Any Info on an FB-C Grain Drill?

[rockyridgefarm]

Hey All,

Anyone have anything to say about an FB-C Grain Drill? I was in western Iowa today and found one for sale. It didn't have any ID anywhere on the drill, but after looking through my brochures, I see it's an FB-C. It was shown as new in my 1968 Long Green Line book. Any idea on value?


 

[DiyDave]

Width and style and wear of openers dictate what price I would pay.
If I were looking to buy one, I would look at the feed shafts, see if
they are free, make sure nothing is twisted off. Pull the seed tubes
off, and have a look at the feed doors, try to move the lever on the
door. Open the box, and look at the feeds, make sure they look
uniformly open. If it has the ground drive pickup, check for cracks,
welds etc on the castings.
 

[rockyridgefarm]

Hey Dave,

Thanks for the tips on what to look for. I've looked it over and think it's in acceptable condition, though I will be replacing the disk openers.

I was looking more for information specifically on the FB-C. It looks a lot like an 8000 series drill (bottom pic in my scan of the 1968 Long Green Line book is an FB-C). I have found no information on them online, nor have I found any for sale. I did find one on a completed auction from 2011 and some manuals on ebay, but no other info is to be had. Were they a good drill? a problematic drill? It has Bromegrass attachment - was that any good?
 

[tomstractorsandtoys1]

I do not think that Deere ever made a bad drill.Like you said it is alot like the 8000 series and I bet that many parts are the same.Drills are a simple piece of equipment that rarely cause any problems.We have owned an FB,FBB,B and now an 8300. All were great and trouble free.You should consider double disc openers as they work better in the higher amounts of trash that we have today.
 

[Tx Jim]

[rockyridgefarm]

My neighbor also told me that I should go double disk, but I'm not sure I NEED it. This is a single disk drill. It will be replacing an 8 foot model B single disk drill. I didn't think the single disk on the B was too bad for plugging, unless the trash was extremely heavy.

I use a drill a lot for seeding cover crops and don't necessarily make a nice, smooth, soft seedbed since it will just get plowed down anyway. Most of the time, I hit it once with a disk and drill, or not even disk at all. The B does fine. I'm only considering replacement because the B is 8 feet wide and clutch lift. This one is 12 feet, hydraulic lift and probably 3 times the hopper capacity.

TXJim,

do you have any personal experience with the FB-Cs?
 

[Tx Jim]

[rockyridgefarm]

Hmm,

This must not have been a big selling model. I wonder how one could find out production numbers on them. I also wonder if it is not just an 8300 before they called them an 8300.
 

[DiyDave]

Now that I see it, it is bigger and newer than the junk I have
experience with.
 

[tomstractorsandtys1]

I was refering to going thru trash without plugging.We planted alot of fall grain after corn harvest and stalks could find lots of places to lodge on the single disc boot and scrapper.And if you ever lost a scrapper you were done untill it was fixed.The single disc worked fine where we plowed but not near as nice in stalks.
 

[rockyridgefarm]

Hey all,

Well, I committed to buying it. The info I've gotten so far leads me to believe that they were introduced in 1968 and replaced by the 8350 in 1974. I wonder what upgrades they made when going to the 8350.

I'm buying a manual for it right away and may get some of these questions answered in it. It's actually got two rows of disks at 12 inches apart to make it a 24-6. I assume with the disks staggered, it should clear trash better than my B. Am I right? Has anyone had any experience with the Bromegrass attachment? Is it Brome only, or will it seed any grasses you'd want to seed? i want to be able to experiment with various mixes of cover crops and like the flexibility of having the big main hopper and the two hoppers - front and back - for more accurate metering of seed.

I won't be getting it until summer. The 6 hour drive across Iowa on hwy 20 is best experienced after the memory of the last trip sort of fades...
 

[Tx Jim]

The staggered disks are suppose to handle trash better than the disk in a straight line. The smaller box is designed for use with any small seed.