Covington Planter

[deere5105]

Second year planting with Covington single row planter. First year had issue with seed box binding and flipping up dumping out seed. Put a rubber strap around it and now doesn’t flip up. Having some issues with press/drive wheel sliding and not turning. Seemed to be related to binding in seed box. This year used strap again and was able to walk alongside and watch seeds better. Noticed seed plate picking up seed but not consistently dropping them in seed tube. Was able to lift back of seed box creating more forward tilt and saw much less seed drop misses.

What am I missing? Is there some adjustment I am missing on seed box that allows it to tilt forward more? Why is seed box binding and wanting to flip and dump? I don’t see any others on the many videos out having this issue.

 

[DJ54]

I don't have a Covington but do have a Brinly that uses the same plates. I too had problems with the drive wheel dragging the first year I tried to plant with it. Come to find out I had the seed baffle/guard too tight, and it would slightly bind. Worked fine turning by hand, but in the dirt it would scoot. I don't know if they are the same, but the Brinly has holes in the seed guard that holds the nub on the nut to tighten down the seed plate in place. I backed the nut up a hole or two in that plate, so it wasn't as tight and it worked fine after that. The Brinly unit is much lighter and probably wouldn't take that much friction to cause that.

I also spray it down with spray graphite under the plate pretty good to make things turn easier too. No problems since. Don't know if this will help your situation, just my 2 cents.

 

[deere5105]

I had not considered lubricating behind the seed plate. I managed to get my planting finished, but think will experiment more now that I have some time and extra seed to work with. Here is a link to a video I shot of it not dropping each seed,

. It may be that I can do some levelling adjustment with the top link or maybe the seed box to have tilt forward more so the seeds will more easily load onto the seed plate and then fall into the seed tube when they get to the top. As it is now some go in, some stay on the seed plate and some fall off. Is too sporadic.

 

[deere5105]

Had a little time this afternoon to experiment with planter a little. Couldn’t find a way to adjust the “tilt” of the seed box. Was able to fold some tape and place between seed box and frame to stand it off to increase tilt. That seemed to help with the seeds picking up and dropping into seed tube. Here is location of tape.

 

[deere5105]

Took apart seed box and lubricant all moving parts. Made sure seed plate not in too tight. Had some play in. Everything turned smoothly. Took it to field and ran smoothly.

Grabbed some sweet corn seed had left over and gave it a trial run. Finally got to see what is causing binding and seed box to flip up.

 

[deere5105]

Seed is occasionally binding between tooth of seed plate and edge of opening to seed tube.

What can be done to remedy that? That is about the only thing left that gives issue. Think can put a strap across seed box to keep it from flipping up, but if seed doesn’t pop out planter will just slide press wheel.

Would like a better permanent fix to adjust angle of seed box than the tape, but it did prove adjusting the angle helped with the seed feeding. Maybe if I angle it up even more the seed will roll into the opening and prevent the binding and flipping.