Homemade Self Propelled Sprayer

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"It has a lot of torque and lugging power and can go almost anywhere without spinning out or bogging down on hills, says Bob Alger, Dayton, Va., about the steel-wheeled spray rig he built that's equipped with narrow 2 1/ 2-in. wide steel wheels faced with hard buggy rubber. The narrow wheels allow it to work in solid-seeded standing crops without doing damage. They also reduce compaction to a minimum.
This is Alger's second narrow-wheel sprayer. His first machine (Vol. 16, No. 6) was powered by a 20 hp Onan gas engine and used a Honda 8 hp gas engine to operate the sprayer. He built the new machine to get more power. It's also fitted with a bigger spray tank and boom. The self-propelled rig is powered by a Lister Petter 3-cyl. water-cooled 30 hp diesel engine equipped with a stub shaft on front and back. One shaft direct-drives a Sundstrand hydraulic pump that operates hydraulic motors mounted on both the front and rear drive axles. The other side belt-drives a smaller hydraulic pump that powers a centrifugal pump on the sprayer, which consists of a 200-gal. spray tank and a 32-ft. boom.
Alger made the 2 1/2-in. wide steel wheels by cutting 48-in. circles out of 11-ga. sheet metal and welding the outside edges of truck wheel rims to the steel circles. Steel spokes run to the inside of each wheel. Two and a half inch thick commercially available hard rubber buggy tires were applied to the narrow wheels at a buggy shop. The new ma-chine can also be equipped with big 9.25 by 36-in. rubber tires on back that provide improved traction during the winter.
"The difference in torque between using the diesel engine and the gas engines is unbelievable. It'll do everything but climb a tree. Also, I can go twice as fast with this machine because the power is better matched to the job," says Alger.
"I spent $13,000 on the original rig and used it on about 5,000 acres. I recently sold it for $7,500 to a Pennsylvania farmer who uses it to do custom work. I spent about $22,000 to build the new rig which is built much heavier."
Alger says he's willing to custom build the spray rig.

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