John Deere 7000/7100 unit planter

[Sledgehammer]

1 hour ago, barkerwc4362 said:

Sledgehammer,  So, on that one they used two gauge/drive wheels.  That would make it possible to go to 24" row spacing.  Also it looks like you are using a 2 1/4 diamond tool bar.  That is what I am using now.  

Only one wheel has the chain drive to the transmission. The other is essentially a dummy to keep it level. The 2-4 row 3pt 7000 series planters I've seen run a single wheel with no issues. The unit itself dictates depth so you just need a drive wheel that rolls on the ground when the planter is lowered.  The 4 row we had at work had a trailer jack that raised and lowered the drive wheel. Set it down and crank the drive wheel down to touch.
 

The others I have built below. I shoot for 25,000 normally and plant at 3mph or so. If you get doubles you can always thin it out later. Sweet corn is sickly from the go so in shoot for a good population and even stand. 

[Sledgehammer]

14 minutes ago, barkerwc4362 said:

I need to spray and cultivate with this tractor is the reason I need the 24" row spacing.  After looking at Sledgehammer's set up, it looks like getting a 4 row 7000/7100 and cutting it down to two rows would give me the two drive wheels on the outside that would allow moving the planter units closer together.  Drive wheels could then follow the tractor tracks.

Mine won't get to 24"the way it was built. I would check and see if you could go wider and get a decent spacing before narrow. You do not want the units planting in your tractor tracks. That adds compaction and your stand will suffer. You have to take into account the width of the transmission. It could be mounted on a side but then you would have to worry about jack shafts and such I think and issues lining things up. 

[stronger800]

Planting into tracks isn’t ideal, and I’ve never done it, but he’s talking a pretty small tractor here. If he could tow a full size 4 or 6 row 7000, i bet it would put them in and cover

[acem]

In your situation I would use a single row planter, in the center.

48" rows are ok for sweet corn.

 

[stronger800]

You know, that’s a good point too. And cheaper.  

[barkerwc4362]

In the past when I had a larger garden spot I planted on 40" rows.  Since I am limited by space here at the house I am forced to go to narrower rows with the seed planted farther apart.  Trying to get the same plant population in the narrow rows as I had on the 40" and 30" rows.  I have a single row planter.

I have three Cole MX12 planters.  Two are mounted on a 2 1/2 tool bar and the one you see here is either Cat0 or Cat1, depending on the adapter I attach to the planter.

The problem with 30" rows is I cannot space wheels out wide enough on the compact.  I would need 10" spacers on each wheel, front and rear, for the compact.  Not gonna happen!  The 332 is perfect for 30" rows, but has minimum ground clearance.  

[Sledgehammer]

This sounds goofy but I know someone who did it. Could you reconfigure your toolbar and have one row outside your tire and one row directly behind the drawbar. It would offset basically. I used to spray 4 row chemical trials with a 4-wheeler that was set up this way due to the width of the machine also. You would straddle the second row and spray row one on the left and rows 3/4 on the right. I think your compact could handle that. 

[MTB98]

Mount all three on a toolbar. You should be able to get 30” spacing like that. 

[barkerwc4362]

Spraying is not an issue since I have a small plot.  Usually if I am doing any spraying of corn or beans it is for corn ear worms or army worms.  Both normally are done on mature plants, so the plants are too tall to spray with the tractor.  Planting and cultivating are the issue.  With 40" rows it's not a problem.  I have a cut down John Deere series 400 4 row that is set up for 40" rows.  Regular wheel spacing on the IH and John Deere compacts were/are in the 40" range.

With 30" rows, planting is not a problem.  Cultivation is.  Only the 332's wheel spacing is optimal for 30" rows.  It's cultivator is perfect for 2"-6"

crops but above that it's ground clearance causes problems. 

With 24" rows, currently I can plant using the Cole planter units and cultivate using the other portion of the John Deere 400 cultivator.

So, what I am looking for is a more modern planter, preferably, plate-less, that will plant off the shelf sweet corn seed with consistently.   I'm getting too old to have to keep replanting and thinning to get a good stand.  And, do this in 24" rows.

 

[Sledgehammer]

So you cannot get the volume of corn you desire in 40" rows due to space considerations? I follow better now. I'm sure a finger pickup would do you a nice job if you can make the spacing work. I can't tell you for sure if that's possible because I don't have one to try. Mine has the good openers and press wheels but still has plates which you want to steer away from if possible. 

[acem]

Will the compact tractor pick up a two row 7100 planter?

[MTB98]

10 minutes ago, acem said:

Will the compact tractor pick up a two row 7100 planter?

It should handle that easily. Each row unit is less than 300 pounds. Maybe around 1,000 pounds with a toolbar and drive mechanism. 

[barkerwc4362]

The two row 7000/7100 planter units I see being advertised say weight is around 450lbs so should not be a problem.  I used to have a two row 51 unit planter set up on a 6"x4" tool bar that I picked up easily with both the IH and my current John Deere compact. 

[acem]

I need a several front end weights on my 826 with the 6 row 900 on 3 pt. Otherwise I pop wheelies!

[Matt Kirsch]

You're looking at one of these doodads, right?

They're cut down from 4-row machines.

With the drive wheel in the middle I don't think you can get 24". We had a 7000 Conservation 4-row the last several years we farmed, and it was TIGHT at 30".

[Dirt_Floor_Poor]

If you get the drive wheel/transmission out of the way, the units can be mounted as narrow as 15” spacing. 

[barkerwc4362]

Those are what I am seeing.  But as Dirt_Floor_Poor said change the configuration of the drive wheel/transmission to the outside you could move the units closer together.  On most of these they are welding the transmission on the Toolbar between the units and co-locating the drive wheel to the same place for simplicity.  If the drive wheel was on the outside and ran in the tractor track, the transmission could be on a side also instead of the middle.  Probably want two wheels for balance, so one in each tractor track.  But, only one would drive the units.  Enough pontificating.  I first have to get my shop built, so that has priority.  Actually doing this will probably have to wait until early winter or spring.  Want to thank everyone for their help and advice.

[acem]

The IH/CIH planter can be driven by the press wheels.

[885]

Pretty sure a 7000 cant get down to 24 inch rows with the transmission in-between the row units. If you start off with a bare tool bar and build your own transmission outside of the row units it might work. However it will still be a pain to reach in and access the drive disconnect to remove the hoppers to clean then out. Looks to me like it would be easier to tune the planter that you have by 3d printing the plates you need assuming they are plastic plates. If metal, get a set of plates that are slightly too small for your seed and modify the seed notch with a Dremel to fit your seed

[barkerwc4362]

The problem with plates are the seed is not one size.  When I open one of the packets the kernels vary in size and shape.  If you modify the plate for the small seeds it won't pick up the larger ones and you get skips.  If you modify the plate so it will pick up the large seeds you get multiple smaller seeds each drop.  So you think having to reach into a slightly more confined area will be a problem when right now I have to clean out the hoppers of the Cole by hand, the seed hoppers on the Cole MX-12s are not removable.  Looking at the way the 7000/7100 plate less system ensures singularity seems to be the solution.  I realize there are a great number of both IH and John Deere Unit planters out there that are press wheel driven.  I had a set of John Deere 51 Unit Planters.  Worked great for uniform seed sized product.  But, with seed with widely varying size and shapes not so much.  Just so you all realize my Dad was a seed corn dealer for Pfister Associated Growers (PAG) and would get a set of plates for John Deere planters from PAG to fit the seed corn size in the yearly order.  I learned from my Dad the importance of using the right plate was important to consistent drops.

[jass1660]

Brand new

[barkerwc4362]

Those set ups are all over the place.  Just depends on what you want to pay.  The issue with most of them is they are optimized for 30" rows and the guys here say in that configuration you can't get down to 24".  There are a couple of used 7000 planters close to here that have been sitting for a while I may take a look at just to see what it would take to rig one the way I have in my head.  But, like I said, can't do it right now.  Need to get the shop built first.  Then I can lean on a friend with a welder to see what can be created.  By the way Sledgehammer, Shoup sells a conversion kit to change your plate type 7000 to a plate-less type.  Not cheap, but, it's an option: https://www.shoupparts.com/sh45705-plate-to-plateless-conversion/?srsltid=AfmBOoodB6Onb66JpbulilQ9THO85-0ewPMc2P_WEzyH8HIodi2WRhLA  .

 

[barkerwc4362]

So, here's the concept executed as a one row planter.

Why with a wider tool bar you couldn't put the row units in the middle and have the transmission on one side and the drive wheel on the other?  Looks like the transmission and the drive wheel are u-bolt mounted to the tool bar.  In this case everything is u-bolt mounted except the mount for the top link, which is welded to the tool-bar.

[Dirt_Floor_Poor]

They all bolt to 7x7 tube. All you need is a piece of that and bolt everything up how you want. 

[885]

3 hours ago, barkerwc4362 said:

So, here's the concept executed as a one row planter.

Why with a wider tool bar you couldn't put the row units in the middle and have the transmission on one side and the drive wheel on the other?  Looks like the transmission and the drive wheel are u-bolt mounted to the tool bar.  In this case everything is u-bolt mounted except the mount for the top link, which is welded to the tool-bar.

Yes, this is what i was trying to describe having the transmission outside of the row unit. With that set up you can probably get to your goal.