Hydraulic Lift Raises All Shields At Once

Hydraulic Lift Raises All Shields At Once TILLAGE EUIPMENT Cultivators (16) 30-5-17 Even though row crop cultivators have disappeared from farmers' yards like owls in daylight, Tim Kelly is still a believer in cultivating his corn and beans at least once, and sometimes twice. He maintains the shovel settings for two passes, but lifting and adjusting the rolling shields was always a hassle on his 16-row machine. "One day I just got tired of lifting each shield, counting the number of chain links, and hooking them up," says Kelly. "I thought about a uniform lifting mechanism as I was cultivating and had it figured out by the time I'd made a couple rounds in the field." Kelly installed a 2-in. rockshaft across the full width of the machine with joints where the cultivator wings fold. At the center of each row he welded a 12-in. piece of 1 1/2-in. tubing to the rockshaft to serve as a lift arm for each pair of shields. The chain for each set of shields is bolted to the lift arm. In the center of the rockshaft he welded a hydraulic cylinder mount and aligned another mount on the main frame of the cultivator. A used cylinder with a 12-in. stroke provides plenty of travel to rotate the rockshaft and raise the full rank of shields to any height. Says Kelly, "This simple invention saves me 30 minutes and a lot of bending and counting every time I cultivate. I can raise all of the shields at once, anytime and anywhere. The heights adjust from a quarter of an inch up to about 12 in. by just activating the hydraulic cylinder. It's made cultivating a lot easier and I can actually do a better job in varying soil conditions." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Tim Kelly, 74861 262nd St., Dassel, Minn. 55325 (ph 320 286-2371)

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