North Texan

Question for some of you that may have used a Great Plains no-till drill before. I have a 60 HP tractor. Found a deal I liked on a 10' no-till drill. It is end-wheel, so the capacity of the 3 point won't matter. I know I will be pushing the limits of what the tractor will do, but I have pulled a 24' IH drill with it before. Wouldn't go terribly fast, but it would pull it. Same thing with an 8' IH chisel plow.

Should I hold off for a 7' or will my tractor be able to pull it?

mrbb

I think a lot of variables can come into play here, HOW heavy is your 60 hp tractor, is it 4x4, or not, are tires filled or not, do you plant level ground or hills
HOW many acres do you plan to plant or NOT
How many hrs are on the motor in the tractor?
will it ONLY be used by YOU? or will others maybe run things and go harder than needed and kill your tractor on you??
things can be done , but do you want to tax your machine by going larger than needed

I would suggest this, contact the maker of the drill and ask them, odd's they will give you a pretty darn good answer and know it better than most
they tend to NOT want to tell you bad INFO< as it makes there stuff look bad if it doesn';t work out for you!

as again NOT all 60 hp tractors are the same, some can be a few thousand lbs off and gearing and???

I have over worked a bunch of things farming and some lasted problem free and some died pretty quick LOL
older stuff seemed to be made more HD if you ask me, had built in them than what they were rated for
Todays, things are rated to there MAX as is, very little extra for the $$
kinda like a half ton was set up for 3/4 ton and you had a little lee way

NOW If its a 3/4 ton thats ALL it is LOL
lots of modern JUNK out there with HIGH price tags sadly!

North Texan

Have about 200 acres that I would be planting right now (may expand to 650 in the near future), probably 2x per year. One of the perks of switching to no-till would be the opportunity to plant another crop right after the wheat comes out. Tractor is under 1000 hrs, bought new a couple years ago. It has MWFA, which helps a lot. 12 speeds, with 8 that are in tillage range. Ground is not completely level, but nothing real steep. Drill will be like all my other equipment: Used exclusively by me. I have done some work for others, but they pay me and I run the equipment.

Talked to someone I know last night that has one, and they said a 45 HP tractor would probably pull it across my fields, so my tractor should be fine.

mrbb

sounds good, as I said some times you have to ask if your the runner of it all the time or not, cause I know for a fact when you hire folks to work, they can be HARD on equipment as they don't have to pay for it, or its up keep and many guys are abusive,
but sounds like you will be fine then

post some pic's when you get it!

North Texan

I don't let others ever borrow or operate my equipment. Learned my lesson there long ago.

mrbb

so have I, LOL