Swather Mounts ON Self-Propelled Sprayer

Swather Mounts ON Self-Propelled Sprayer SPRAYING New Sprayers 22-3-3 Big hi-boy self-propelled sprayers have been hot sellers the last few years and new ma-chines are being released all the time. There's just one problem: The only thing you can use them for is to spray crops. That didn't sit well with Sanders Seed Farm of Manitou, Manitoba. They decided to make their big machine do double duty by mounting a swather header on front. Michael Sanders, who farms with his dad, Andre, and brother, Daniel, says they bought the Walker 44 sprayer new last spring (R.J. Manufacturing Inc., 1001 Washington St., Lisbon, Iowa 52253; ph 800 900-7424 or 319 455-0036). "We took on an additional 800 acres in the last three years and decided a big, self-propelled sprayer was a must," Sanders explains. "We looked at a number of them, including Spra-Coupe, Rogator, Patriot and Willmar, but settled on the Walker because it was the only one with a front-mounted boom and because it was exceptionally well-balanced. It's one of only 12 Walkers in Canada and it didn't come cheaply, at around $150,000 (Canadian). To justify the expense, we knew we'd have to get double duty out of it." The lift system for the 90-ft. front-mounted boom made the Walker a natural for mounting the farm's 25-ft. MacDon self-propelled swather header on, he says. Because Sanders is in the process of patenting some elements of his invention he won't discuss certain details of the project. However, he says the rig he calls a "swayer" performed flawlessly last season. "The 5.9-liter Cummins diesel engine and the 4-WD make it capable of going through wetter conditions than anything else we've ever used - 4-WD or otherwise," he says. The header off the Sanders' MacDon swather mounts on the sprayer using a quicktach system Sanders designed. The lift brackets on the header were modified so the top lift arm goes over the top of the header. "We had to figure out stress points on the header and beef them up so everything would be strong enough," he says. "We mounted the header as close to the sprayer as possible so there wouldn't be too much weight out in front. Using our design, the header runs about 1 ft. in front of the front tires." A 15-in. dia. spring-loaded gauge wheel, normally used on MacDon 30-ft. headers, mounts at each end of the header for better carriage and flotation. The header, reel and canvas are hydraulically driven off the sprayer's 25 gpm hydraulic pump, but Sanders isn't saying exactly how. Speed of the reel and canvas is mechanically adjustable on-the-go, for swathing from 0 up to 8 mph, using two knobs in the cab. To judge cutting height, Sanders used a spring-loaded height gauge out of a Case-IH combine. Marked off in increments from 0 to 50, it mounts in the cab and is connected to the header with a small cable. "It makes swathing at night a snap," notes Sanders. For swathing canola or flax, Sanders mounted an 8-ft. long Farm King swath roller in the center underneath the sprayer, which has 6 ft. of ground clearance. Mounted on arms and suspended by chains, the roller is manually adjustable for rolling 1 in. off the ground in flax and 1 1/2 ft. off the ground in canola. "We used it as a sprayer on 2,400 acres of small grains to apply postemerge herbicides at 12 to 13 mph last season," Sanders says. "We swathed 800 acres, mostly canola, with it last fall at 3 to 5 mph. Dad was pretty skeptical when we started the project, but once it was up and running in the field, we all agreed it out-performed even our highest expectations." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Michael Sanders, Sanders Seed Farm, R.R. 1, Manitou, Manitoba, Canada R0G 1G0 (ph 204 242-2576).

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