Anyone use disc levelers?

[kamichel]

Just wondering how well they work if anyone has any experience using them. I am thinking to put them on a few of my midrow bander shanks as the ones on the rear of the airdrill seem to throw trash and dirt onto the seed rows beside. Thinking also the anhydrous will stay in the ground a little better. I did some re aranging of shanks but some must stay on the back.

[poorboy]

What about a spring loader packer wheel to help seal in the NH3?

The closer wheels seem to help, but everyone around me with the concord sytle claims they take a while to adjust correctly and are high maintence.

Neighbor tried a few of the atom jet models in their first year and claimed they were underbuilt. Hopefully they have it fixed now.

I just ordered a set of the Bourgault HSS closers and will be able to tell you a lot more in a couple of months.

Could you mount a stub shaft ahead of the main frame to mount your mid row shanks on to get them out in front?

[kamichel]

Have bourgault 5710. I did some rearranging of the frame to change some of the banders on the wing sections but on the center section there is nothing can be done. Guess that is just the way this drill was designed. If I would have ordered the 5710 with disc banders that would actually have been a diff. frame and all the disc banders are in front.
A packer wheel I am thinking will have freezing issues.
Just my thinking all the disc levellers I have seen in brochers look not built well. could be trouble. I only need 4 so maybe I can live with it.
I will have a look at the bourgault hss closers.

[poorboy]

Would the little harrows that attach to back of the c shanks work? Bourgault and Farm land both make one, and it may provide some sealing for your NH3.

The extra frame that the 5710 drills use for the disk style mrb's is just a piece of 4" square tubing held on with 4 U-bolts. Any welding shop could whip one up, or you could order it direct from bourgault, if it would help you by moving the fertilizer shanks to the front.

I am not sure which opener you are using with your mid row application, but I tried a 1/2" opener for seeding last year and it had minimal disturbance. Perhaps a 1/2" wide opener would provide low enough disturbance and seal off well enough that it would solve your concerns with the few shanks involved.

[kamichel]

poorboy , I have been looking at that every year that I had this airdrill but just cannot make it work too much stuff to interfere in that center section.
Tell me please what 1/2 inch wide openner do you use. I use the knock on bourgault openner, it is 3/4 wide. That 1/4 inch could make a big difference.
I like to drive 5.5 to 6 miles per hour because I feel I have much better traction at that speed but I know the midrow banders throw dirt at that speed.
But this is what I have and cannot purchase a new machine.

[poorboy]

I have a set of bourgault knock on 1/2" openers. They make a couple of different sytles, a vertical one and a regualar style the same as the 3/4 inch knife. The soil disturbace is very low with these knives. The vertical style would probably be even less disturbance than the regular knife, but would have more draft. I never had any plugging issues with seed, but you would be putting on 3-5x more product as fertilizer than I was with seed and starter P. You would have to check with the bourgault tillage tools and see if it could handle the extra amount of product that mid row banding requires.

[kamichel]

I am also worried about that extra draft with them openners. I am short of power the way it is.

[rbrunel]

We have a Concord and use disc levelers on the outside back shanks. Last year we tried two CIH types and the Atom Jet ones. I understand that Atom Jet has beefed and redesigned theres. We have stones where we farm and so we tend to wreck a few of them every year. The CIH ones with the spring seems to work well and are easily rebuilt if you stretch the spring