Boom or boomless sprayer build?? Need Help!!

[Lance2622]

Thanks all for the help and guidance! I appreciate it!

 

[BHD]

I have a 300 gallon sprayer, that is on a trailer, at one time used it on corn, it came with booms, and they were OK and maybe even better in a field environment, as it would spray between the rows, but was a B1tch when it came to fences and spraying between machinery and so on, I found a boom less head that would shoot about 30 foot, (the same as my booms, and mounted it (you could go right or left or both) and found that great, for fences and ditches and around machinery, as there were no booms to catch things, and for what I have used it for of late, there are no booms on it any more, but I no longer do row crops,

I doubt that the boom less nozzle is as accurate as a boomed unit, but for just general weed control not that big of a problem,

and the boom less nozzles have bigger openings in them and do not plug near as easily as the little units on the booms, (even with filters),

actually I do not remember the boom less nozzle ever plugging on me,

I have mine mounted in the center of the sprayer, the only draw back if your spraying ditches your spaying some of the road way as well, (if i would reposition it, off to the side (edge of the sprayer) ditch side, one would not do the road, but having it so it can be repositions mounted easily, (I have used the tapered spade and socket mounts, that were sold for the SMV signs, make quick holders for things like that, Slow Moving Vehicle Signs

I also valved the line so I could use a hose reel and a hand wand for some type of spot spraying,

 

[boggen]

PDF that BukitCase gave, right in the PDF file, it says a cab is needed.

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spraying chemicals can be good and ugly, drifting mist. is a big thing. and only spraying when it is not windy can help a lot. and also keeping the spray nozzles on booms lower to the ground. and going with nozzles that do not create a super fine mist can help even more in keeping chemicals were the need to be, vs drifting across the land and to some place were they are not suppose to go.

check your PTO pump, for some sort of numbers on it, if not some sort of name brand possible, to look up specs. some PTO pumps can have high pressure, while others not so much. the pressure rating for pump is what may predict getting cheaper pipe / hose, vs more expensive higher pressure rated pipe / hose.

your GPM from PTO pump, may predict how wide of a boom/s you can go with, and how many nozzles (spray tips) you can have total. and what type of nozzles (spray tips) you end up using on the boom/s.

for spray tips for booms, prefer, the spray bodies, and lock nuts that hold the tips, were i can hand tighten, and then use a flat head screw driver, on bottom of spray tip, to adjust direction of spray tip. so i can adjust were the spray tip points.

20 foot total width, is a good amount of spray tips, might advise going with spray tip bodies, that do not have a micro screen located in each spray tip, but rather, a central 1 or 2 main micro filters, between PTO pump and all the spray tips. just to make it easier to deal with replacing and cleaning filters. though having individual little filters at each spray tip, can be nice, and helps insure all spray tips stay working. while out there actually spraying things.

with PTO pumps, vs "on demand" electrical pumps. PTO pumps you really have no way to stop the flow of water/chemicals, or less you turn off the PTO on tractor. with on demand electrical pumps, you hook them up and they will auto sense when they need to produce flow of water/chemicals. and you will more likely find "on demand" electrical pumps on ATV sprayers, to sprayers that have some sort of "hand wand" you can use for spraying. and then PTO pumps for sprayers that have larger width booms. and most likely no hand wands.

in order to setup hand wands on PTO pumps, it gets a little tricky in use of electrical control valves. and can get rather costly just for the valves themselves.

because of above, the ATV spray rigs, setups, if you can wait for a good deal to come up on a new setup. you might be better off with a ATV spray rig, and then taking everything off of the ATV spray rig and hooking it up to your larger tank. and then hook up the PTO pump when you want to use the booms.

larger tanks are not always the "best" or less ya doing fields and really need that amount of volume of water/chemicals. what i am getting at, is being able to actually clean out the tanks, after a use of a given chemical. and getting spray rig setup for next chemical. or simply cleaning things out before putting it away. with above said, having drain ports on lowest spot on bottom of tanks can really help. having some sort of "man hole" lid. that you can actually stick your arm down along with a garden hose nozzle to spray things out can help.

there is a good a mount of stuff that goes into a full spray rig, while cost of new ones seem extremely costly. but once you start adding up this and that. and then time to put it all together. your not much off of a new spray rig, beyond a dealer markup fee. do not get me wrong i am all for DIY project. but start making a list of cost of things before jumping into the entire project. and what you are able to do, vs buying a manufactured sprayer setup.

double check also to see if you need a "chemical license" or "permit" to even spray a given chemical. laws differ from state to state. and you might be able to apply for a farm license / permit. pending on use.

and one last thing to remember, is mist drifting over into a neighbors property, or into a nearby lake, or stream. or into your house, can be big costly fines / doings.

 

[OldMcDonald]

boggen, A lot of good information in that post. I have been spraying agricultural crops for over 50 years, and for a few years I did contracting on biggish acres in Australia with a 40' boom, so have covered a bit of ground. Your last three paragraphs are particularly important, especially the drift. Boomless sprays, by their very nature cannot give an even coverage, nor even an accurate one.