Stubble Deflectors Reduce Wear To His Planter's Wheels

Stubble Deflectors Reduce Wear To His Planter's Wheels PLANTING EQUIPMENT Accessories 20-4-24 "I can't say for sure how much extra life they'll give my press wheel tires because this is the first year I used them. But I know tires will last a lot longer than the two or three years I got out of them before," says Bob Lynch about "stubble deflectors" he came up with for his 12-row (30-in.) Deere MaxEmerge II planter to push stubble out of the way. Soybean stubble is hard on tires, the Gilmore City, Iowa, ridge tiller notes. He doesn't have a problem with corn since he chops stalks. Lynch's stubble deflectors are shaped like an upside down T. They're made of 14-in. long by 2-in. wide pieces of flat steel, 3/ 8-in. thick, and fitted with a length of 1/2-in. dia. rerod across the bottom. They bolt to the same brackets that hold the planter's Yetter trash wheels, and require drilling one hole in the bracket to mount. The deflectors run about 1 in. above Lynch's ridged rows. They simply bend or lay stubble forward, out of the way of press wheel tires. "They worked great this year," says Lynch. "We saw a few marks on tires, but nothing like the big gouges we had before." A local blacksmith, Dennis Ford, built the deflectors for Lynch's planter. Cost of materials was $3 to $3.50 per deflector, compared with the replacement costs of press wheel tires at $10 to $15 per row, Lynch notes. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Bob Lynch, 1087 260th St., Gilmore City, Iowa 50541 (ph 515 373-6786).

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