I've got around 26 David Bradley's I've picked up over the years. Most for parts, for the 5 I use gardening. 3 tractors have different cultivators, for different stages of plant growth. Early planting of cole crops, makes those plants much taller than new seedings planted after the frost date, so that means changing out cultivators, as many as 3 times a day. Much easier to just have 3 different tractors set up, with a particular cultivator.
One I have was a parts machine, with no engine I'd picked up cheap. I normally plant atlest 12 dozen tomato plants, plus various other set plants. 3 years ago, I got the idea of building a transplanter to make it easier on my aging knee's, when setting by hand. The wheels in my head started turning in the Fall on how to build it. What took the longest to figure out how to gear it down to just a creep speed. It dawned on me that a hydraulic drive was the was to go. Started searching for an old wood splitter that needed repair, or some TLC. Within a week, I found my donor splitter, a home made unit, where the owner upgraded to a nice big store bought one. Allcomponents were there in one package for 90% of the power unit build. Found a hydraulic motor on ebay really reasonable around Christmas time, when sellers drop prices to reduce inventory.
The planter unit was totally built from scratch. except the spare rear gauge wheels off a DB cultivator I had. I used worn out disc openers from a no-till planter a buddy of mine had, when they replaced the one's on theirs. Perfect size for what I needed. Just removed the hubs, and made my own to fit. Bought an irrigation shovel from Norwest Mfg. for the furrow opener. The closer/hiller's was made from a hiller/middle buster attachment for a Troybilt tiller, cut in half. Packer wheels were old lawn mower wheels. I used the hydraulic control valve of the splitter to engage the drive motor. Routing it through the return/detente position, to turn the hydraulic motor on, and use the OEM DB hand engaged cluthc to start & stop.
Surprisingly it works pretty well. I can set 12 dozen tomato plants in approx. 45 minutes. My aging back an knee's sure appreciate it.
Here's a short video of it on it's maiden voyage, just showing how slow it moves. Even as slow as it looks, setting plants with it, at first felt like it was moving 20 mph. Once I got coordinated with what I was doing, it went much smoother. This year was the 3rd year to use it, and happy to report it still works very well. Well worth the time and money to build. The feeling of satisfaction building something like this is immeasurable. Also couple pics of my other tractors in use in the garden.
MOV 2152 - YouTube
