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I have two. A 6 row 30 for working and a 4 row wide for spare parts. The first year or two planting with the 6 row 30, I'd have stopped and built a bonfire fire around, if there had been enough material to burn. It and I get along a lot better now. I was trying to plant small flats and it doubled them up to the point that I'd run out of seed every time. And it would plug up the feed tube between the seed hopper and the drum. First thing was to change to medium or large ROUND seed and a new brush. It doesn't plant doubles now. The second thing was to fix the leaks around the seed tank. Air leaks there were more than the air tube could supply. Most were where the top and bottom join at a flanged joint. Yes, it bunches up the seed with irregular spacings. Since I run a low fertility operation, I just plant fairly thick (28,000 per acre last year) and let the variable ear fill take care of the variable spacing. I guarantee that the ears won't fill at that plant density so I don't loose yield so much when a plant is relatively isolated and has more area to get nutrients and would fill the ear to the end. Its important each time its used to clean the pipes thoroughly, last year that meant running a wire through each and pulling a swab through. I tried the monitor the first year, it didn't work, and I've not taken the effort to fix up the wiring and clean the sensors. I did mount a truck mirror on the planter so I can look back and see the rising side of the drum turning and filled with seed. I also mounted the off center wheel and flag to show the seed wheels on the drum but don't remember to look at it. Maybe I should move it to the other side so its on the same side as the mirror. I had to replant some last year when I found I'd made a pass or two across the field with the seed wheels off the drum. When the corn came up there was corn from both passes. Mine is belt drive, 540 PTO. I'll need to replace bearings and belts sometime. Parts like that I'll buy new from CIH or wherever I can find them, other parts I'll filch from the spare. I paid $190 at a consignment auction for the 6 row, essentially ready to plant except for monitor, and $50 for the parts planter. I've already made the 6 row a 4 support wheel planter for wet ground because I planted it once a year in wet spots, but it wasn't wet last spring. Last year out of three sacks of seed corn, I had less than a gallon left after finishing planting, about the same after 6 sacks of beans. Now that I fixed the air leaks on the seed tank, its doing quite well. My JD4020 gets long just fine with the single acting cylinders for lift and for markers. My MF-135 (and it was a grunt to pull with the 135) didn't handle the hydraulics so well so I put in an extra valve that was designed for single acting cylinders and locked the tractor hydraulics in the on position to feed the external valve. That worked. I'm not interested in that bonfire now. Gerald J.
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