Combine Drive Axle Sprayer

Combine Drive Axle Sprayer COMBINES Conversions 11-3-10 Butch Rux, Wilbur, Wash., built a unique pull-behind sprayer using a combine drive axle and other "junk" parts for a cost of about $2,000. The sprayer features a boom that can be extended from 45 ft. in width to 72 ft., as needed. The spray tank mounts on a combine axle taken from a salvaged International 181 combine, but Rux says you could use most any combine drive axle. He left the gearboxes in place on the axle and uses them to drive both the spray mixer and pump. Rux equipped the sprayer with a silver spray marker built from a used air conditioner pump and an old gas tank. The spray marker is controlled by a cab-mounted "brain" that Rux rigged up using an automobile windshield wiper delay switch. The switch, which controls solenoids at either end of the boom, lets him drop a silver mark in the field at intervals from 1 to 20 sec. It can also be overridden manually. Another feature on Rux's home-built sprayer is an "easy view" plug he installed in the volume sight tube on the spray tank. "Sometimes it's hard to see the liquid in a tank. This dark floating plug makes it easy to check volume at a glance," he says. He made the plug from a piece of black plastic pipe plugged on both ends. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Butch Rux, Rux Ranch, Rt. 1, Box 107A, Wilbur, Wash. 99185 (ph 509 647-5723).

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