IH Combine Makes Great Crop Sprayer

IH combine makes great crop sprayer COMBINES Conversions 14-5-9 A Nebraska farmer who couldn't find a row crop sprayer with enough capacity to fit his needs says his new 65-ft. wide self-propel led "combine sprayer" covers acres fast. Robert Breinig, of Holdrege, stripped away everything but the engine, front axle, and cab from a 1976 International 915 combine. He used 15-in. structural steel to build a chassis that supports a 1,250-gal. tank mounted behind the cab and a 3-section Modern Flow boom in front. He replaced the original front tires with new 11.6 by 24 tires and mounted 11.6 by 38 tractor tires on back. He replaced the original rear axle with the rear steering axle from an International 1680 combine. The sprayer is powered by the combine's 414 cu. in. engine. "I had been using a pickup-mounted sprayer, but I needed more capacity and wider booms because I got tired of stopping to refill every 15 minutes," says Breinig, a custom applicator. "On a good day I can spray 250 to 300 acres at 6¢ mph. At 10 gallons per acre I can go 120 acres without refilling. Visibility from the cab is excellent. Because the sprayer has the combine's hydrostatic transmission, I can operate at variable speeds for different rates of application. I paid $3,400 for the combine and spent a total of $25,000 to build the sprayer, which is more than I planned on, but still only about half the price of a new sprayer of comparable size." Breinig built the 15-ft. center section of the sprayer from 4-in. sq. box wall tubing and the 25-ft. wings from 2-in. square tubing. The nozzles on the boom are set up on 20-in. spacing. A Raven 440 spray monitor controls the flow. The boom sections are independently controlled from the cab by solenoid valves. A pair of hydraulic cylinders raises and lowers the entire boom, and another pair of cylinders raises the wings for use on hillsides and for transport. In transport the wings fold back beside the combine for a total road width of 12 ft. When the wheels are turned so that the concave center discs face inward, the sprayer is 108 in. wide and can straddle three 36-in. rows. By flipping the tires around the sprayer can be widened to 120 in. to straddle four 30-in. rows. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Robert Breinig, 1610 West Ave., Holdrege, Nebraska 68949 (ph 308 995-6871).

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