First-Of-Its-Kind “Pave And Plant” Row Crop Planter

First-Of-Its-Kind “Pave And Plant” Row Crop Planter PLANTERS This past winter Brian Hoogestraat built an entirely new planter that rolls his fields and plants in a single pass His “pave and plant” rig as he calls it creates a tabletop smooth surface for planting The 24 planter units on 22-in spacings mount behind the rollers “I mounted an IH cyclone box on top of each roller with their drive wheels running on the rollers ” says Hoogestraat Hoogestraat has been collecting parts from old planters over the years He used the design of an 8-row IH 800 planter with its pivot transport in his frame design In fact his Pave and Plant works like 3 IH 800’s two of which pivot He started out by building a 3-section frame out of 7 by 7-in square tubing salvaged from old planter frames The frame supports both the rollers and planter units “I built the rollers out of 1/2-in thick 24-in dia oil well pipe ” says Hoogestraat “The center roller is 12 1/2 ft long and the two wings are each 16 ft long ” He capped the rollers with 1/2-in steel plate and mounted them in the frame with 3-in shafts and roller bearings The center roller is positioned to ride just behind and slightly overlap the wings The planter units ride behind the rollers When hydraulic lift is applied at the headlands the center roller tips forward lifting off the ground This also raises the planter units and disengages the planter drive If lift continues all 3 roller sections tip forward eventually raising the planter units into a vertical position the rollers off the ground and the two wings onto their transport wheels As lift continues and the tractor moves ahead the wings pivot behind the center unit To get the extreme lift needed to raise the 3 sets of rollers and planters Hoogestraat combined 4 hydraulic cylinders into two He butt-welded each pair of 3-in dia cylinders with 20-in strokes into one “With the rams going out in either direction I got the 40-in strokes I needed ” says Hoogestraat Folding the wings into transport position the way he did also meant that the marker arms had to be modified They couldn’t fold into a vertical position when not in use Plus they had to be 20 ft long To get the extra length and reposition them for transport Hoogestraat fabricated two-piece marker arms to fold first on themselves and then back against the side of the pave and plant He used wing mounts from an old cultivator for the final fold “It worked great this spring and we had very few problems ” reports Hoogestraat Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Brian Hoogestraat 27515 464th Ave Chancellor S Dak 57015 ph 605 310-0123; bhoogy@hotmail com

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