Allis Two Row Corn Planter

   / Allis Two Row Corn Planter #1  

barrybro

Bronze Member
Joined
Jan 21, 2008
Messages
87
Location
South West Michigan
Tractor
1964 Ford 4000
I just made an impulse purchase on an Allis Chalmers two row corn planter. I have had my eye out for quite some time for a planter in good condition at a reasonable price. I was really looking for a John Deere but I ran across this and the price seemed to be okay. Does anyone have experience with this planter?
 

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   / Allis Two Row Corn Planter #2  
We had 2 of them in the sixties that we eventually built a toolbar and made a four-row mounted planter out of them. You can aquire plastic 24 cell plates to put in inplace of the steel plates, if that's what is in the planter now. They are fairly accurate and stay in the ground well, but the runner-type opener is best used in conventionally tilled soil, meaning plowed with a bottom plow or rototilled. They will not work well at all with surface trash where the ground was chisel plowed or if you are trying to no-til. The fertilizer attachments were notorious for rusting out, even with end-of-planting cleanout with water and compressed air and applying diesel fuel or light oil to the inside. We solved that problem by switching to liquid fertilizer with saddle tanks on the tractor. We got plastic plates at the A-C dealer and seed dealers and amassed quite a collection, as I upgraded to the #71 disc opener unit on a no-til frame and did much custom work over the next 16 or so years. The #71 unit was similiar to these old units, but were the disc opener type. We were able to plant at about 3.5 MPH with that old planter and get a good consistent seeddrop. I see yours has already been converted to 3 point hitch. They were originally snap-coupler. If you were fortunate enough to get the owner's manual, it will tell you the different sprocket settings to determine planting population and fert. amounts per acre. They are a nice, simple planter to maintain and operate. Looks like you got one in excellent shape!
 
   / Allis Two Row Corn Planter
  • Thread Starter
#3  
They are fertilizer boxes and not insecticide correct?
 
   / Allis Two Row Corn Planter #4  
Yes, they are fertilizer. When the planter was built, insecticide boxes weren't available. The only ones you will see are add-on Gandy boxes, which are red, added on in the seventies and chain-driven off the main shaft with an added sprocket. My 1973 A-C planter had A-C insecticide boxes, but they were made for A-C by Gandy. We spent alot of time with the fertilizer boxes. Even with all the storage prep we did, we would still have to work to loosen them up before planting the next year. Be sure they'll turn over before you put fertilizer in them next Spring, or you'll have to empty them and loosen the mechanism up so it turns when the planter drive wheel turns. If you choose to wait til the soil temperature is over 50 degrees and not apply starter fertilizer, you could take off the pintle chain that drives the fertilizer attachment. That's how we disabled them when we converted to liquid starter.
 
   / Allis Two Row Corn Planter
  • Thread Starter
#5  
Thanks for the feedback. I really appreciate it.
 
   / Allis Two Row Corn Planter #6  
Boy were you lucky! The orange ones are much better than the green ones. ;)

Bake
 
   / Allis Two Row Corn Planter #7  
That's a great looking planter. I have three of the "green" ones . One is set up for the 8n, the other two were given to me by my cousin. I am going to try to convert one to a 1 row for my 3005. I have lots of seed plates for them. Pea ,bean, cotton.



 
   / Allis Two Row Corn Planter #8  
The orange ones must not be all that much better than the green ones. There are not near as many of them around. I have a similar deere model 246 that I have used for the last 20 years or so, and the fertilizer attachments have never bound up. All I do is wash it out good with a hose when I am done planting and let it dry out good before putting it into storage. It sounds like the fertilizer attachment was far more trouble prone on the allis than the deere. I would never consider a 2-row planter without a functioning fertilizer attachment (dont get fooled by the insecticide applicaters passed of as fertilizer attachments on lots of model 71's. If the hopper is smaller than the seed hopper, it is not for fertilizer).
 
   / Allis Two Row Corn Planter #9  
Lots of people get addicted to starter fertilizer and are afraid they won't get a crop without it. We soil sampled each field every 2 years and fertilized accordingly. After 1992, I did not use starter, but planted by soil temperature. Our fertililty was good enough that we didn't need starter, and waited until the soil ws 48 degrees at 2 inches below the surface to start planting at one and a half inches. I converted the liquid starter system to herbicide application for a one-pass system. University trials show a declining benefit to starter as the soil warms. With the price of nutrients today, I wouldn't waste the money if I didn't have to. It never hurt yields. I had three fields go over 200 bushels per acre in the 90's.
 
   / Allis Two Row Corn Planter #10  
hello i just bought a allis planter just like this and i cant find a model number or anything to buy plates. can anybody give me a model number for this.
 
 
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