My father is turning 60 in a couple weeks and I'm thinking of getting him a sprayer for our food plots. Any recomendations? Pull behind vs. rack mounted? Brand?
Thanks in advance!!!

I have one from Northern Tool...It has a wand that has 2 nozzles...One for spot spraying and one for broadcast...So you have no booms to worry with...It comes in a 16 and 25 gallon tank...The 26 gallon will spray about an acre without refilling and both fit on the rack...My brother has a pull type, but in rugged terrain it can tip over....Item numbers are:

16 gallon...26811-1706...On sale for $149.99...Regular price...$179.99

26 gallon...268121-1706...$199.99

Both of these spray a 14ft width with the nozzle attached to the wand...
They make another one that my brother has...It has a short boom (about 3 feet wide) that sprays a 32 foot pattern, and you can cut off the nozzles if need be, it's also 26 gallon..Item number:

228717-1706...$299.99

I bought the 16 gallon as a 26 gallon tank gets pretty heavy and it was on sale plus I have water readily avaliable for the yard to refill as needed...For the farms, I rigged up an extra tank to carry water in and 2 of them have water avaliable on them...So it just depends upon how much you want to spend, how big your plots are and if you have water avaliable....

Thanks for the input! Are the booms a pain to use or something? WOuldn't it be more work if you have to use a hand sprayer vs a boom?
We have only used those backpack sprayers before, those are no fun..

Thanks again!

The wand attaches to a clip on bracket on the back of the tank,so you don't hold it in your hand while you are spraying, it's stationary...Booms are a pain, they extend past the width of a 4-wheeler and the one's I have seen have to be attached to the back rack...So they can pretty easily move out of position while spraying and can hit objects as you ride along...

With these other sprayers, you just strap the tank to the back rack, attach the power cord to the 12volt outlet, clip the wand in the bracket that's on the back of the tank and go...Then if you do want to spot spray, just switch nozzles, unclip the wand and spray as needed....

Ah. That makes sense. Good deal. Thanks again NC!!
Have a good holiday!!!

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/NTESearch?storeId=6970&N=0&Ntk=All&Ntt =sprayers&Nty=1&D=sprayers&Ntx=mode+ma tchallpartial&Dx=mode+matchallpartial

See if this works...It shows all three sprayers...

Perfect. That was my next step!
Thanks again!

I use the same 16 gallon sprayer. It works really good. Just make sure to fill it with clear water, I tried filling it out of a creek and had problems with all the muck clogging it up. Now I use an old piece of window screen to filter out the creek water.

Good point. we have a nearby creek that we could use as well, but we try to bring water from home to use if we can.

Have a good one!

Here's how I handled my water problem...Go buy one or two of the 30 gallon plastic barrels, I can pick them up around here for $10/a barrel...
Go to Lowe's hardware and look at the faucets, now I tried a regular outdoor water faucet, you won't get much flow out of it, find the ones like go on a hot water heater, they are the ones that when you turn them on, if you look in the faucet a brass ball with a hole through it turns and have a straight handle that only takes a half turn to open...This type faucet is made to allow water to flow freely when not under pressure...

I then went to the area where they have PCV and found the parts needed to attach the faucet to the bottom of the barrel (these parts are similiar to how you drill a hole through a boat and attach the bilge pump hose to) Sorry I don't have the Lowe's part number, but you drill a hole near the bottom of the barrel and put the T-fitting inside the barrel, there is a rubber washer that goes over this T-fitting and then a PCV nut goes on the oustide, tighten them up. Put teflon tape on the threads of the faucet,
thread inside the T-fitting and tighten up and you have a water barrel....

Couple of things...Load the barrel in the truck before you fill it up...Water weighs 8 pounds/gallon so you don't want to have to move it far...Also, I use a 3-4 foot hose that I had when I replaced the one on my washing machine, it is plenty long when you pull the 4-wheeler to the truck bed to reach the tank...and an added benefit, when you fill up, hook the washer hose to your water supply hose and you can fill from the bottom up and won't have to hold the hose down in the barrel...Just make sure to remove or crack the lid when filling to let the air escape and when draining to allow the water to flow freely...