Near Intersection of I-35 & I-90 Southern Mn. | scmen9200 - 7/1/2009 09:26
I run a 4720 in 30" row crops at 20 MPH and haven't had that bad of luck running over the rows. It does take about one load in the spring to get back used to driving the sprayer but after that it is just fine. We have put 6 weights on the front of the machine this year and has appeared to help a lot. Maybe this will help you out.
I'm not saying that I disagree with your speed but I am limited to about 8 MPH. Even at this speed, spraying is more physically demanding than I care for. The ability to stay off the rows is better in the soybeans which have been rolled versus the corn which was sprayed earlier.
One of the local custom operators agreed with me and said that the beans would be easier at least on the first pass. For second pass, he said the customers will complain that it appears they were sprayed by a drunken sailor. He said he just blows it off and figures if they can do it better themselves then go ahead. I guess he's probably right as I was one who complained about the job the custom guys did. Now I know it's not that easy.
The Tech was out yesterday investigating some charging problems - another story in its own. He adjusted the toe in/out a bit. While he had his test rod out (a homemade device with a piece of PCV pipe inserted in another with a thumbscrew), we checked the rear tires. These tires are worn quite badly - all on the right side. Anyway using the test rod showed that the distance between the front of the rear tires agreed closely to the distance between the back of the rear tires. However, when he did a diagonal check, the distance from the front of the rear left tire to the back of the rear right tire was less than the other diagonal. This corresponds to the dogtracking that I have observed.
Changing the alignment of the rear end could possibly be done with some tweaking of the adjusting shims. Since I do not need to adjust the wheel tread setting, this might be a possiblility but I am told this is a major task.
He also mentioned that another customer had compained that he observed more dogtracking this year than in other years with the same machine. This customer felt that he when he went to a full stack of 12 Deere weights that the situation improved considerably.
The Tech mentioned that my 4720 is really an evolution of the original 4700 that was designed for a 60' boom and a 700 gallon tank. He speculated that the balance has been changed considerably when the change to a 90' boom and the large tank came along. |
Pull type sprayers revisited
