John Deere Van Brunt grain drill

[DavidTT]

I have a John Deere Van Brunt FB-A and it isn't putting enough down pressure on the disks. It looks like the springs don't even bottom out while going up and down with the lay of the land. It looks like something is missing on top of the springs or they have shrunk. I drill beans with the ground worked up good and it won't plant them deep enough and about half of them don't get covered at all, especially behind the tire tracks. What can i do to make it plant deeper?

 

[miner09]

The springs have different settings. On top of spring rods there is cotter key so you can set in different holes to put more pressure. Do you have levers to let disk down or the type you pull rope and it does if with gear type and you move planter.

 

[Brownie450]

Landlord worked up at Deere in product development in
the '70s & wanted to drill beans. He had a 10 foot drill
made up with half double disc openers & half with regular
discs. Ended up with the double disc openers placing the
beans at a 2" depth & the single discs varied according to
how loose the ground laid.
After the beans emerged there was 10 feet of fairly decent
population on the double disc side of the drill & about 50%
emergence on the single disc side.
This was with new discs all around & new metering system.
An older drill with wear on the discs would probably not
have had good seed placement even in soft ground.
Jim

 

[Tx Jim]

I was grew up on a farm with JD grain drills then was employed at local JD dealership from '65-'87 then custom farmed for 35 yrs. During my earlier yrs of employment at JD dealership I assembled JD model B, FB,FB-A,FB-B & 8000 series drills. Later during my employment at JD dealership I sold/demonstrated new/used grain drills.

I was taught double disk operate better in trashy soils than single disk openers. I would have see to believe the deeper soil penetration, better plant population from double disk vs single disks if soil wasn't very trashy. Worn single & double disk have no problems penetrating soil if it's loose. I seriously doubt a regular JD grain drill would have very good plant population in no-till situations with single or double disk. Concerning double disks I always wondered how objects such as double disks could penetrate soil(loose or firm) deeper than a single disk that's approximately half as thick???

Now to OP's question disk opener pressure rods have upper & lower clips with spring in between clips to change disk soil penetration. Does this drill have mechanical lifts, levers or hyd cylinder to raise & lower the disks??

 

[Absent Minded Farmer]

I was grew up on a farm with JD grain drills then was employed at local JD dealership from '65-'87 then custom farmed for 35 yrs. During my earlier yrs of employment at JD dealership I assembled JD model B, FB,FB-A,FB-B & 8000 series drills. Later during my employment at JD dealership I sold/demonstrated new/used grain drills.

I was taught double disk operate better in trashy soils than single disk openers. I would have see to believe the deeper soil penetration, better plant population from double disk vs single disks if soil wasn't very trashy. Worn single & double disk have no problems penetrating soil if it's loose. I seriously doubt a regular JD grain drill would have very good plant population in no-till situations with single or double disk. Concerning double disks I always wondered how objects such as double disks could penetrate soil(loose or firm) deeper than a single disk that's approximately half as thick???

Now to OP's question disk opener pressure rods have upper & lower clips with spring in between clips to change disk soil penetration. Does this drill have mechanical lifts, levers or hyd cylinder to raise & lower the disks??

My apologies to you & the OP for changing the subject a touch, but....

Did your dealership sell any hay cubers? Don't recall if I asked before or not.

Mike

 

[Tx Jim]

No sir. Very few acres of Alfalfa have ever been attempted grown in area where I live therefore no hay cubers needed.

 

[NY 986]

The soil can be worked down to being powder but if wet or damp can compact inhibiting opener penetration. Had this happened this past fall and was compounded by running heavier tractor than normal as normal drilling tractor had a clutch problem. Wheat was very slow to come up and there was seed on top of the ground as well where the tractor tires ran. As said above moving the top cotter pin down one hole may help with penetration but most likely will not overcome compaction.

 

[Tx Jim]

If the JD grain drills have mechanical lifts one can turn wheel item 66B shown in link or lever to increase or decrease disk penetration into the soil. https://partscatalog.deere.com/jdrc/sidebyside/equipment/14523/referrer/navigation/pgId/1863538

 

[DavidTT]

Thank you for all the responses. I will check for the disk opener rods for holes, but it does look like there is no rod sticking above the locking mechanism to show maybe they are adjusted for max depth?? Mine is a mechanical lift where you pull the rope and the clutch system drops and raises the discs.

Thank you

 

[flying belgian]

Thank you for all the responses. I will check for the disk opener rods for holes, but it does look like there is no rod sticking above the locking mechanism to show maybe they are adjusted for max depth?? Mine is a mechanical lift where you pull the rope and the clutch system drops and raises the discs.

Thank you

I drilled beans couple years with IH 510 drill. Couple things to point out here. Soybeans population is very forgiving. You can plant beans at 50% pop. and still get 90% yield. 2) uniformity in spacing or depth effects yield very little.
I would drill then spray reemerge then drag. Drag would incorporate pre and cover some seed that was left on top. 3) When drilling beans, if they look real nice when they come up then you planted to heavy.

Reason I quit drilling was I saw very little yield gain and it would take too long to plant 250 acres with 12' drill so I went to my 12 row (30 ft) Kinze planter. I did continue to drill some likkle cockeyed fields or replant drowned out acres. With drill you can just zip around any old way.

 

[Tx Jim]

Thank you for all the responses. I will check for the disk opener rods for holes, but it does look like there is no rod sticking above the locking mechanism to show maybe they are adjusted for max depth?? Mine is a mechanical lift where you pull the rope and the clutch system drops and raises the discs.

Thank you

Raising bottom clip on individual rods will increase spring pressure on the disk. As I stated turning wheel or handle on mechanical lift will also increase/decrease disk ground pressure

 

[buickanddeere]

Adjusting the hitch will raise or lower the front of the drill . Which varies the down pressure .

 

[maqbill]

When pulling the van brunt with my b, I had to flip the drawbar to the low side, things like plowing worked better on the high side. Not an expert, but just play around with it and see how it works. I had hydraulic lift with adjustable down springs.

 

[Briar Hill Brittanys]

These pics are from the manual for an FB drill. I believe the FB-A is very similar but wouldn't bet breakfast on it. As noted in the first picture, tire size plays a part. Hope this helps.

 

[DavidTT]

Thank you. Ya'll have been a big help.

 

[State of Jefferson]

Have you got a manual for it?
They really are very helpful. Good reproductions can be had online.
If memory serves, I got mine from Peaceful Creek.

 

[Tx Jim]

JD drill operators manual can be downloaded for free @ https://techpubs.deere.com/en-US/Search/Equipment