Walking Beam Upgrade For Air Drills

Walking Beam Upgrade For Air Drills AIR SEEDERS Keep your air drill on the ground in uneven terrain with a TerrainFlex walking beam from Applequist Manufacturing The simple upgrade keeps air drill frames from lifting off the ground when working on contours and uneven terrain The concept and the design were borne out of the frustration of Kansas farmers Mike Ohnsat and Brady Cline “Our air drills couldn’t maintain consistent down pressure when following the contour of a field especially if there were terraces ” says Cline “Poor wheel contact with the ground means less consistent seed placement from the openers and poor stands ” It also means more downtime due to machine breakdowns Rigid frames on winged air drills can create stress points causing welds and bolts to break The two friends came up with a solution They added walking beams to their 1890 Deere air drills “We made our first set in 2015 and put half a set on one wing each of two machines and ran it that fall ” says Cline “After successfully running them we finished another set and had the drills ready for spring drilling ” When Cline became plant manager at nearby Applequist Manufacturing he suggested adding the walking beam kit to their product offering By then it had already gone through 40 000 acres of field testing The add-on kits are available for Deere 1850 1860 and 1890 air drills and are simple to install Typically a two-person job it takes around 3 hrs and involves the use of a skid steer or loader Installation involves the removal of the factory-installed gauge wheels and beams from the frame Once the TerrainFlex walking beam has been installed and the gauge wheels added the air drill is ready to go Component parts are all off-the-shelf Cline reports the kits have been sold throughout Kansas as well as into Nebraska and Oklahoma MSRP for a kit is $9 600 An optional weight bracket is available for another $1 600 “We’re currently selling through ag equipment dealers and always looking for more dealers to work with ” says Cline Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Applequist Manufacturing P O Box 355 Assaria Kan 67416 ph 785-667-4210; info@applequistmfg com; www applequistmfg com

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