Those running independent openers

[LEP]

I have heard all kinds of sales pitches on the
independent opener drills.

I would like to hear it from those with experience.

What is the good and bad? How much of a pain is
changing depth or do you set it and leave it? How
are they in mud? How many acres do you get out of
tips? How do they take some stones in the field?

What about the tanks, good and bad. Some that I
have seen make me think it must be darn near
impossible to change seed.

Thanks for your responses.

[LEP]

More questions. Trash clearance issues? Durability as
in leaky rams?

Sectional control, is it worth the cost?

[Hopperbin]

A while back I upgraded from a 5710 bourgault to a seedmaster which I believe was an upgrade and an economical choice. Kept the old bourgault tank and had the second air system from the old 5710 unused also so that helped with price and use anhydrous which was almost no cost to transfer to new drill have excellent separation and been extremely happy with the germination and how fast the crop comes up after planting beats the old 5710 by a few days at the least. The seedmaster sucks for adjusting seed depth a couple hour job with a 3/4 drive air wrench and beats one up a bit so hope to get it right the first time.
My seedmaster has major bolt coming loose issues and I learned to spend a major pre plant bolt tightening like about 1.5 days worth does the trick. Still running original seed boots going into year 5, maybe good for another year. Fertilizer boots changed after 3 years. 100 bucks each for them but never break any carbides just in the last year. I think our soil wears hard.
I would like to hear some other honest reports. :-)

[JDGreen]

Hopper adjusted my master twice today myself.
45 minutes each time for 70 openers. Yes I
would like a hero cookie . Got a real system.
Scrapped the impact and just use a 3/4 inch drive
and socket. Throw a big punch thru the slot and
adjust . Retighten. Repeat 69 times dude. Love
the job the master does but this year may be a kik
in the nuts as it doesn't seed consistently deep
enough in these conditions. It is a shallow seeding
tool end of story. The nova cart will be dynamite if
Seedmaster actually gets their shit 100 percent
together. Right now they only have 90 percent of
it together and the other 10 percent will piss you
off.

[JDGreen]

I should add after 2 rounds of adjusting openers
today I feel like a truck ran me over. Still pissed
off

[highwayman]

3310 para link is on its fourth season for us and
performs well. Will replace it with 3320 QDA next
season. Not the lightest pulling drill out there but
very durable. We ran 5710s for 12 years prior and
really have learned to appreciate the advantages
of and independent opener style drill, namely
being able to seed in wetter conditions and very
accurate shallow seed placement. Excellent trash
clearance as well

[zeefarmer]

JD, how much weight transfer is there from the
cart to the drill? I know our old Seedhawk cart
tires would lift off the ground when the cart was
empty and the ground was hard and dry. Are the
openers riding out from the hard ground,or is the
drill too light?

[Steve_Winkler]

5th season with a Morris Contour 1 Drill. On our
second unit. Love the consistent and accurate
seed depth and the subsequent even and rapid
emergence.

It is easy to pull and the cart meters well.

Major drawback, it does not handle damp or wet
straw well. Enormous piles or straw/dirt can be
made if conditions are not right. The contour 2 is
supposed to alleviate this somewhat with the
angle change to the shanks.

Must seed 4mph or slower with the paired row
opener we use or there is too much dirt throw.
Cart could use a few more stainless fasteners
than it came with. Fertilizer is eating anything that
is not stainless.

Overall crops have been excellent.

[Steve_Winkler]

Forgot to mention, depth setting is simple and
takes about 15 minutes on a 51 foot machine.
Quicker if you wear a helmet.

[Steve_Winkler]

Changing seed is pretty easy. Tank shut offs and
straight forward clean out. Openers are nearing
10,000 acres. May need to change next season.

[Hopperbin]

JD thanks for the socket wrench idea I am sure I will be wondering duh why did I not think of that impact is clumsy and end up spinning the nuts off too far. Zeefarmer my seedmaster pulls a bourgault 5440 plus a 3000 gallon anhydrous tank behind and don't notice any lifting. Did not think my tanks transfer weight to the drill but maybe they actually do. Pretty sure over half my horse power goes to pulling the tanks. Hmmm front center tires all flat this spring, anyone have a good recommendation for tire brand for next year? 15/55-17 rated for 90 psi.

[Hopperbin]

Part of the time to change seedmaster depth goes to cleaning cause don't want to get dirt between the 2 metal parts, would make things progressively harder year after year.

[BreadWinner]

We have a 61ft morris contour II, it is a huge improvement over the contour I. The trash flow is excellent and the side band boots are a huge improvment over the paired row. The adjusters work allot easier than the I. The wheel bearings and seals are better. The hyd cylinders all leaked the first year but are now replaced with a better design. no problems yet. Openers should last 10000ac in super abrasive soil. It is not too lite and not too heavy, we dont have the weight package and havnt needed it. Overall best drill we have owned so far.

[JDGreen]

Zee the weight transfer from cart to drill seems
minimal and seems to be very well balanced. The
flotation is outstanding. The problem is that the
soil doesn't flow properly when it's this hard and
dry in places. I honestly don't think more weight
on the drill is needed but could use some more
down pressure this year. Sf3 to answer your
question. The #40 gears that drive the chains on
each meter do not mesh with ss 40 chain causing
binding issues on my granular canola tank. This
has caused erratic rates and screwed up canola
seeding in general. They are aware of the
problem but the new gears have not arrived yet.
All u can do is run them really slack to try to avoid
them binding. Retarded. Secondly was seeding
canola (invigor 4.7g/100). When first started i had
some sections siphoning so balanced the air and
away we went. The problem occurred when I
threw in another variety of invigor (3.7g/1000).
Never gave it a thought but after 40 acres was
wondering why my rate seemed to be out by the
onboard scale. Stopped and now noticed the
canola was siphoning on 4 of 10 sections again.
Pissed off now and rebalance airflow. Now all 10
manifolds are wide open in a nutshell. The top up
air used in the tank comes from the seed fan
source. Because such fine materials are being
metered they should not have to be balanced in
my opinion. This should have been thought into
the design. One more thing the little tank should
have been reduced to a 3:1 drive ratio. Would
allow the motor and pwm valve to make finer
adjustments. The little tank turns at 4-6 rpm
metering canola and the motor and pwm valve
cannot make fine enough adjustments in my
opinion. I now have most of my canola screwed
up between 3.5 and 7 ibs per acre. Should be
interesting. Seedmaster is aware and will make
the necessary changes and adjustments but still
pissed off .........

[lakenheath]

BreadWinner....we upgraded to a C2 also
from a C1...went from paired row to
single side band and yes the drill and
openers are a huge upgrade. What u run
for packers?