Near Intersection of I-35 & I-90 Southern Mn. | PacerVol - 3/25/2019 05:21
How do you like the Surevacs? I am setting up a separate 23 row bean planter and have bought 16 used Sutevacs; looking for 7 more. Have heard some folks say that they do not work well unless you are using Precision Planting discs, because of the thickness. I use them in my corn planter but have JD seed discs in this one. I’ll probably switch both to the Surevacs eventually, but I have had good luck with the Tru count air clutches. I have the TC 61 meter mounts, so they come off with the hoppers and are easy to service. Have run them 9 years with very few issues. Also have clean sweep, so I would have to use air anyway.
Thanks again for the help; this forum has been a valuable asset to me over the years and I hope for years to come.
I'm happy enough with the SureVacs. I use them with eSets for corn and regular Deere disks for soybeans. When switching from corn to beans a few items need to be changed beside the change of disks. Esets have a paper clip looking device that needs to be pushed into a notch to keep it out of the way, The floating mechanism needs to be clipped out of the way also. The lower brush needs to be moved to an alternate position. I also installed an optional top brush that is installed for soybeans. This helps brush off any soybeans that might still stay in the cells when the piston is extended to break the vacuum. That brush is not used for corn, it is easy to install/remove. Without the top brush some beans might be evident on top of the ground as the planter is raised.
The SureVacs will work with Deere's regular 30 cell corn disks and eSets. They will work with Deere's 108 cell disk for soybeans. They will not work with Deere's Pro 40 disks (old sweet corn kit).
Most planter clutch arrangements work by stopping the seed disk. SureVacs allow the seed disk to continue to turn whenever the seed shaft is turning. The seed is picked up as usual but drops back off the seed disk when a piston in the cover is extended and blocks off the vacuum This means that there is more of a delay when planting is started/stopped compared to other styles of clutches because the seed cells beyond the point where the piston causes the seed to drop will be empty when starting but carry a few more seeds to the ground when activated to STOP planting. This means that the piston must be moved sooner as compared to another style clutch. This is to allow the seed cells to again become filled so the seed reaches the ground at the desired starting point and to allow the few seeds still on the disk to drop in unplanted ground when shutting off.
This extra "lead" depends on the population. To compensate for this extra lead, the operator "fudges" the hitch to application point distance. By making the hitch distance shorter than it really is, the system will allow the SureVacs system to do its thing sooner. Ag Leader provides a chart based on population and row spacing that suggest the amount to deduct from the actual hitch to application point distance. I have found that using their suggested values has worked out well.
I did notice that one of my units seemed to hang back and continue to plant at times. That meant that out of the 24 rows there were places where that row started planting too early and stopped planting too late. I assume in those spots, it wasn't working in the sense that it didn't prevent planting but allowed it to plant whenever the disk was turning for that row. This is with ground drive. I believe the problem with that row might be due to the piston hanging back due to the cover seal. The piston block and the se are very close together.
The SureVacs require less maintenance than my Tru-Counts. With the Tru-counts I disassembled them each year and cleaned out the dirt. There was some concern about the air compressor as well. The first ones were not wired heavy enough. I mounted my compressor on the tractor itself rather than on the planter. I rewired the compressor so it was run by a relay directly to the tractor battery. The air pressure switch was wired to run the relay rather than directly to the compressor. I ran this circuit to a lighted rocker switch inside the tractor. That way I could shut off the switch at night to prevent the air compressor from running unnecessarily. The indicator light showed me how often the compressor was running in normal field operation. I could observe if the compressor was running excessively. The amount it should run is dependent on how often the clutches are cycled OFF. This depends on the total number or rows and row length.
Since the compressor was right behind the cab, I could read the pressure gauge easily. I ran the air intake line inside the tractor cab so it was drawing cleaner air. The compressor sat nicely on top of the SCV stack on my 8120 where it was held in place with a single bolt. The battery connections were Anderson connectors that came with the unit. To detach the planter, I only needed to detach the air pressure line from the compressor to the planter. The compressor could remain on the tractor although I usually removed it in the off season.
Edited by tedbear 3/25/2019 12:40
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Clutch Module Configuration Failed
