Does anyone in the Lincolnshire/Notts area have any experience of drilling with a Claydon drill into heavy clay land? Has anyone established their crop this way this season, and would be willing to let us come and see how it is going? Are you a contractor in the area who would be interested in drilling us 25 acres in this way to see if it works?

Failing that, is anyone selling a 6m or 8m Simba Freeflow drill? Must have decent packers and bearings, and wire front scraper. Narrow/low draft (miniflow type) coulters preferable.

Also looking for 7 or 9 leg cousins flatlift with good rear packer (not crumbler)

Cheers,

Cant help you with the claydon T/C although I may know where you can find a 6m freeflow. I remember looking through a catologue from Brocks of Essex about a month ago and they had a 2001,6m,freeflow for sale. It had wire scrapers although they are unescessary. Have you tried moving the scraper bars (front and back) away from the rubber rollers so the mud will flick off as the rubber rollers gives (chap at simba advised this when we first got ours and works well)

Also Brocks will be able to help with ur flatlift. They have no website (religous reasons so im told) but give them a call 01371 830353. We bought a nice five leg from them 3 years ago (cousins legs fitted) which they specially build at remarkable standards. They are in a huge way and know exactly what they are talking about.

Besta Luck.

I will give them a call - we run two 4m models, one with and one without wire, and I would pull the one with wire anytime. Especially drilling late on after beet on clay.

I love freeflow drills. I am working on my own built duett coulters, and reckon it will make a cracking job behind the new tractor ;)

 There is a chap called James Reid who is running one over notts and lincs. He is very helpful and ennthusiastic!

Let me know if you want his contact details.

TeslaCoils:

I love freeflow drills. I am working on my own built duett coulters, and reckon it will make a cracking job behind the new tractor ;)

T/C you reminded me that a few years back a chap from Farmeco did manage to convert a freeflow to duetts but dunno how they got on with it?  Do you run miniflow points on the freeflow coulter?

Back to '1995' when they were released very few farmers had a tractor big enough to pull them. These days when 180hp+ is common on a drill I think they'd of taken off hugely. If anything simba were ten years to early bringing them out IMO as they were well advanced for there time.

I was advised by simba to move the bar away as he explained they were only meant to be for holding the bearings in place. I found if anything the scraper packed the mud on tighter. New horschs dont have anything!

I would be interested to see a picture of your invention.  

The horsch drills dont have any front coulters, so the front packer/tyres dont tend to get dirty.

Converting to duetts is an easy job - problem is that simba are wanting a fortune for official parts. I think 2 years ago they modified the duett coulter, and replaced a lot of origional ones. I enquired about a set of 16 of the old ones that they were going to chuck, and they wanted about 6 grand for 16. I reckon it cant be hard to build my own, although maybe something more like those on a claydon with the A points.

Simba are actually getting a lot of enquiries for s/h freeflows. I like the horsch, but as I picked up a mint 4m freeflow for under 5k with new rollers, spending over £30k on a drill is expensive! Thing is I now have a very big tracked beast, which would look silly with 4m behind it. They also make good trailed cultivators if you replace the drilling coulters with rigid tynes.

One of our freeflows has the 'standard' coulter points. The other has the longer points from the miniflow - the ones that can be turned over, along with the matching boots. These are skinnier in the soil.

My prototype is on the sketchpad - not yet in the workshop, as I thought I could make them spung on some vaderstad cultivator springs, but I dont think they will fit onto the steel sections. *scratch head* Certinaly with diesel the price it is, I am keen to keep the cultivation that the freeflow does, but cut the draft so I can get 6m behind the 260hp crawler at pace.

T/C I dont think any horsch drills(pronto or co) have scrapers whatsoever on either the front or rear packers. I moved the scraper as far away as possible from the front roller as it would act like a brake causing the roller to skid rather than turn in wetter conditions.

I am not surprised simba are still getting secondhand enquires afterall they are making good money at auctions nowadays. I told them to update the design abit,put proative tines on the front (like the new cultipress) so no shearbolts, Leave the front roll as it was, put some duetts on for trash clearance that or the dale conversion kit as standard, a bigger hopper, and a staggered individual wheel arangement although make the tyres airless cos punctures piss me off. They probably wont listen.

Seems like you have an eye for a bargain at under 5k anyway. Weve had our drill a long while now but cant see it going for a while as there are more important things on the shopping list. Besides things look well behind it so why change afterall.

How comes you got 2 then you must have more to do than me that or more drivers? Have you looked into the dale conversion http://www.daledrills.com/13.html think thats around 3k for a 4m and would reduce power according to them. Youd be set up for no-till then and wouldnt have to worry about the claydon!

Yes, I like your ideas to update the drill. Bigger hopper vital, but I cant agree on staggered wheels! It might just be easier to make a toolbar for a horsch drill that has the pro-active cultivation and fits on the front as an option. I agree with your view on punctures - they should either foam-fill tryes, or at least pump some OKO in to begin with.

We've got two partly because I di have an eye for a bargain, and partly because we can leave one set up for wheat and one for rape, or one at each farm. Not worth selling one of them when we can keep two going if we need to.

Looked at the Dale conversion, and to my mind it looked a bit rubbish. It is not designed for direct drill; it is just to reduce draft and hp requirement, as it is only the coulter boots, and not the Dale shattering points. I am thinking more that a quadtrack, 4.8 or 6m claydon, 9 leg subsoiler and a st of rolls would do pretty much everything. Direct drill (with a bit of subsoiling) seems the next logical step.

If simba dont listen, build your own - I would welcome any sugestions for what I am trying to make!

The staggered would definately help the 'tidal wave' effect on lighter soils when consolidation hasnt been carried out on ploughed land. One solid rear axle for the packer is handy for only needing two bearings although you do get a differential effect when turning tight which can leave big holes if not used correct! Having used it for about 6 years now ive pretty much mastered how to get the best out of it making several modifications as I go along to improve performance.

Going back to the updated freeflow I would also make the coulters spacing longer apart so there is more clearance in front and behind each coulter. That would make the drill about a meter longer (in my design)  although it would handle mega volumes of trash. Im sure many will agree,call it the freeflow 2 (it does have a ring dont you think?) carry out all these mods suggested- this time next year we'll be millionaires!

We could always start a 'get freeflows in production again' petition. BUT....On the more sensible note (and boring note) although they get loads of enquires from customers about building them again unfortunately they dont have the capacity at sleaford anymore and they make more money slapping thier stickers on horsch drills!

Il give you ur do, you have big ideas with the quad. The claydon has been a bit hit and miss around here so ul probably not like my comments. Ive seen rapes behind it (nothing spectacular) and Ive seen several disasters due to the farmers own timeliness. Mind you, alot of our neighbours crops i have seen behind it are always a month to late being put in due to them trying to take on half the worlds arable land. I would be able to get a nice crop from it just by spending a little time making adjustments and drilling in the correct conditions rather than bodging I would say.

Thinking about ur drill. If you are eager to keep ur 16 coulters why dont you put on vibroflex tines which are similar to the claydon and then run the pipes down the back? They look about the same height as the normal tines,wont cost the earth although you will be wide on the row but for rape this could be better???

Whats the spec of the drill ur modding? have you brought urself to start cutting yet?

It wont be for light soil, and i am hoping to ditch the plow. Basically, I want a cheap Horsch with inexpensive wearing parts, but also with some cultivation done as well. I am hoping it will go into land that has just been subsoiled and rolled, or into a non-inversion seedbed. We have drilled with the 4m freeflow (wheat) into wheat stubbles that had been flatlifted straight after the combine. Made a pretty decent job, and for a mid-November drilling it yielded ok. Much less expense in terms of fuel and hebicide.

I havent got a drill to mod yet. I could do one of our 'spare' 4m freeflows, but I really think I need to be looking at a 6m model.

I had thought of vibroflex tynes already - they are on my 'maybe' list. I saw some tidy 6" knock on points that I thought I could sprinkle a band of seed behind a-la claydon/horsch. It is very much in my head at the moment.

How's the drill coming along TeslaCoils. I saw a simple but effective home built 6m drill the other day. 4 rows of pigtail tynes with bakerboots and 150mm row spacing. It had an accord seeder plonked on top and towed a rubber tyred roller. It was used to min till or DD about 700 ha/yr quite successfully for the last 10 or so years.

Whats the advantage of planting seed in bands as opposed to rows?

Bands mean (in theory) less working parts in the soils, so less draft.

Work has stopped as my wife has be chronically sick since mid Jan :(

I hope your wife's health improves.