Ribz
Bronze Member
Posted primarily for entertainment, but I would like to hear from anybody that has or had one of these.
I'm sure many of you are like myself, and have several tiers of projects either consciously or unconsciously.
Tier one; must have back in service ASAP.
Tier two; I have a work around, but the next priority after any Tier one projects waiting and regular chores.
Tier three; the round tuit projects. When everything else is caught up, and I can find parts, etc.
This sprayer restoration was definitely Tier 3. A longer term restoration of a piece I was given because my neighbor, ( who was given it), never got to it before he got tired of looking at it in his barn. Unfortunately I didn't think of taking before photos, which is a shame because it was a mess.
This is a boom/ wand combo sprayer made by W.W. Grinder, Kansas.
View attachment 511560
Sadly they are no longer in business and neither is the dealer it came from.
View attachment 511561
I'm going to guess it's 80s-90's? 12 gallon capacity. There was no tongue on it, just the platform/chassis. It had one of it's tall plastic wheels broken. The 12 volt panel switch had been smashed, and somebody thought it would be a good idea to wire in a 120v light switch in it's place. Not mounted in a box, just duct taped in place. LOL. Nice brass spray wand. Pump worked. All the plumbing was intact. Seemed worth making room for.
My first project was replacing the wheels. Surprisingly, the tall lawnmower style wheels were not as easy to replace as I anticipated. New ones were more than I was willing to spend so I had to track down something used. Took almost two years. (This was a Tier 3 project after all). Finally I found two that would work just like the originals. Now we're on our way, it's rolling again. Next rewire this thing properly. Replace the switch with the proper part. Looking good. Now to the fabricator to put some kind of tongue so I can pull it behind the mule, or mower. Subsequently I discovered photos showing a curved handle indicating it was meant to push like a lawnmower. The extra room on the platform was so one could mount a 12v battery. Thus, the tall, thin, lawnmower style wheels. It also explains the comparatively small 12 gal capacity for a pull behind sprayer.
So the fabricator did a great job of putting a simple tongue that keeps the tank level behind the mule. Fence lines here I come. I was a bit disappointed at the power. Not much better than a hand pumped sprayer, except you didn't need to pump. The 12v pump has a pressure cutoff that seemed like it ran forever before cutting off at times. It worked enough to spray the fence lines, I'm calling it a win.
I washed it out, put it back in the barn. Forgot all about it until I was in the barn starting equipment during a prolonged period below freezing. That's when I noticed it.
**** if I didn't drain that sprayer out, and never put in RV antifreeze. Well, you know what happened. When it thawed the damage appeared. I thought originally I got lucky and it just broke the inline strainer assembly. I replaced it with something I made work, but now the motor ran and it wasn't pushing any water out.
Having nothing to lose, I decided to pull the head off and check out the pump. The first thing I saw was one of the check valves was apparently missing a retainer and it was out of place. Missing the retainer? Dang it. Somebody had been in here before. No doubt the same handiwork of the guy that duct taped the wall switch in place. So I surprise myself by fabbing a plastic piece that actually clipped in place. I'm smelling victory. I put it back together and test it out. Holy mackerel! This thing was obviously not pumping like it should have before. Now it's got power. AND.... leaks. UGH.
The added pressure is now exposing a pinhole leak in the wand and worse, a hairline crack in the pump housing. JB Weld took care of the wand, but I decided it was not worth anymore time to work on the old pump that parts weren't available for anyway. A new pump with the same specs and a proper strainer assembly was just under $100 bucks, so I had that nice Mr. Amazon send them to me.
So I figure I have about $130 into this. Provided I don't have another bout of cerebral flatulence and forget to properly winterize it again, I should get a lot of good years out of this. Primarily this is to spray the fence lines and use the boom on the gravel drive to the barn.
It has a 6 foot pattern from two nozzles that fold up against the tank when not in use. Instead of using a "straw" type intake that comes in the top of the tank, this pulls from the bottom of the tank and has a drain. The wand has about 12 ft of hose and with an open stream will shoot about 30 feet.
All in all, I'm happy. I'd describe it as a really nice garden grade sprayer unit more suited for lawns and gravel drives than fields. I suppose one might upgrade the style of wheels to something pneumatic if you wanted it to pull better over rough terrain and faster on pavement.
If anybody else has one, or has had one, or just knows anything about them, please post what you know about them. There's what looks to be a price on this that indicates it may have sold for almost $400, probably new.
I'm sure many of you are like myself, and have several tiers of projects either consciously or unconsciously.
Tier one; must have back in service ASAP.
Tier two; I have a work around, but the next priority after any Tier one projects waiting and regular chores.
Tier three; the round tuit projects. When everything else is caught up, and I can find parts, etc.
This sprayer restoration was definitely Tier 3. A longer term restoration of a piece I was given because my neighbor, ( who was given it), never got to it before he got tired of looking at it in his barn. Unfortunately I didn't think of taking before photos, which is a shame because it was a mess.
This is a boom/ wand combo sprayer made by W.W. Grinder, Kansas.
View attachment 511560
Sadly they are no longer in business and neither is the dealer it came from.
View attachment 511561
I'm going to guess it's 80s-90's? 12 gallon capacity. There was no tongue on it, just the platform/chassis. It had one of it's tall plastic wheels broken. The 12 volt panel switch had been smashed, and somebody thought it would be a good idea to wire in a 120v light switch in it's place. Not mounted in a box, just duct taped in place. LOL. Nice brass spray wand. Pump worked. All the plumbing was intact. Seemed worth making room for.
My first project was replacing the wheels. Surprisingly, the tall lawnmower style wheels were not as easy to replace as I anticipated. New ones were more than I was willing to spend so I had to track down something used. Took almost two years. (This was a Tier 3 project after all). Finally I found two that would work just like the originals. Now we're on our way, it's rolling again. Next rewire this thing properly. Replace the switch with the proper part. Looking good. Now to the fabricator to put some kind of tongue so I can pull it behind the mule, or mower. Subsequently I discovered photos showing a curved handle indicating it was meant to push like a lawnmower. The extra room on the platform was so one could mount a 12v battery. Thus, the tall, thin, lawnmower style wheels. It also explains the comparatively small 12 gal capacity for a pull behind sprayer.
So the fabricator did a great job of putting a simple tongue that keeps the tank level behind the mule. Fence lines here I come. I was a bit disappointed at the power. Not much better than a hand pumped sprayer, except you didn't need to pump. The 12v pump has a pressure cutoff that seemed like it ran forever before cutting off at times. It worked enough to spray the fence lines, I'm calling it a win.
I washed it out, put it back in the barn. Forgot all about it until I was in the barn starting equipment during a prolonged period below freezing. That's when I noticed it.
**** if I didn't drain that sprayer out, and never put in RV antifreeze. Well, you know what happened. When it thawed the damage appeared. I thought originally I got lucky and it just broke the inline strainer assembly. I replaced it with something I made work, but now the motor ran and it wasn't pushing any water out.
Having nothing to lose, I decided to pull the head off and check out the pump. The first thing I saw was one of the check valves was apparently missing a retainer and it was out of place. Missing the retainer? Dang it. Somebody had been in here before. No doubt the same handiwork of the guy that duct taped the wall switch in place. So I surprise myself by fabbing a plastic piece that actually clipped in place. I'm smelling victory. I put it back together and test it out. Holy mackerel! This thing was obviously not pumping like it should have before. Now it's got power. AND.... leaks. UGH.
The added pressure is now exposing a pinhole leak in the wand and worse, a hairline crack in the pump housing. JB Weld took care of the wand, but I decided it was not worth anymore time to work on the old pump that parts weren't available for anyway. A new pump with the same specs and a proper strainer assembly was just under $100 bucks, so I had that nice Mr. Amazon send them to me.
So I figure I have about $130 into this. Provided I don't have another bout of cerebral flatulence and forget to properly winterize it again, I should get a lot of good years out of this. Primarily this is to spray the fence lines and use the boom on the gravel drive to the barn.
It has a 6 foot pattern from two nozzles that fold up against the tank when not in use. Instead of using a "straw" type intake that comes in the top of the tank, this pulls from the bottom of the tank and has a drain. The wand has about 12 ft of hose and with an open stream will shoot about 30 feet.
All in all, I'm happy. I'd describe it as a really nice garden grade sprayer unit more suited for lawns and gravel drives than fields. I suppose one might upgrade the style of wheels to something pneumatic if you wanted it to pull better over rough terrain and faster on pavement.
If anybody else has one, or has had one, or just knows anything about them, please post what you know about them. There's what looks to be a price on this that indicates it may have sold for almost $400, probably new.
