"Loader Ladder" Helps Spray Tall Trees

"Loader Ladder" Helps Spray Tall Trees SPRAYING Spraying 34-5-27 Ron VanEtten needed to spray the tops of his apple and elm trees, which were being destroyed by Japanese beetles. So, the Ellsworth, Ill. man set up a 32-ft. aluminum extension ladder to lift high over his 20 hp compact tractor, attaching a 10-ft. long homemade spray boom to the top of the ladder. He uses the tractor's front-end loader and 3-pt. hitch to raise and lower the ladder. The bottom of the ladder pivots on a 3-pt. mounted "pallet jack", while the middle rolls on a wooden frame bolted to the loader bucket. A 50-ft. hose runs from the spray boom down the ladder to a 10-gal. tank and spray pump mounted on back of the tractor. A rocker switch on the tractor is used to operate the pump. "It lets me spray anywhere from about 3 ft. off the ground to 40 ft. in the air, depending on how much I raise the bucket and 3-pt. hitch. With the ladder all the way up it makes for quite a sight," says VanEtten. "I use it only about 6 weeks during the year, from the last week of June until the first week of August, but it really works. The only limitation is that with the ladder fully extended I have to be careful so the tractor doesn't tip over. Also, I have to be very careful around power lines." VanEtten has about 140 trees on his small acreage and says Japanese beetles are a big problem in his area. "At first I tried setting a ladder in the loader bucket and leaning it against a tree, but it was dangerous and I still couldn't reach the top of the tree. As a result, the beetles consumed the top third of the tree before I could do anything about it." He bought a hand sprayer with 10 ft. of hose and replaced the hose with one that's 50 ft. long. Then he attached a 10-ft. length of 1 1/2-in. pvc drain pipe to the end of the hose and taped a sprayer nozzle and foam marker onto it. A car battery operates the spray pump. The bottom of the ladder mounts on a 3-pt. mounted pallet jack that he bought at Tractor Supply. He bolted 4-ft. high extensions onto the pallet attachment and mounted the ladder on it, using 1/2-in. conduit pipe as a pivot point. The middle part of the ladder rolls on a pair of boat trailer rollers that mount on top of a 7-ft. high wooden frame that bolts onto the loader bucket. He used 2 by 4's to build the vertical supports for the frame, and 2 by 6's to build a cross piece that supports the rollers. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Ron VanEtten, 25787 E. 1200 N Road, Ellsworth, Ill. 61737 (ph 309 825-6942; rsvanetten@hotmail.com).

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