I update the Gator Sprayer into the Gator Sprayer Maximum Overdrive Firetruck Potential Gator Delux (GSMOFPGD)

There are ideas, there are good ideas and there are successful good ideas. A lot of the difference is in the execution of the aforementioned idea...

My Gator Sprayer project is a grand example. 

It was a project I thought about while driving in circles and concentrated on while sitting in the Emergency room for two days. The codeine combo may have adversely affected the design. (or is it effected-I never know)

The Gator Sprayer has proved to be incredibly handy. The spacing is correct for corn rows. It works for applying hay preservative as you can turn on boom sections to do two windrows at once, it is great for spraying pipelines and ditches.

When I was employed by the Sodomite Learing University I set up a sprayer for a Mule. Due to their lack of understanding on why employee's steal stuff, they would not let me order the sprayer from my brother's business, instead they got royally screwed by a local ag dealer who I am not related to.

Probably because the University sits on stolen land... 

(I have nothing against the salesman. He was super helpful.)

When the sprayer arrived I then had to significantly modify the sprayer to get it to fit in the Mule and to be easy to run by whatever idiot would follow me. It does fit in the Mule and I built a somewhat rickety stand that allows one person to install and remove the sprayer. However, there is no one who can run now it as apparently speed, pressure, and color coded nozzle charts printed by T-Jet are beyond comprehension. (Click here for the link) Also, they "lost" the GPS speedometer. 

But I digress...

I wanted to build a new sprayer from scratch. I had the Gator, I had a box of oddball MicroTrak rate controller parts, I found this trash pump on sale at Harbor Freight, and I found a sprayer tank cheap on Ebay. So I put it all together.

This was the first incarnation with three boom sections and simple plumbing. It has gotten quite complicated since then.

 

It sort of works. The main problem is that I used a small trash pump. I would swear the specs said max output was 65lbs but I could never get more than 45lbs. High volume and now pressure does not work with an automatic rate controller.  It appears that to go to 90lbs I needed a $2,000 pump. The point of the exercise was to see if I could build a skid mounted UTV sprayer that was inexpensive and sell a few. This turned out to be pointless as every farmer I know wants to build their own or buy something from the local snooty GPS seller/dealer.

I used it last year and it sort of worked. The rate controller was too slow to respond which was frustrating. After a season of frustration I decided to upgrade the pump for more pressure. 

I asked CoPilot artificial intelligence and was directed to a Honda Powered 92 PSI pump at Northern Hydraulics for under $1000.  Unfortunately I did not think of the difficulties in plumbing in a new pump with 2" input and output vs 1.25" in and out. This required all new plumbing so I gutted it and started from scratch with a bypass system because I have so much excess flow with a trash pump.

 

It is a mess of plumbing at this point

It has turned into a plumbing adventure. With the new high flow high pressure system I went from a restricted flow set up to a bypass flow control setup. I was advised putting the filter on the output was a bad idea and it needed to go onto suction. My tank outlet is only 1" so I have a restriction there so I went from the tank to the 1 1/2" filter inlet as close to the tank as possible. 

I plumbed the autorate controller valve bypass outlet into the suction line between filter and pump. It should be running a lot of bypass. I plumbed a range control/agitation line right off the pump, then the boom, then the rate controller bypass. I decided to run the sprayer wand off the boom circuit so I could still get a gallon readout. 

I finally just drew it all out on a piece of cardboard big enough I can read without glasses.

This is my regulating valve. I might be too slow for my set up as I am going from 1 to 10 mph with a Gator. 

I got annoyed and gave up at 8:30 pm last night.

Perhaps I should get on it this morning...

But, I have hay fields to look at and fertilize, a leak on the lower the three point link on the White 2-155 that requires a serious pressure clean and transmission drain, feed to make, oats to pick up, and I need a nap already at 8 a.m.

We shall see what the day brings... 

Update: Last night I got into an argument with AI CoPilot about the sprayer plumbing. I think it will create a feedback loop. Now CoPilot says I should plumb the bypass direct to the tank.  I looked up the MicroTrak schematic also which is different. Here is the deal... I used CoPilot because I could give it the hose sizes and it could figure flow. I have a restriction at the tank on suction so I routed the auto bypass back to the pump and the manual bypass to the agitation. I suspect that the whole high volume and medium pressure cheap pump plan will be a failure. Should have bought a roller pump and mechanically adapted it to a cheap Harbor Freight GX Clone...

 

 

 

I do spraying stuff, I write a blog post while on hold with Kaiser HMO, it may been another nice day!

I wasted a lot of time yesterday. I should be supervising a baler rebuild, but then I want to get involved in a hands on manner and there I am all day.

Instead I worked on a sprayer. I think that is what farmers do when they don't want to do real work. They say, "well, I have to get the sprayer going..." This is a good plan because it is an unpleasant enough job that no one will question your work ethic, it is an invaluable piece of equipment, and there is always something to repair on a sprayer.

My Gator came with a crappy electric sprayer. I hated that sprayer at work and I wanted it to disappear. I only accepted it for parts as I hate throw anything away. When I had to use it before, I used it exactly like the person who built it told me to use it. He built it, it was his plan, and he knew how he wanted it used. So I had no reason to change.

There was no real problem with his design. He built it with what he had. The main issue he had was the electric pump and there was no agitation for the spray tank. The other problem was/is that for some reason when you get down to two gallons in the tank, the pump loses its prime and won't reprime. 

I didn't really take good care of the sprayer as I had never intended to use the sprayer again. It sat in the greenhouse until it started to rust from the humidity and was so much in the way that I was going to throw it in the trash. The mechanic told me to take it home. I was accumulating parts to build a sprayer like I rebuilt for the college so I thought I could use something off of it. I wanted to build a sprayer for a UTV while I am a cripple but, I am limited in what I am supposed to be doing. Welding and lifting stuff is highly frowned on by the higher powers. Also, it causes pain.)  

At some point over the couple years it has been setting in the way I decided to try using it to spray molasses into the feed mill. That completely plugged it up. 

So I had some problems.

I also discovered that the pressure regulator wasn't hooked to a return line and so it actually worked the opposite of how you would expect. This was not a difficult fix but required digging through buckets of pipe fittings and numerous trips to the shop at a hobble.

The one modification I made was to change the boom plumbing so that I could shut off the main boom and just use the side boom for spraying ditches. My friend who built the boom made it out of PVC pipe and used this cool irrigation fitting to make a side swing boom. However there were two problems. Since it is a wet boom, I had to improve support for the PVC pipe and I needed to shut off the main boom and run the side boom. I didn't want to use electric valves or add bulky plumbing.

The support issue was solved with a bit of scrap metal. The boom problem took more thought. Fortunately my friend had plumbed a drain on the side boom. I added a quick connector to the drain and put a quick connector plug on the main boom, and I was in business. I just have to switch hoses to use both booms.

The electrical issues are ongoing. The pump does not prime unless I pressurize the tank. I don't want to spend $175 on a new pump. I installed a voltage gauge in the Gator which lets me know if I am out of power. I also installed my MicroTrak, FlowTrak II and a Sensor-1 GPS speedometer. Because I like stuff like that. It makes me feel all scientifical and stuff. I think also I have the parts to also put my FarmerGPS computer in the Gator for guidance.

The FlowTrak gave me a lot of problems. I was using it on the new sprayer at work and was going to donate it to the university when I left. However, I just decided to keep it. For some reason I had to completely recalibrate it even though I had the same flowmeter and the same brand of GPS speedometer. 

Calibration was frustrating. I think low voltage was a problem as the speed calibration would not save to memory. Finally, I just started spraying ditches as I needed to do something before dark. 

I had a clever plan. I found a long straight road. I set the FlowTrak linear measuring setting to zero. I started spraying. I then used the app FieldsAreaMeasure to also track my distance. I then could compare the distances. When I selected Run/Hold, Calc and turned the switch to change wheel size it also updates your distance. So I just adjusted the wheel size until I got the same distance as FieldAreaMeasure.

Suddenly everything worked. Even the gallons were close. Isn't science wonderful!

My secondary scheme is to use the FlowTrak to turn the pump on and off. I actually read the manual and I think there is an extra wire which I can connect to a relay which I can use to switch main power to the electric pump. Then I can wire the pump directly to a battery and use the run/hold function of the FlowTrak to turn the pump on and off. 

The best thing about this idea is that I will end up with a convoluted maze of wiring and I will never remember which wire goes where. This confusion for some strange reason gives me comfort in life.

Go figure...

(this blog was created while on hold with my HMO. I still don't have an appointment with my HMO because when I finally got a live person on the line, I was disconnected...)

Switch hitting

I've spend a week wiring a stupid switch for my grain drill monitor. I am some what of an anateur at electrical wiring. Now when I say amature I mean "pathetic failure," but we should not quibble with semantics.
Those of you who are interested in things like flowmeters, microtrak spraymate monitors, Great Plains 1500 drills, no-till, and FarmerGPS may actually read this post and enjoy it. Perhaps someone will click the offensive comment box. I don't know.
Anyway, I wired a magnetic switch so that when you raise the drill it puts the flowmeter, and calc-an-acre, and the GPS on hold so they stop counting. At one point it also turned the fertilizer valve off. I also have a landmark foam marker that has faulty wiring.
So, I'm trying to wire this all into one switch box. I used a plastic conduit box and made use of several bosch relays and a hay baler stroke counter sensor to do all of this. However, the wires and relays now won't fit in the box and I have to redo it a bunch more.
Yesterday I was soldering the grounds together in the foam marker box and it just started pouring. I decided it would be better not to get electricuted so I gave up on that. Then a fellow came by to discuss no-till and Great Plains drills. Then a fellow showed up who wants me to plant. Then I took my daughter to her Mom's school so they could go into town and watch "the biggest loser," at niece's house. Then I get back and I get started soldering again and it gets dark. I turn on the tractor lights, then it pours. I go in the house and get warm. I come back out and start the tractor and crank up the heater and work on the wire in the cab.
How can it possibly take so long to crimp and route wires and figure out double-pole-double-throw switches? I actually need to get this done and do things I really need to get done. I can't quit now I've got everything apart.
But....It is wet. I'm a little worried about my last 200 acres. I really, really, need the money...
Wonder how many people will click here by mistake with "amature" in the body text. I've thought about spiking a post with all sorts of keywords to see what will happen. Now if I'd combine "amature, naughty, spanking, wanker, and Studebaker" as keywords, I wonder if I would get british studebaker collectors who do all the restoration work them selves, sometimes shoplift, and have an embarrassing personal habit that cold lead to blindness. Now there would be an interesting demographic.
Once I did a search for amature radio. Oh my goodness! And that was with the safe search filter on!!!!