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"Loader Ladder" Helps Spray Tall Trees
Ron VanEtten needed to spray the tops of his apple and elm trees, which were being destroyed by Japanese beetles. So, the Ellsworth, Ill. man set up a 32-ft. aluminum extension ladder to lift high over his 20 hp compact tractor, attaching a 10-ft. long homemade spray boom to the top of the ladder.
    He uses the tractor's front-end loader and 3-pt. hitch to raise and lower the ladder. The bottom of the ladder pivots on a 3-pt. mounted "pallet jack", while the middle rolls on a wooden frame bolted to the loader bucket. A 50-ft. hose runs from the spray boom down the ladder to a 10-gal. tank and spray pump mounted on back of the tractor. A rocker switch on the tractor is used to operate the pump.
    "It lets me spray anywhere from about 3 ft. off the ground to 40 ft. in the air, depending on how much I raise the bucket and 3-pt. hitch. With the ladder all the way up it makes for quite a sight," says VanEtten. "I use it only about 6 weeks during the year, from the last week of June until the first week of August, but it really works. The only limitation is that with the ladder fully extended I have to be careful so the tractor doesn't tip over. Also, I have to be very careful around power lines."
    VanEtten has about 140 trees on his small acreage and says Japanese beetles are a big problem in his area.
    "At first I tried setting a ladder in the loader bucket and leaning it against a tree, but it was dangerous and I still couldn't reach the top of the tree. As a result, the beetles consumed the top third of the tree before I could do anything about it."
    He bought a hand sprayer with 10 ft. of hose and replaced the hose with one that's 50 ft. long. Then he attached a 10-ft. length of 1 1/2-in. pvc drain pipe to the end of the hose and taped a sprayer nozzle and foam marker onto it. A car battery operates the spray pump.
    The bottom of the ladder mounts on a 3-pt. mounted pallet jack that he bought at Tractor Supply. He bolted 4-ft. high extensions onto the pallet attachment and mounted the ladder on it, using 1/2-in. conduit pipe as a pivot point.
    The middle part of the ladder rolls on a pair of boat trailer rollers that mount on top of a 7-ft. high wooden frame that bolts onto the loader bucket. He used 2 by 4's to build the vertical supports for the frame, and 2 by 6's to build a cross piece that supports the rollers.
    Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Ron VanEtten, 25787 E. 1200 N Road, Ellsworth, Ill. 61737 (ph 309 825-6942; rsvanetten@hotmail.com).


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2010 - Volume #34, Issue #5