Deere B drill.. Your thoughts

[Cavjock22]

gentlemen, I have the opportunity to purchase a used barn stored drill for approximately $500.. it's either a 10 foot or 12 foot model. Looks to be in decent condition. it was stored inside a barn and a fluted design. sealed boxes show no corrosion. What I'm being told is that means it has various adjustments and very easy to adjust. My goal for this attachment would be winter deer food plots and summer early fall sunflower plots. I have a kubota 63 horse tractor. My plan is to offset disc first and then use the drill. Please share your comments both good and bad. Am i going down the right road? Is this a good price for the drill?

 

[flusher]

gentlemen, I have the opportunity to purchase a used barn stored drill for approximately $500.. it's either a 10 foot or 12 foot model. Looks to be in decent condition. it was stored inside a barn and a fluted design. sealed boxes show no corrosion. What I'm being told is that means it has various adjustments and very easy to adjust. My goal for this attachment would be winter deer food plots and summer early fall sunflower plots. I have a kubota 63 horse tractor. My plan is to offset disc first and then use the drill. Please share your comments both good and bad. Am i going down the right road? Is this a good price for the drill?

Price for that drill seems OK considering it's pretty good condition.

I paid $270 in 2006 for two old steel wheel Minneapolis Moline P3-6 drills (10 ft wide, 20 drops, single disc openers, with the additional boxes for small seeds). Used parts from both to make one working drill and one lawn ornament.

Pulled it with my 2008 Mahindra 5525 (overkill) and used it to plant about 7 acres of Kanota oats.



Good luck

 

[Cavjock22]

Price for that drill seems OK considering it's pretty good condition.

I paid $270 in 2006 for two old steel wheel Minneapolis Moline P3-6 drills (10 ft wide, 20 drops, single disc openers, with the additional boxes for small seeds). Used parts from both to make one working drill and one lawn ornament.

It's my understanding that single disk openers are very hard to adjust to diff size seeds. Is that correct?

Pulled it with my 2008 Mahindra 5525 (overkill) and used it to plant about 7 acres of Kanota oats.

View attachment 519284View attachment 519285View attachment 519286View attachment 519287

Good luck

It's my understanding that single disk openers are very hard to adjust to diff size seeds. Is that correct?

 

[Turbys_1700]

I have my dad's old Van Brunt B 14 drop drill in the barn. It is galvanized has only a seed bin. No rust. IMHO $500 is fair if the drill is in good condition. We drilled wheat, soybeans, and grass with ours. Excellent drill. An offset disc will work. We always used a cultipacker after the drill.

 

[BHD]

It's my understanding that single disk openers are very hard to adjust to diff size seeds. Is that correct?

the single disk do not need to be adjusted for seed size, but for depth, of planting of the seed
the basic adjustment is spring tension, and the adjustment of the cotter pins to adjust the amount of pressure and or depth of travel, if the soil is consistent there is little problem, speed of travel with the drill/tractor has an effect on how much soil is thrown, and there is the depth set, with either levers or by the "power lift" which adjust the point on which the springs are pushed down, and how much there pushed down, (think there is two positions on them),

I usually use the RB or the DR drills for most of our planting and use the B for feed, as it is 7" spacing, but we have planted thousands of acres with the same single disk set up, and it is a good set up, (not a high speed set up, keep you speed to under 5 mph, preferable under 4 mph, if the soil is properly worked and the drill is set correctly

the old Vanbrunts are a very very versatile drill,

 

[cat fever]

Sounds like a good buy to me. I paid 450 for the 8' Van Brundt model B. Good drill no issues. I did make my own hitch for it as the original was sub par in my opinion.

 

[dragoneggs]

Stunning pics, Cat! You seem to have some photographic composition experience.

 

[cat fever]

Stunning pics, Cat! You seem to have some photographic composition experience.

Trust me, it's all luck. I have the cheapest Nikon "point and shoot" camera made.:laughing:

PS, most of the time it's my wife taking the pictures. You can see me in the tractor. The only thing I tell her is make sure the background looks good.

 

[dragoneggs]

Hey, I have photography experience and understanding the basics is key. Building on that is the fun. Okay, kudos to your wife. You have come clean. She is the one that has been taking those beautiful pics going back some time now! :stirthepot:

 

[Turbys_1700]

Nice drill cat fever. I've got it's brother in the barn. I have no idea how many acres my dad used it on. We used it for over 25 years planting soybeans and wheat. Those drills are stone cold reliable. I had to get a spring for the right side trip gear and Deere shipped it to me. Sorta dumbfounded that they still have limited parts support for those.

 

[cat fever]

I bought mine last year from the original owner complete with the owner's manual. This was the first crop I planted with it.

 

[Cavjock22]

Nice drill cat fever. I've got it's brother in the barn. I have no idea how many acres my dad used it on. We used it for over 25 years planting soybeans and wheat. Those drills are stone cold reliable. I had to get a spring for the right side trip gear and Deere shipped it to me. Sorta dumbfounded that they still have limited parts support for those.

Is working on these pretty basic with decent mech skills and basic tools?
Good to see parts are still available..

 

[Turbys_1700]

Is working on these pretty basic with decent mech skills and basic tools?
Good to see parts are still available..

Yes. All mechanical and simple. I think those B's are mid to late 40 to early 50 models. Those old Van Brunt drills were so popular that Deere bought them out many years ago. Lots of folks now use them as food plots drills. We previously had an FB model with the fertilizer hopper. A lot of those drills rusted out from the fertilizer usage.

 

[Cavjock22]

Guy,
I bought the drill and now have to get it hauled to the ranch. Too busy of a highway so I need to haul on trailer. I have an 18' 14K pipe sides trailer. I will have to lift the drill into the trailer. Any idea how to accomplish this safely. The seller has a large tractor with forks and I have a bota M6060 also with forks..
Ideas or suggestions to load??

 

[Tigershark]

congrats on the drill sounds like a good deal. I have had good success with 2 30K tow straps without hooks. They haven't damaged anything I have loaded before like chains have and they are strong enough to do the job. They also grip better than chains so you can wrap them around multiple times. I think with the forks you wouldn't have an issue.

 

[Briar Hill Brittanys]

"I will have to lift the drill into the trailer. Any idea how to accomplish this safely. The seller has a large tractor with forks and I have a bota M6060 also with forks..
Ideas or suggestions to load??"

I've bought several old JD/VB drills of various models. Every one of them has been lifted up by the tongue and set down on the trailer. Reverse when unloading. Just have to be careful when setting it down. A couple of them had the foot boards on back that propped the drill up.

 

[flusher]

When I sold that Minneapolis Moline P3-6 drill (see my previous post in this thread for photos), I just chained it to the bucket on my Mahindra 5525, lifted it about 4 feet and the buyer backed his gooseneck flatbed trailer under the drill. Easy peasy. Didn't bother to remove the hitch on the drill since he was only moving it a few miles on county back roads.

Good luck

 

[Cavjock22]

Very disappointed.. I went to pick up the "barn stored" drill yesterday. This was my first close inspection of the grain drill that was to be "field ready".. wow was I disappointed. All boxes were in miraculously good shape but all the running gear and chains had alot of corrosion and rust. All adjustments were froze as well. Only one of the three boxes had chain hooked up.. I told the owner to hook it up to his tractor so that I can confirm my fears. Sure enough, the tires didn't even want to turn. Everything is pretty much in a bind or froze up. Yes, with some TLC and some love you could probably get this thing cleaned up to run but unfortunately I don't have days to spend cleaning it up.. Im on the hunt again..

 

[Cavjock22]

I have found another drill. It cost me 0.00!! I’m excited but anticipating some work it will need. i have seen pics of it. One thingy i liked was that it had old oat seed in it. Looks like it’s been used recently. Question, if the running gear is frozen, what is the best way to help loosen it all up..

 

[BHD]

clean it out, and put some diesel in the box and let it soak, grease all zerks, and if not able to get grease in a Zerk, clean it and try again,

and then take a 5/8" wrench or adjustable open end, AKA crescent, and work the shaft under the box that turns the flutes or cups,

one could take and jack up the drill, and work the wheel carefully, back and forth, if the feed shaft is bound up one can end up breaking the gears on a deere, if you do not manualy break it free, there is a reason under the lids it says "if the drill has set for more than 30 mins work the shaft,"