North Star Sprayer Question

[Aggie66]

I Purchased, a Northstar spray rig 26 gallon tank with a 5 gallon a minute pump. I started calibrating it yesterday and it appears to me that the 5 gallon a minute pump is a lot more than I need for what I am doing on our place. Basically small food plots and I was setting up to control grass burrs in a couple of spots, but with a 5 gallon a minute pump in just a few minutes it would pull down half of the tank. I tried running the pressure way down, but it didn’t seem to make much difference. Is there anyway I can Reduce the flow output to where I would probably spray 12 to 15 gallons over an acre at 6-7 mph on my side by side. at the current right I am thinking I would have to drive 10 to 15 miles an hour to be able to put out the recommended amount of chemical per acre. The only thing I can think of is changing the boomernator 1400 ps nozzles to something smaller. Any suggestions are appreciate. I’d rather not have to buy $150 2 gallon a minute pump and replace the 5 gpm. Thanks

 

[dodge man]

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Is this your sprayer? I have this one, I mounted on a rack on my 3 point. It doesn’t have a boom but two spray nozzles that make a pretty wide pattern. Mine seems to spray out at a rate much slower than 5 gpm if I use the broadcast nozzles. If I use the wand it seems like it’s spraying at a much higher rate.

 

[TractorTech]

Can I assume that you bought the electric spot sprayer? If so, you need to add a regulator to your system or you will be a slave to speed for you only regulation option.
Buy the kit or something similar to the one listed and you can dial in the numbers you want.

https://www.northerntool.com/search?s=sprayer%20regulator

Good tip on sprayer calibration here:

Boom Sprayer Calibration

Boom sprayers, or sprayers with multiple nozzles, are used to apply liquid products more efficiently to larger areas than with a single-nozzle sprayer.

www.lsuagcenter.com

 

[Aggie66]

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Is this your sprayer? I have this one, I mounted on a rack on my 3 point. It doesn’t have a boom but two spray nozzles that make a pretty wide pattern. Mine seems to spray out at a rate much slower than 5 gpm if I use the broadcast nozzles. If I use the wand it seems like it’s spraying at a much higher rate. View attachment 804623

Yes that’s my spray rig dual boomless Boominator 1400ps L&R nozzles I should have given more detail

 

[dodge man]

I’ve never really timed mine but with the spray nozzle’s it just doesn’t seem to be putting out 5 gpm. In the picture above I was testing the spray pattern with water. I suppose you could fill it with water and see how fast it gets pumped out. If it’s really 5pm it should empty the tank in less than 5 minutes.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

You need to calibrate with a chart. Pressure and tip size plus travel speed to meter chemical per acre. I run 40psi, 4mph with my aftermarket tips to apply 20 gallons per acre. Spray pattern matters too, depending on droplet size you desire for herbicide vs pesticide

 

[Seven Gables]

If you study the boominator nozzle chart that TractorTech left it tells you what you need to know. You’re 1400 size nozzles put out 13.5 gallons/acre @ 40psi traveling 6mph. This is based on a 15’ band width per nozzle, you would just raise or lower the boom to get your 15’ spray width. I’m assuming you can regulate you’re pressure down to 40psi. With sprayers large changes in rates per acre need to be made with nozzle sizes and then fine tuned with pressure.
Interesting tidbit; To double the output you have to quadruple the pressure

 

[dodge man]

If you look at my picture above I was spraying water with mine to test it out. It’s a little hard to tell but I’m probably getting a 24 foot width with my 3 point all tge way up. I recently spit sprayed with my wand and over did it because it burned the grass.

 

[LouNY]

Most of those sprayers have a recirculation line to aid in mixing and keeping the solution mixed. To vary your spray rate you can use the recirculation valve partially opened so that much of your flow returns to the tank.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

On my Northstar sprayer, as I change the pressure, the recirculation line volume changes at the same time. It’s basically diverting flow to control the pressure down line. I have noticed that if I set pressure with the ATV idling, when I’m at operating RPM of about 3000, the pressure is higher, as the pump is getting more voltage. So, I rev up the engine a bit while I adjust the pressure regulator