. With a little help from the factory folks (different meter discs) we have lived happily ever after since then.

It works perfectly. It's driven by a Ravens 600, which looks like a typical 440 unit, but is made for dry products. You can turn it on/off manually w/the flick of a switch, or typically we rely on the unit mounted implement switch to turn it on-off @ the row end. You can test fire it by running in the manual mode before actually dispensing to verify product tube flow. It calibrates like most other Ravens products. Your calibration factor just alters the speed of the output shaft. Ours is a smaller Gandy, so it only holds about 450# or something like that. However, as you'll note from the photo, I added SB bases to the Gandy lid to allow SB usage if so desired. Cost/A has been a deterent on SB however. You can look in the tractor mirror & see the shaft physically turning, day or night. There is no flow indicator however if you should totally or partially run out of material. Accuracy is controlled like any other Raven product. If you take the time to calibrate, or verify applied usage, you should be able to claim near 100% target accuracy. We have never seen product bridging. The unit stays water tight also.

The only downside I know of is having to haul the insecticide up the ladder to the CCS deck. The hose going to the row units is something like pvc suction tube (coil reinforcement). The blower does take an additional outlet, though I suppose you could "tee" it off another blower drive. Air pressure (typically 4-5#) is not critical, though it comes w/it's own needle valve. Too little air will allow material to accumulate in hose droops & result in hose blockage. We learned that early when we tried to run only 2#. Higher pressure (5#+) is OK except you get more product bounce when it hits the trench. Probably not the end of the world though. As you realize, with the Gandy, you can utilize about any type of granular material known to man. You're not product limited by application method....of dry stuff that is.

I have no knowledge of a Great Plains anything. We had a 20' GP no-till drill once though.

Here's our Gandy on the 1770, as it exists presently. 2nd photo shows flip-up walkway w/handrails we made to go between CCS platform & the Gandy to facilitate loading. It's in the "up" position & you can see the 16 product hoses. I can remove the handrails & walkway in about 30 seconds. I made them quickly detachable for servicing reasons, though we've not had to detach them to date.