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sw corner ia. | I'm not sure where Jim gets his info but I have used a 5500 soybean special using early riser units on 15" spacings for the last four seasons in heavy notilled cornstalks and one season in tillage over old corn ground. Clearance between the row units is not an issue at all and not one time have I ever had a "root ball" stick in between the row units. This drill is 30' wide. The 5400 is 15' wide with the same 15" spacing. I am in rough hills which some of the time I am planting right on the old row, sometimes between the rows. It will punch your beans in with not attachments whatsoever which is a good thing since there is no room for any on about four of the units when it swings for road transport. Big negative is it is very heavy, especially loaded with beans. Lift wheels are in front of the drill which when you lift causes so much negative downforce to be a real issue with many smaller 2 wd tractors. The wing lift wheels are mounted inboard far enough on the planter frame to become extremely heavily loaded. In notill it is not a big issue unless it is too wet then nothing will grow where they run when you lift and run over planted ground. Another negative is there is a 19" middle space in the very center which always bugged me. MikeS.illinois (sorry mike, couldn't remember how your handle was spelled) has one too, and uses belt meters to give better seed spacing. I never had these, and didn't really have a kick on the spacing at all once I built solid sliders for the seed tubes instead of the radiator tubes.
I don't know if I would advise anyone to actually buy one of these drills, it is a pig to drag around loaded, takes up about 18' on the road, requires at least a 20,000lb mfd tractor to pull it safely in the hills. Wing lift wheel ubolts like to break when you least expect it causing you to do the fixit dance where it sits in the field. One real positive note here is not one row unit has any lift wheel running behind it. You can get everything set to come up at the same time. I finally have given up on this drill after last season and traded it for a kinze splitter just so you won't think I am pushing it.
Hope this helps. | |
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CIH 955/interplant vs. CIH 5500 soybean special
