Seed belts/ Closing wheels

[Anonymous-0]

Going to rebuild my planter this winter, JD 7000. My seed belts are fairly new and in good shape, would it pay to put in the new type that are cupped? Anyone who has these think they make some type of better preformance? Sec. Question I want to put a spiked closing wheel on one side, do they help close the seed trench like they say? I have seen ads for lots of differant kinds, looking for input from anyone on their brand and how they work for them. Thanks


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[NY 986]

I have not tried the cupped belts so I can not help you there. I will say it is money well spent to have the meters sent in to be checked/tested by a technician. The belts are subject to stretching and can reach a point where they will not ride over the dimples (via the belt hole) like they should and cause incorrect spacing of seed. Belts for the longest time were under 5 dollars a piece and now are only in the range of 7 dollars a piece. Pretty cheap insurance if you are unsure about condition.

 

[john e.c. mi]

I think the cupped belts will only help you if you have the 'Bulls eye' seed tubes from Precision Planting.

I have one spike closing wheel but do alot of no-till with my planter. I like them and think they help close the slot but if you are in conventional tilage you shouldn't need them.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Sorry, forgot to say that I do no till and some ground is heavy clay and there are times I can't get as good of close as I would like. I also plan to add drag chains to help seal

 

[JDseller]

Your seed belts will not make much difference to your plant spacing. You need to have good backing plates that have a good seed dimple and no rust. Then check the tension in every seed finger spring. They should all be the same and even. New seed brushes EVERY year. Then just set the nut to have a "light" drag. There is no other adjustment on a finger pickup. These guys that say they "tune" your unit are just doing what I described above. You will get a better spacing driving between 4 and 4 1/2 mph. A faster speed will hurt your spacing more than anything you can do.

As for closing wheels I have had very good luck with Martin brand ones. I would not recommend using two spiked one. The single one with a good drag chain does best. Those drag chains are NOT just log chain. They are a square twisted chain. The ones that are just log chain drag a pile and then dump. The others drag a smooth pile so you have uniform coverage.

 

[Mike Aylward]

I have worked on hundreds of finger units and what JDSeller says is true. You have to remember that what works on a stand does not represent field conditions where the unit is bouncing, etc. One other adjustmet that is critical is centering the plate that covers the belt. If this cover is not centered the belt will crowd to one side or the other and cause the whole unit to drag which can cause erratic spacing. You want the belt to run in the center between the two sides. A finger unit on 30" rows planting 30,000 plants at 5 mph will meter just a shade over 12 seeds per second, which is 1 rpm per second. In field conditions I doubt the seed has time to "center" in a cupped belt. Mike

 

[Anonymous-0]

Just want to say thanks for all the info. so far.The 4 to 4 1/2 mph has always seemed to work best for me, and what was said about the belts centering seed at that rate makes sense. I'm planning om new brushs, back plates and going through the fingers and springs. One other thing... I was planning to replace the seed openers, mine are 14" but seem tight at the front, I though I saw someplace about checking the gap with I think two cards. Anyone know about this? Thanks again

 

[john e.c. mi]

I think Deere says replace the discs when they wear down to 14.5"

 

[Anonymous-0]

the cupped belts help. precision does a few things to help the finger meter. as far as speed goes i have seen on the test stand that some seeds need to go different speeds to work the best. to slow can be just as bad as to fast. but to fast will cause more than just singulation problems!