Shop-Built Bean Buggy

Shop-Built Bean Buggy SPRAYING Bean Buggies 19-6-11 "Commercial bean buggies with hydro-static drive cost at least $3,000," says Paul E. Dillard, who built his own bean buggy out of motorcycle parts for about $400. The three-wheel buggy sports 3.5 by 18-in. motorcycle tires that don't get stuck easily yet keep crop damage to a mini-mum. "The tires hardly leave a track in drilled or rowed beans up to 24 in. tall," says the St. Mary, Mo., farmer. "If you ever do get stuck with it, you just get off, put the drive lever into reverse and push it out." Dillard's bean buggy is 7 ft. long and has ground clearance of 32 in. Its main frame is made out of 2 by 3-in. tubing. It's powered by a 16 hp Briggs and Stratton engine and hydrostatic drive out of an old Simplicity lawn tractor. "The transmission is offset to the left side so it bolts to the drive sprocket where the left wheel of the tractor was," he ex-plains. "I connected a 1-in. shaft and bearings to the opposite 'drive wheel hub and extended the shaft out to the width I wanted. We plant beans in 20-in. rows so I extended the shaft out to 76 in. to straddle four rows of soybeans or two rows of corn planted in 36-in. rows." The operator steers the buggy with his feet from a comfortable boat seat on a slide-mount off a Deere 4320 tractor. The slide permits adjusting the seat 6 in. forward or backward to accommodate both tall and short operators. The hydrostat is controlled with a lever mounted just behind the steering mechanism. The buggy can hit speeds of up to 9 mph, with speed controlled by a throttle lever on the operator's left side. A 25-gal. tank and 12-volt pump supply a spot spray wand. Herbicides can also be broadcast with an 8-row folding boom mounted in back. Dillard hauls the buggy from field to field on a special-built trailer. "We've used it for two seasons on about 1,200 acres and it works great for spot treating or spraying Johnsongrass, our problem weed," he says. "The only thing I changed was blocking reverse on the transmission to keep speed down when backing up. If you go too fast in reverse it will get kind of squirrely on you. Otherwise, it handles great." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Paul E. Dillard, 26312 State Route Z, Saint Mary, Mo. 63673 (ph 314 543-2547).

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