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scmn | Is it doable? Yes.
Cost effective? Not when compared to a rate controller.
With a hydraulic drive you will need a motor and flow control to regulate the speed along with a controller and feedback sensor. With a ground drive you will still need the motor, flow control, and sensors, but will also need a pump, filter, and reservoir which will be similar in cost to the controller with the difference being that the controller could self regulate, and the ground drive setup will require constant adjustments since the pump and motor efficiencies will change with oil temperature and pressure.
FWIW you are better off varying the metering speed than the gate opening. With a fixed gate opening you will have a fixed number of lbs/rev that the drill will seed. With a variable gate you will struggle to get a proper calibration and will have much more error. Fertilizer spreaders use a fixed gate opening and vary the speed and will meter product within 1% of target with minimal calibration. Ground drive spreaders vary gate opening and struggle to get application within 10% across the field. A drill is very similar to a fertilizer spreader for calibration since both are metering based on a fixed volume per revolution. | |
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Ground driven hydraulic drive on a drill
