Carbide-Tipped Tillage Points

Carbide-Tipped Tillage Points TILLAGE EUIPMENT Miscellaneous 31-3-10 With today's sophisticated seeding equipment allowing depth adjustments as fine as 1/8-in. for exact placement, a worn drill tip can have a significant negative effect. One way to beat the problem is with carbide tips, says Vic Wickstrom, VW Manufacturing. For the past 10 years, he has been putting carbide points on the products he sells. "Adding carbide raises the cost, but it will pay for itself many times over," he says. "It is especially effective in abrasive, compacted soils and in direct seeding. In direct seeding, the ground can often be as hard as a highway. Any tool will work in butter, but when you hit the highway, it takes a tough one to stand up." Wickstrom makes a variety of chromium carbide and steel carbide points and does custom carbide work. Customer satisfaction with carbide tips has led to increasing amounts of the extremely hard materials on the plow points. "I don't even sell drill points or shoes without carbide anymore," says Wickstrom. The company's popular VW7C has a single carbide tip, but is also available with two additional carbide tabs above the breaking point to offset wear from soil flowing over the tip. "It doesn't do any good to have the tip left and the housing behind it worn away," says Wickstrom. "Our main new product is the VW10, which is a full carbide opener. It has both a carbide front and carbide wing sides." Wickstrom says the quality of the tips sell themselves once farmers have experienced their extra wear. He points to a VW7 tip used alongside a competitive carbide tip on the same Flexicoil 5000 air drill. After three years, the competitive tip is worn away, while the VW7C has lots of life left in it. While prices vary from year to year, currently the VW7C is priced at $24.95 with carbide tip or $34.95 with added carbide tabs. The full carbide steel VW10 is priced at $69.95. (All prices are in Canadian dollars). Wickstrom sells his products direct to farmers from his business in Dunmore, Alberta. Photos with close ups of his entire product line can be viewed at www.vwmfg.com. U.S. customers are asked to contact the U.S. distributor listed below. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, VW Manufacturing, Ltd., 406 Eagle Butte Ave., Dunmore, Alberta, Canada T0J 1A0 (ph 403 528-3350; fax 403 529-6448; thewickstroms @shaw.ca; www. vwmfg.com). In the U.S. contact: Loren Hawks, 2434 Whitlash Road, Chester, Montana 59522 (ph 406 432-3810; cell 406 460-3810; jlbp@northerntel.net).

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