46 1/2 ft Folding Feld Cultivator

46 1/2 ft folding field cultivator CULTIVATORS Cultivators (58C) 17-2-6 "I couldn't find a field cultivator on the market as big as I wanted so I built my own," says John Dewey, Penfield, Ill., about the 46 1/2-ft. field cultivator he built last year. The cultivator has a 20-ft. center section and two 13-ft. wings. Dewey used 4 by 6 steel tubing to build the cultivator frame and 4 by 8 tubing to build the tongue. He used 2 1/4 in. sq. tubing for the crossbars. There's 20-in. spacing between shanks. Wings are folded by two 4 by 24-in. hydraulic cylinders. A Buster Bar harrow and a 5-bar drag harrow are mounted on back. There's also room for a sprayer boom. "It's built heavy and lets me cover a lot of acres fast," says Dewey. "I use a 300 hp IH 4568 4-WD tractor to pull it. I had been using a 25-ft. disk, but I wanted to switch to a field cultivator because I knew it would do a better job of fluffing up the ground and incorporating pre-plant herbicides. It also doesn't pack the soil as much. However, I couldn't find a field cultivator over 30 ft. wide. Most of the ones on the market are smaller and built too light. "I looked at a lot of cultivator models and used their best features to build my own. For example, the cultivator's four rows of shanks were designed for an International 45 Vibra Shank cultivator. I copied the center transport axle design off an International 490 disk. "It's built good and level because while building it I used a transit rod to keep the center section and wings level. I spent only about $8,000." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, John Dewey, Rt. 1, Box 10, Penfield, Ill. 61862 (ph 217 595-5535).

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