What PTO Mounted Sprayer to Buy

[W5FL]

I am trying to decide which sprayer to buy, but it is confusing as there are so many tradeoffs. Primary use is on 10 acres of Coastal, but my Dad also has 150 acres a couple of hours from here and does not have a sprayer.

60 gallon PTO sprayers are less expensive and have a short boom (10 foot 7 nozzle) so you are longer putting the chemicals out and less accurate as you have to make a lot of passes. I don't think this is large enough for general spraying use even on 10 acres.

200 gallon PTO sprayers cost a little more but have a 3 section 28 foot boom (17 nozzle) with a rotary selctor that allows you to select left, right, or center or any combination. At 90% full weighs about 2200# with chemicals. A little shy in size to also put out liquid fertilizer.

300 gallon PTO sprayer is about 10% more cost with same boom and has same diameter tank but is 74 inches wide instead of 55 inches wide. At 90% full weighs about 3100# which is ok with the PTO on my Kubota M6800, but that is still a lot of weight to start out. The tractor weighs about 8000# without the sprayer and is about 76 inches wide.

A trailer mounted sprayer is the only way for larger sprayers, but the cost is prohibitive for the small farmer and at least doubles the cost.

I will probably seldom use more than 200 gallons and I wonder about the sloshing around of the water and chemicals with the larger tank. I live on a hilltop location and a boomless sprayer will drift too much in the wind that blows here all the time. I really don't like taking a bath in the stuff as you drive. I think you need to be spraying pretty large droplets to not have the spray drift too much in the wind which takes a larger gallons/acre of spray and a larger tank.

All suggestions appreciated.

 

[JRP]

Any problems with your M6800? I have one and except for a tranny problem it has been good.

I use only a 55 gallon sprayer. Have been thinking anout a 110 gallon. I sort of baby my tractor and don't like to load the 3PT down with 200 gallons. I use a Hypro 6 roller puma, a cast iron model. Wish I ahd spent the extra cash for a "silver cast" pump with the stainless case. We spray McCartney rose, which is a bad weed here. It can take over a psture with 12' high thorny plants. For these I use a hand spray nozzle. Also around the barns. Photo above of the holder. Made of PVC, hose clamps, and a short piece of angle. It stores the wand at fingers.

 

[W5FL]

Thanks for the input, especially on the pump. Also thanks for the nice photo detail of the holster for the spray gun.

I have had no trouble with the M6800 4WD with Loader at all. I bought it just as the new models came out with the all synchro transmission and it has run very sweet so far. The shuttle on the steering column made it worth the wait.

I have a 6 1/2 foot Gannon Boxblade that weighs about 1200#, so putting a 200 or 300 gallon sprayer on did not seem like too much of a load for the tractor. The loader handles close to 3000# regularly and the 3 point is rated to handle that much.

I was looking at 5mph spraying about 30 gallons/acre at 60 psi and 20 inch nozzle spacing and spraying about 7 acres of coastal or about 210 gallons for the entire job. That would also allow fertilizing with liquid fertilizer at close to 300 pounds per acre or 195 gallons at the same speeds and only having to haul the tank to the co-op one time for the job.

Unfortunately, I have some trees, ditches, tank, orchard, garden, barns, corrals, etc., so a spray gun is probably the only way to supplement the boom sprayer and I am sure I will have to use only the center of the boom for about 25% of the spraying due to these close clearances of objects. I think the boomless sprayer would be ideal if I did not have such a prevailing South wind here in North Texas and I am on a hilltop location. The view is beautiful as you can see the horizon in all directions, but weather (wind) is NOT one of the good points of the location.

Are you using a boom or a boomless sprayer? What nozzles (gal/acre@psi @MPH) do you use if it is a boom type sprayer.

 

[Bird]

Wen, I also have one of the Hypro 6 roller cast iron pumps. After use and flushing with water, I have to fill it with antifreeze to keep it from rusting (a trick I learned about on this forum, but can't remember who to give the credit to). I didn't do that the first year and that sucker rusted and seized up firmly; had to disassemble it and clean it up with the wire wheel on the bench grinder and the sandblast (actually glass bead) cabinet and re-assemble it. Nice pumps, but I, too, would spend the money for the more expensive one if I did it again.

 

[W5FL]

Hi Bird. Long time no see.

Yeah, I think there are available in Cast Iron, Ni-Resist, and Silvercast with each costing a little more than the previous. Even more confusing is the 4, 6,7, and 8 roller pumps with various capacities and max pressures at 540 rpm. I think the one Tractor supply has is an 8 roller, Silvercast with about 20 gpm at up to 300 psi for about $239.00. Do these other pumps corrode as easily?

I kept trying to find a way to clean the rust off the pipe fence (and old paint that was chalked) so I gave up and bought a 9 inch 6000 rpm grinder and a 5 inch wire brush head that screws on instead of the grinder wheel. Looks like that will do the job. Guess it is a lot of work, but beats the heck out of a steel wire hand brush! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

I found a 4-11 Graco paint tip and I think that is a .011 spray aperature with a 4 inch fan at 12 inches, so maybe I can hit the fence (2 3/8 inch pipe) ok with that. However the paint guy said he had a 3-11 that had a 6 inch fan - hope he was wrong.

 

[Bird]

<font color=blue>Do these other pumps corrode as easily?</font color=blue>

Wen, I don't know; no experience with any other than the cast iron. When I bought mine, I had checked with one dealer and he wanted almost $150 for it, but a farmer neighbor is able to buy them wholesale, so it only cost me $78.44 in Jan '99. I used it yesterday for the first time since last summer and even though it was full of Prestone Antifreeze, I had to loosen the housing bolts to free it up and get it turning, then flush out very dirty, rusty looking antifreeze. But it worked fine then at about 200 psi (according to the old gauge that I really wouldn't trust for accuracy/w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif).

And, yep, wire wheels are great for cleaning off rust . . . on small jobs. Cleaning a pipe fence ought to really be a big job. Good luck with it. As for painting, I much prefer spray painting when it's possible, but the way I've seen pipe fences painted around here is to use what looks like the old wash mitts we used to use in the service station to wash cars. They just put it on like a glove, dip it in the paint and wipe it on the pipe with their hand.

 

[W5FL]

Yesterday I went to Tractor Supply and bought the 200 gallon FIMCO sprayer. The Kubota book recommends 180 gallon, so I won't put in the last 20 gallons. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif. I also bought the 8 roller Silver pump. It came with the Green Spray Heads which are about 7.5 gallons per acre. I think I will change those to the the red ones which are about 20 gallons per acre. Hopefully this will give a coarser spray and allow me to use it on the normal windy days without too much drift.

I bought an adjustable tip hand gun. Wasn't sure which one to buy and still not sure. I bough 50 ft 3/8 hose for use with it. Hopefully this will let me get in those places where the tractor won't go.

First problem is that I can't reach the control lever from the tractor seat. Getting off to turn in to select a different combination of boom sprayers is ok, but need to be able to turn it off and on easily at the end is important.

Also noticed that the spray heads are not the no drip kind. Wonder how much they will drip after you remove pressure from them?

The boom is 28 feet with an 7 foot center and two 10.5 feet end booms that fold up. That is comvenient as I can do all of the close spraying with the center section which is about the width of the tractor and then use all three booms for the fields, and use only one side boom for spraying over ditches without spraying the road.