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Drop Deck Semi Trailer Planter Lading System
Used "drop deck" flatbed semi trailers make great supply rigs for planting and spraying, but they are in high demand and therefore expensive. Bill Broaddus, Raymond, Ill., considered himself lucky when he got the opportunity to buy one cheap from an Illinois company that was going out of business.
He uses his D
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Drop Deck Semi Trailer Planter Lading System WAGONS/TRAILERS Miscellaneous 23-1-32 Used "drop deck" flatbed semi trailers make great supply rigs for planting and spraying, but they are in high demand and therefore expensive. Bill Broaddus, Raymond, Ill., considered himself lucky when he got the opportunity to buy one cheap from an Illinois company that was going out of business.
He uses his Deere 4020 tractor to pull it.
"It carries everything needed for planting and spraying and really keeps me moving," says Broaddus. "The bed is lower to the ground than a standard flatbed. It's easier to get up on, and I don't have to do as much lifting."
The trailer is 52 ft. long and has a 12-ft. long upper deck in front and a 40-ft. lower deck at the back that's 18 in. lower. The lower deck carries a pair of modified 200-bu. gravity boxes which carry seed, a 2,600-gal. water tank, a 400-gal. mixing tank, a mixing cone, and a 110-gal. tank holding Roundup. The upper deck carries a portable 25-gal. gas tank operated by an electric pump, and a "Bean Hustler" pneumatic conveyor that delivers soybean seed from the gravity boxes to the row units on his 12-row Deere planter. The pneumatic conveyor is powered by an 18 hp Briggs & Stratton gas engine.
Broaddus mounted a "swing arm" on his planter that's equipped with a cone-type decelerator. It swings across the full width of the planter, making it easy to fill.
The gravity boxes are turned sideways so the unloading doors face each other. He welded the doors shut and cut a hole into the bottom of each one where he welded in a steel tube at an upright angle. To suck out seed with the "Bean Hustler" he simply sticks the nozzle in the tube.
The wagons originally were flat on top. He used sheet metal to add a curved top to each wagon and he designed a roll tarp that can be pulled over the entire trailer.
"We have 1,000 acres which we plant half to corn and half to soybeans. It takes about 4 minutes to fill the planter. We band Dual Broadstrike herbicide over the row for corn. We only apply postemergence herbicides to our soybeans," says Broaddus.
"The trailer was originally used by a company to haul backhoes. I was able to buy it for only $3,500. Normally, used drop deck semi trailers like this sell for $12,000 to 15,000. It's very maneuverable so I can back it up fast. I had been loading my planting supplies on wagons or on a 2-ton truck, but I didn't like having to put the tank on and off every year. Now after I'm done planting I don't have to take anything off the trailer.
"I built the planter by combining parts from our Deere 7000 planter with new 7200 vacuum units and Hiniker ridge till units equipped with Rawson double wave coulters." To pull the trailer with a tractor, Broaddus, with the help of Dave Co., built a tandem axle dolly that mounts under the front part of the trailer.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Bill Broaddus, 8316 N. 21st Ave., Raymond, Ill. 62560 (ph 217 229-3649).
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