7100 Maximerge

DeltaRed

Well-known Member
I've been looking for a 'new' planter for a couple years.Found a local 7100(6x30).The guy priced it at 2500. I could buy it cheaper?Its outside.Chains are stiff,little chain idlers are loose.Set up for lquid starter fert.Otherwise looks good. Just an average machine...The owner 'updated' to 8 row 3 years ago.Not sure if it has monitor.He was useing it at that time,says it did a great job,as good/better as the 8 row.Big step up from the old 70 plate type.It looks heavy.Too heavy for the SuperM so the 706 will be 'pulling' it.I will only be planting 50 - 70 acres annually.Thoughts?
 
Steve: If you can get him down just a little then you would have a good deal. Those are kind of hard to find as they can be made into a 15 inch bean planter real easy.

The chains I would just replace. The little plastic chain idlers are loose when they are new.

ID is plate-less or plate type?? If it is a plate type then he is high. If it is plate-less he is in the market. It would easily bring twice that.
 
7100 is an old machine, but easily brought up to original standards, thru JD parts or Schoup, etc. They were state-of-the-art in the day, a fantastic improvement in seed singulation and placement. That accuracy can be renewed with new discs, brushes, belts, etc. at a reasonable cost. Monitors are dependable and reasonable. I"d rather plant at night with a 7000 with monitor than any other planter in the daytime, without one.
 
You will be making a major step up if you get the planter. They will be making replacement parts for 7000/7100 after we are all gone. They can all be rebuilt to like new condition. If you really want it to do a good job of singulation you can use Precision Planting parts in the meter. I have a test stand and they are worth the difference. It's all I use for my customers anymore and see that is all Shoup sells as well. Mike
 
The 7000/ 7100 is about the best planter out there, and still simple.

That is very very cheap, here they start at $5000 and go up if its close to field ready. Many jockeys buy them spit shine a bit and ship to Mexico or Ukraine, so you just do t see them for less than $800 a row around here. Standard price for years.

Get yourself a paper catalog from Shoup, they supply better parts faster and cheaper than mother Deere for those machines.

You will be happy with it. Very good depth control.

Paul
 
They will not go cheaper if they are in good overall condition. There are guys here that will buy that and chop it into three food plot planters and charge 2500 dollars for EACH 2 row unit. If you do not mind it being three point then go for it.
 
Plateless would be the only repeat only reason to get one. Your current planter will do just as good of a job. Rebuild it if needs work. Me I an looking for the 999 series planters as that is what is wanted here for the people I work with. Me I would not own a 7000 series. I used a 494A and the new 7000 series cannot do any better job than that 494A did. People on here will say I am nuts but I say they are the ones that are nuts.
 
I would agree with a 494a doing as good a job if you could get properly graded seed corn.We used to run Allis planters but the seed corn companies changed how they graded corn and we had problems getting the stands we wanted.Switched to a Deere 7200 plateless and our problems went away. I still have a 494A in the shed that I like to plant 4 or 5 acres with for fun.
 
No way that seed placement is equal on a 494 with depth control being about two feet behind the opener, instead of alongside.
 
I would not part with my 7200 unless it was for a 1750,but in worked ground if you could get properly graded seed corn a 494A can do a very good job of planting.In min-till or no-till the 7200 is set up to do a much better job.
 
Leroy You can get a good job with a 494A in worked ground that is pool table flat. If you don't have all of that your NOT going to beat/equal the job a JD 7000 series planter will do if set up correctly!!!!

Several reasons for this:

1) Depth control right at the opener on the 7000. Two feet behind on a 494

2) Double disk openers with firming/depth wheels right at the opener. This made a nice smooth seed trench. Most 494s around here had shoe runners. Not a very good seed trench unless in fine soil. Any sod and your dragging ditches. IF you did have a 494 with double disk openers it was actually worse than the shoe opener. It would throw the dirt out making a ditch to plant in.


The JD 494 was a great planter for its time but the JD 7000 set the standard for all corn planters for a generation after it was brought out.
 
It all comes down to if you properly prepare the field or not.If field is prepaired as should be then there will not be enough variation in level you would ever notice any difference on depth control. And he has to have his fields perfectly level for his irigation and that is whe he uses the roll over plows. If that field is properly prepaired then it will be as smooth and level as your lawn and if there would be enough difference to be noticible in depth control with the depth wheel in back of the opener then you would be scalping the lawn every time you mow.
 
Agreed. Here in the East there are a lot of heavy soils that are near impossible to work down to powder. As somebody else hinted at I would have a 494 only for a vintage equipment outting. There is an area around 50 plus miles away where they can plant with a IH 56 planter and get 230 bushel corn due to the top quality of the soil. Maybe the 494 gentleman is so blessed. Certainly I am not so blessed. People call me the planter nut as I am obsessed with modern planter technology but that is due to the fact that I know that modern planters are so key here in getting the growing season going on a high note. Nothing worse than having to look at a less than perfect corn stand for an entire growing plus harvesting season.
 
Leroy.Sometimes you cannot get that perfect seedbed.No matter how much you work it.We have such 'soil'. We have adobe (clay) dirt.A lot of my leased fields are pastured by the landlord.That '$h!+ is hard.Not able to plow till after the heavy freezeing is over. think CLODS.If it could be plowed in the fall,then yes I could get perfection.You just have to make do with what you have.......
 
Leroy here is what we have to plant on. When ever you go through a low spot the JD 494 will drop the seeds on top of the ground. Then where you crest a high spot the seed is planted too deep.

There is a very good reason JD has sold MILLIONS of 7000 style planting units in the last 40 years. That reason is seed placement.
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you be moving up a lot!!! as far as planters are concerned ,with the corn meters in good condition they will plant with a highly uniform seed spacing even with mixed seed sizes,the days of seed size uniformity are gone, that is a big factor with plate planters,also like jd seller mentioned a skid shoe planter can't even come close to the 7000 series for seed depth accuracy in varying conditions let alone planting speed
 
Planting speed is determined with what you are pulling it with and how fast you are comfortable with keeping it on marker track and turns. Not planter design. I said in first post that plateless feature would be only reason to change. And if graded seed is not avaible how are the thousands and thousands of 2 & 4 row plate planters from the teens of a hundred years ago still working? I am guessing that in a 75 mile radious of me that there is 15,000 of them, hand and clutch lift working, JD 999 & 290, McCOrmick of same style (I do not know McCormick model numbers) and 4 row McCormick 449-449A-450 clutch lift and go to 150 mile double that number and planting speed is at 2-2.5 mile per hour. A good John Deere 999 2 row planter will sell for use in the $800 range and a McCormick 449-449A in the thousand dollar range, That is without paint or fertilizer, and are in short supply. Couple of years ago took a friend over 150 mile to auction to buy a planter, only one at the auction and not that good, till it was home cost him about $1,200, and then the next year he put in $300 of repairs. And the reason the McCormick is wanted is they can get parts including plates easy. Deere never made a 4 row planter with clutch lift that could be set to 30" rows. And a store I was in last spring had every plastic plate ever made for both IHC and JD hanging from celing hooks with some of them being 2 dozen of one number plate. And they have not been there for years either.
 
The seed companies are putting their best genetics into plateless varieties. From what I see it is the Amish and old order Mennonites who are buying the graded seed for plate planters. Evidently they are not concerned with top yields but like you say there are companies selling that seed if a farmer wants it.
 
That is a great price, you might want to prepare and put a grand per row into it fixing up. The parts are not cheap, but they are solid planters.
 
For years I planted with a 6-row #71 planter. 4 years ago, I went to a 6-row 7100 planter. We were running way behind when I got it. In one 80 acre field, I planted half with the "new" 7100 and my son did the other half with the #71. Now I don't believe the yield monitor on our combine is "dead nuts" accurate, but it is consistent. Yields averaged about 12 bushel BETTER on the half planted with the 7100's. This field is usually very consistent yield all over. I attribute the yield gain to better, more accurate seed placement (both depth AND spacing)

Also, there is more aftermarket accessories available for Deere 7000 series planters than any other planter on the market. That makes it easier to custom tailor a planter to your particular likes and dislikes.

No brainer in my book.
 

There is no way a 494 or IH56 or any planter of that vintage will plant as well as a 7000-7100. No way! I planted with an IH 58 for close to twenty years before I got a 7000. The 58 was fine tuned to a T and it still didn't have near the depth control or the even spacing the 7000 put out. The finger units in a 7000 do need more TLC than the units on a plate planter. They are a precision instrument and need to be treated accordingly. You can not leave them out in the elements in the off season and expect them to do a perfect job the next spring.
 
A grand per row !!!!?????That would make a 8 thousand dollar planter! I can barely afford $2000. I only raise 70 acres,not 700 or 7000!My 'shoestring'/penny/poverty operation just wont handle that
 
Yes you can spend 1000 a row. You could also spend nothing... in both cases it is better than what you have.

I switched to a 7200 last year, spent about 200 a row on the basic stuff(precision meter kits, seed tubes, openers and a few bearings).
 
I don't know if you are still checking this thread but I would go look at the unit with a Shoup Spring catalog in my hand instead of guessing at what it will cost to make it perfect. A thousand bucks per row means quite a bit of hardware. Taking gauge wheels and closing wheels apart is boring and can create a little fuss but the bearing if that is the only issue is a lot cheaper than the whole assembly. Some guys here would change the complete wheel out because it is easier but it certainly ramps up the cost. This is not your first time looking at machinery so I believe you know enough about the unit to distinguish between bearings and wear parts versus bent or broken metal parts. Again, get a parts catalog out and then stand next to that planter with your note pad and not guess!
 

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