165 Ft Wide Hillside Sprayer

165 ft wide hillside sprayer SPRAYING Miscellaneous 15-5-10 "Nearly everyone who sees it stops to take a closer look," says Frank Lange, Garfield, Wash., about his one-of-a-kind self-propelled "hillside sprayer" equipped with Caterpillar steel tracks and a 165-ft. long boom. The sprayer is designed so that the engine, spray tanks, and operator plat-form always stay level even when traveling across hills with slopes up to 45 degrees. Key to the self-leveling feature is a framework that acts like a parallelogram and ties the two tracks together. A pair of tie rods connect each end of the frame with each end of the tracks. The tie rods are pushed and pulled by four hydraulic cylinders, one for each rod, at the center of the frame. As soon as one side of the frame is raised the cylinders compensate by "rotating" the angle of the tracks along the frame's central pivot point, keeping an equal amount of weight on each track. "It uses somewhat the same principle found on commercial hillside combines," says Lange, who built the machine with the help of Guy Swanson, a local fabricator who was also manufacturer of the giant "Yielder" drill. "The tracks can't slip downhill so the operator can always maintain a straight line while spraying. He can also sit level in the cab." The sprayer is powered by a 275 hp Detroit diesel 8V-71 engine that's mounted up front. It powers a Caterpillar D6 drive train. The transmission, steering clutch and truck air brakes, as well as the air conditioned enclosed cab, are at the rear of the machine. Air cylinders are used to shift the transmission, operate the steering and transmission clutches, and to engage the sprayer pump. The sprayer is equipped with a 2,000-gal. stainless steel tank and a 200-gal. mixing tank. A hydraulically-operated lift arm in front of the machine lets Lange lift herbicide drums from his pickup to the sprayer deck. The 165-ft. boom has 100 spray nozzles mounted on 20-in. spacings. Lloyd's Loops spray boom attachments make the nozzles virtually plug-proof and allow low gallonage application of Roundup herbicide. The boom is built in six sections and is supported by four wheels. The two 10-ft. outside sections can be raised independently to clear obstructions. The outside sections are folded into the main boom by a chain-driven hydraulic motor. The rest of the boom then folds forward. The 30-ft. long steel tracks are divided into three sections that work independently when turning at the end of the field. The center section hydraulically lowers to the ground and the other two sections raise up 1 ft. off the ground. "Using 10 ft. of track instead of 30 ft. lets me turn shorter," says Lange, who hauls the sprayer on a specially-built lowboy trailer. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Frank Lange, Rt. 1, Box 110, Garfield, Wash. 99130 (ph 509 635-1234).

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