[AT] OT--- 800 IH plate planter

[jtchall at nc.rr.com]

Thanks Greg.  My family has worn out a couple of Deere 4 rows, then we 
basically quit raising corn in the late 80's. Dad and I used to raise a 
couple acres for squirel food that we picked on the ear, sold the balance 
for cow feed. The last 2 years I've been running a borrowed 900 or 950 
Case-IH 4 row with dry fertilizer. My 800 has a lot more acres on it. I'll 
check the back up plates. I found those little plastic fingers and wheels to 
be stuck on the 900, looks like they were gummed up with seed treatment. I 
got those freed up, I'll have to check mine. I got about 5 or 6 sets of 
plates, my seed dealer has a pretty big selection still on the wall. I've 
got to replace the input shaft on my fertilizer, it broke and they quit 
using it. The big question is why did it break? I'll dig in to find out. Did 
you guys ever change the bushings on the gauge wheel arms? Mine are pretty 
sloppy and I see that’s a common replacement part. I know I need to change 
one tire, its got a pretty bad split across the face. One seed boot is 
damaged, probably just replace it. No row markers on this machine, but that’s 
OK. we rigged up a set of markers with drag chains that go on the front of 
the tractor for the 900, worked great! I got the monitor system to, it 
hasn't been used in a few years but was working when last used.
The fertilizer is dry.

John Hall



-----Original Message----- 
From: Greg Hass
Sent: Tuesday, March 31, 2015 5:01 PM
To: at at lists.antique-tractor.com
Subject: Re: [AT] OT--- 800 IH plate planter

First off, if you don't mind telling us, how many row unit is this. Also
I take it that this is a plate planter. If so, the no.1 thing is to make
sure you have the right size plates to match the seed size. Also check
the back-up plates under the seed plates for wear. Unless they changed
from earlier plate planters, there is a hump inside the hopper that the
plate goes under. Inside this are 2 "dogs" that are spring loaded and
keep only one seed at a time from getting into the seed cells. Next in
line is a arm with a roller on the end (early plate planters just had a
point) and it to is spring loaded and its job is to make sure all seeds
are ejected from the seed cells. Make sure all these parts are free to
move and that none of the springs are broken. Most of the rest is as you
said. As for the fertilizer, both me and my brother quit applying it
with the planter years ago. One reason was we had no good way to handle
it. The main reason was because we could never get the correct amount
on. We either seemed to get 30% too much or 30% too little. It had
nothing to do with planter settings, but with humidity in the air and
the size of granules and the amount of fines  in the fertilizer. For
many years we have just broadcast it with a spreader from the fertilizer
company. We only plant 20-50 acres a year so this is our cheapest way.
(It just occurred to me, I am talking dry fertilizer). All of the large
farmers around us have gone to liquid fertilizer which doesn't vary like
dry does. Also they all have new enough planters that they have flow
meters hooked to computers and gps to apply the fertilizer almost to the
pound. I simply cannot afford the cost for the limited acres I do. As an
example, last year my cousin bought a new Kinze planter; 24 row-30 inch.
It cost $150,000. I wouldn't go into all the options at this time, but
they did debate for several weeks whether to steer with just auto-steer
or have markers as a backup. They went with just auto-steer because
markers cost $14,000 (no I didn't make a mistake).
            Greg Hass
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