Chainsaw
Well-Known Member
I'm curious why a 25 gal would be too small for use on a tractor? I have the 25 gal Fimco mounted on a 3 point carry-all and it works okay on my mid-size tractor. I do still think that Fimco's design for the draw tube is terrible. It's hard to spray on hillsides until the tank is completely empty. But otherwise, I don't think it's "too small". IMHO, It's the plot size and shape that dictate what size sprayer is best, not the tractor.
I don't own a lot of equipment for spraying. One tractor, no quad, a 25 gal atv sprayer and a 4 gal backpack sprayer. I plot about 5 acres which about half are small or irregularly shaped. Most of the time, a sprayer larger than 25 gal would be too big for my applications.
Good question Tap. I used to spray at a 10 gallons water to an acre rate but a farmer friend of mine who grows tremendous corn and everything else recommends I use 20 gallons of water to the acre. Thus a twenty-five gallon sprayer of which only twenty gallons comes out consistently would take four trips to the do the 4 acre bean field. Other field sizes run from less than an acre to nine acres although only portions of the large field are sprayed annually The twenty-five gallon sprayer would work fine;it is just the number of trips to refill that makes the twenty-five gallon sprayer not the optimum for me. Note--I am currently testing the higher gallons per acre rate so am not necessarily convinced it will work better than the ten I was doing. Still though even if using 10 gallons per acre I like to get it done in one trip per area if possible.
Another thing that determines what size sprayer is best for me besides the plot size and shape as you said is the distance from barn to plot as well as the access road conditions. Two of our plots are on the backside of the property and are difficult to traverse under the current wet conditions so the less trips in and out, the better in those cases.