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Bunker Hill, IL | I started doing more no-till this year, and added dual openers between shanks and closing wheels to my 1760 ME Plus planter. I have had Ag Leader hydraulic down force for 6 years and done probably 10-25% no-till each year, but was always short on frame weight to be able to apply over 350 pounds per row of down force before the frame lifted and quit driving the transmission. This year, with liquid in the tanks, I could get as much as I needed, sometimes up to 500 pounds.
Upon finishing, I discovered 6 cracks on 4 of my (welded steel) row unit shanks, and welded them. How much trouble am I going to have down the road with these shanks, namely the welded ones? Will a good weld fix them for good, or will this become an issue every other day having to weld on the planter?
I’m stuck between options. I just spent a good deal on this planter last winter adding; a very nice liquid fertilizer system, parallel arm bushing kits, closing wheel arm bushing kits, XP opener conversion kits, new disk opener scrapers, and the dual fertilizer openers and brackets.
So, I’ve fixed my planter up to last a long time for me, but I’m now afraid that the core of my row units isn’t going to hold up to the abuse of no-till. Can I count on these shanks to hold up if repaired properly, should I replace the shanks (plus gauge wheels, arms, depth control, goal post) with XP cast units, and reuse the opener conversion kits on the cast shanks? Should I give up and sell the planter to someone who does mostly conventional till, or something else?
My main question is; how do the welded steel shanks hold up to no-till after repairing these cracks?
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 FDC277F3-6BC4-42D5-A336-B44903804874 (full).jpeg (190KB - 23 downloads)
AA0D7FED-6D0A-4B8F-8695-97D9DDF90CB8 (full).jpeg (123KB - 18 downloads)
43CED098-691C-4853-AD99-D8C1E2AF39BC (full).jpeg (105KB - 25 downloads)
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ME+ Cracks
