Best food plot sprayer?

[Paradise725]

Well, my Fimco pump crapped out on me yesterday on my sprayer so I'm left with the choice of buying a new pump or looking for a different setup. I have a 25 gallon with a 10' folding boom. It has given me problems a couple of times in the 5 years since I bought it. I'm debating either an alternative brand pump motor or maybe a 3-point mounted boomless setup. I do around 10 acres in plots every year. Any recommendations?


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[X-farmerdan]

I've always wondered, coming from a traditional ag production system, what's the fascination with a boom-less sprayer? Use it to spray smaller areas? Booms are too big? I mean I'm truly interested to hear.

 

[Paradise725]

I've always wondered, coming from a traditional ag production system, what's the fascination with a boom-less sprayer? Use it to spray smaller areas? Booms are too big? I mean I'm truly interested to hear.

From my experience, the booms and their nozzles are subject to a lot more wear and tear during operations and transport. The boomless seems like fewer parts to wear out and comes in a lot more compact package.


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[X-farmerdan]

From my experience, the booms and their nozzles are subject to a lot more wear and tear during operations and transport. The boomless seems like fewer parts to wear out and comes in a lot more compact package.


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Thank you! For the food plots, I've been pulling a 15 gallon FIMCO with a 4-wheeler. It was a gift. It's a piece of crap, but adequate for the once-a-year 'bean spraying.

I, too, am looking for a replacement. But, its' got to be economic. I don't have a whole lot of use for it, except to loan it to my brother. He's not going to use my other sprayers. As to the replacement, I'm finding all kinds of prices and quality (one related to the other).

I guess you have a tractor if you're thinking 3-point hitch? And PTO? Did your 25 gal FIMCO have an electric pump? My 15 does. this time I'm going 55-gallon, 3pt hitch, PTO driven. Is that your direction also? I guess what I'm asking is what are you going to pull it with. What does what you are pulling it with have? 3Pt? Hydraulic? PTO?

 

[JFH]

I've always wondered, coming from a traditional ag production system, what's the fascination with a boom-less sprayer? Use it to spray smaller areas? Booms are too big? I mean I'm truly interested to hear.

Yes, smaller areas for sure. Big advantage if your plots are not all neat quadrilaterals lacking in trees or other obstructions.

Plus, less stuff to break, maintain.


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[JFH]

Well, my Fimco pump crapped out on me yesterday on my sprayer so I'm left with the choice of buying a new pump or looking for a different setup. I have a 25 gallon with a 10' folding boom. It has given me problems a couple of times in the 5 years since I bought it. I'm debating either an alternative brand pump motor or maybe a 3-point mounted boomless setup. I do around 10 acres in plots every year. Any recommendations?


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Bought this unit 5/6 years ago and absolutely love it!

Really high quality construction. All aluminum frame -- no worries about rust, need to paint, etc. Should last eons.

Boomless nozzle sprays almost exactly three tractor widths, making it easy to properly cover your fields.

I special ordered one with an all stainless pump (impervious to glyphosate corrosion). That was an extra $100 or so as I recall.

http://www.sprayerdepot.com/Shop-by...allon-3-Point-Hitch-Sprayer-w-Boomless-Nozzle


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[Paradise725]

Thank you! For the food plots, I've been pulling a 15 gallon FIMCO with a 4-wheeler. It was a gift. It's a piece of crap, but adequate for the once-a-year 'bean spraying.

I, too, am looking for a replacement. But, its' got to be economic. I don't have a whole lot of use for it, except to loan it to my brother. He's not going to use my other sprayers. As to the replacement, I'm finding all kinds of prices and quality (one related to the other).

I guess you have a tractor if you're thinking 3-point hitch? And PTO? Did your 25 gal FIMCO have an electric pump? My 15 does. this time I'm going 55-gallon, 3pt hitch, PTO driven. Is that your direction also? I guess what I'm asking is what are you going to pull it with. What does what you are pulling it with have? 3Pt? Hydraulic? PTO?

My current sprayer is 12v electric so I mount it on my atv or utv. I have a tractor w/ 3-point hitch, pto, & hydraulic so I have some flexibility as to what I get next.


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[Chainsaw]

I use the Fimco 55gallon sprayer with a 10 ft. boom setup, three point hutch-no wheels on it. The pump is powered by the PTO. It has given me many, many years of service and is finally acting up pressure wise. One problem I always had with its design was that it sits too low to the ground. Thus the booms are often getting pushed to the shut position by high weeds, rye or whatever. The booms could be bolted open but I think they would end up broken or bent in about a day doing that.The booms have strong springs on them but the weeds push the boom extension back beyond where the boom just bounces back. It is a real nuisance to get off the tractor to constantly reset the booms. Also it causes me to get chemical on me so long pants are a must even in July when I'm usually spraying. Also to reduce the amount of times the booms get pushed back I need to drive at a crawl.

Sat with the farmer who rents my field while he sprayed for weeds. His sprayer had very high wheels and a taller tank. The resultant high booms rode high over the weeds. The only limit to speed was matching speed to spray volume and the roughness of each particular field. And his booms closed and opened with a button from inside the cab. Was that ever nice!!!

I am totally unfamiliar with the boomless sprayers but I'm interested. Thanks for starting this thread Luke.

 

[Elkaddict]

For those that use a 3point set up, does your pto driven pump use a pto shaft or does it go directly on the pto output at the tractor? If the latter. What keeps the pump from spinning? Models I've seen appear not to attach and merely rely on hoses to keep the pump in place. Am I missing something?

 

[cutman]

For those that use a 3point set up, does your pto driven pump use a pto shaft or does it go directly on the pto output at the tractor? If the latter. What keeps the pump from spinning? Models I've seen appear not to attach and merely rely on hoses to keep the pump in place. Am I missing something?

Not sure if I'm going to explain this properly, but I will try. On my pump that connects directly to the PTO, there is a bearing that allows the pump to spin independently of the pump housing. As long as the bearing is good the hoses are not required to keep the pump in place. If the bearing rusts out then the whole thing spins and the hoses, a chain, etc keep it in place.

I disassemble my sprayer after every use so that I can store the pump in a bucket of diesel fuel. This keeps the bearing working perfectly.

 

[whiskeybent]

For those that use a 3point set up, does your pto driven pump use a pto shaft or does it go directly on the pto output at the tractor? If the latter. What keeps the pump from spinning? Models I've seen appear not to attach and merely rely on hoses to keep the pump in place. Am I missing something?

They are attached to some part of the tractor via chain to keep them from spinning.

 

[TreeDaddy]

I have a stack of Fimco sprayers in my barn......

......next to a row of poulan saws .....

They are the " Bic Razors" of sprayers

bill

 

[j-bird]

I've always wondered, coming from a traditional ag production system, what's the fascination with a boom-less sprayer? Use it to spray smaller areas? Booms are too big? I mean I'm truly interested to hear.

I seem to catch my boom on all sorts of crap. It either bends the boom or pulls the nozzle off and then I have to screw with it. Fold up or un-fold the booms is a pain as well. No going from the seat to the sprayer isn't far, but it still is one of those things you have to do. I can see where a boomless in a confined plot or a plot with lots of trees or the like in it would be very handy.

My pump goes directly on the PTO shaft and there is a small chain that I attach to the lift arm of the hitch to keep the pump from rotating. I also had issues that Chainsaw mentioned and added long bolts to lock the booms in place and then have the other issues I listed above. I like mine on my tractor hitch as I can very the height a decent amount, but sometimes still not high enough.

 

[Mennoniteman]

I've always wondered, coming from a traditional ag production system, what's the fascination with a boom-less sprayer? Use it to spray smaller areas? Booms are too big? I mean I'm truly interested to hear.

Even though i grew up using big sprayers on a farm, I've had to learn the hard way afterwards, boomless sprayers are a joke. Spray is only as effective as the application and boomless nozzles don't mist, they squirt so the spray coverage is terrible. The salesmen at the dealerships are pushing these things to gullible sportsmen like me, no self respecting farmer would own one. I do have a Cropcare 25 gallon 13' boom atv sprayer for many years already. A nice heavy duty unit but too expensive, around $600-700 dollars if I recall correctly.

 

[Tap]

I've owned or used only a few sprayers over the years, but here's a couple thoughts...
I absolutely hate tow behind sprayers for my type of food plotting A lot of my plots are small or laid out in strips with little or no room to turn a tractor around at the end of the plot. Backing in or out is the only access. Backing a tow sprayer in tight spaces or around bends is slow, tedious and just plain sucks. The shorter the tow bar the harder it is to back up a trailer and most smaller sprayers have a tow bar that's 6 feet or less.

My current sprayer is a 25 gallon Fimco and it's just okay at best. Fimco could sure make a few minor improvements and make it a lot more user friendly.
#1, The stupid tank design doesn't completely empty when spraying, especially if being used on a slope when the tank has ~5 gallons left. As soon as the tank is tilted, all the solution pools away from the intake hose. During the period of a spray session when that happens, causes sporadic spray patterns as the solution sloshes around in the tank...lots of skipped places without herbicide applied. It also creates a few gallons of left-over spray every time. I either have to store it or put it in a hand sprayer to use up. It sure would be nice if Fimco used 99% of the solution in the tank regardless of the terrain.
#2, My other complaint with Fimco is the stupid little, undersized drain fitting on the tank. Flushing out a tank after each use takes much longer because the drain is so small. A 2" or 3" fitting would make the job much easier.

I think this aspect of food plotting is my least favorite. All the different chemicals, their storage, and the complications of what can be mixed and what can't be mixed, which chemicals can be sprayed on which weeds and when. The soil residue of some herbicides and the planting limitations they create. I'm not crazy about the clean-up of the tanks with all that contaminated rinse water. The expense of some of these herbicides is ridiculous.
Glyphosate is probably the least complicated herbicide, but I still don't care for it.
Yeah, I spray about a half dozen different herbicides every year, but I really don't like the whole procedure, and junk sprayers just make the job less desirable.
The only sprayer I really like is my 4 gallon Solo backpack.

 

[JFH]

For those that use a 3point set up, does your pto driven pump use a pto shaft or does it go directly on the pto output at the tractor? If the latter. What keeps the pump from spinning? Models I've seen appear not to attach and merely rely on hoses to keep the pump in place. Am I missing something?

Mine just mounts on the PTO shaft and doesn't spin. Easy on - easy off. Never occurred to me to find out why it doesn't spin.


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[Buckly]

I've owned or used only a few sprayers over the years, but here's a couple thoughts...
#1, The stupid tank design doesn't completely empty when spraying, especially if being used on a slope when the tank has ~5 gallons left. As soon as the tank is tilted, all the solution pools away from the intake hose. During the period of a spray session when that happens, causes sporadic spray patterns as the solution sloshes around in the tank...lots of skipped places without herbicide applied. It also creates a few gallons of left-over spray every time. I either have to store it or put it in a hand sprayer to use up. It sure would be nice if Fimco used 99% of the solution in the tank regardless of the terrain.
#2, My other complaint with Fimco is the stupid little, undersized drain fitting on the tank. Flushing out a tank after each use takes much longer because the drain is so small. A 2" or 3" fitting would make the job much easier.
.

I had this issue with the slope a couple times. My first fix was to spray the slopes first then finish off on the flat spots. After increasing the area on the sloped part I couldn't do that. I simply added a T and some hose at the bottom of the tube going to each side of the tank and put a strainer on each end. It was a pretty cheap fix and slopes are no longer an issue for emptying the tank.
I like the boomless because I can turn off 2 of the three nozzles and spray 15-20 ft off to one side. This is really good when I spray my spruce trees. I can only get to one side as the other side is usually brush and briars. I have had my Fimco 25 gallon for over 10 years now and it's still working great. I have never had coverage issues, you just have to make sure you have good clean nozzles and the proper pressure. I used to use it on the 4 wheeler but now put on the back of the tractor on a carry all from TSC.

 

[Tap]

I had this issue with the slope a couple times. My first fix was to spray the slopes first then finish off on the flat spots. After increasing the area on the sloped part I couldn't do that. I simply added a T and some hose at the bottom of the tube going to each side of the tank and put a strainer on each end. It was a pretty cheap fix and slopes are no longer an issue for emptying the tank.
I like the boomless because I can turn off 2 of the three nozzles and spray 15-20 ft off to one side. This is really good when I spray my spruce trees. I can only get to one side as the other side is usually brush and briars. I have had my Fimco 25 gallon for over 10 years now and it's still working great. I have never had coverage issues, you just have to make sure you have good clean nozzles and the proper pressure. I used to use it on the 4 wheeler but now put on the back of the tractor on a carry all from TSC.

We had a similar discussion on the defunct forum and someone suggested doing a "T". I thought I remembered somebody saying that 2 intakes wouldn't work because the pump would draw from the end of least resistance, which would be the side not submerged and suck air. So, you didn't experience that problem?

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[Buckly]

No, I never had that issue. I'm guessing because liquid is always being sucked up the air never gets in the system? Maybe it depends on the pump. Mine is the standard hi flo that came with it. If it doesn't work for you and you are on a constant slope I suppose you could plumb the intake way over to just one side and keep the tank tilted that way. I've just never had issues with it.

A side note: It's all a moot point for me at this point as a buddy has just bought a 60 gal 3 point sprayer I can use any time. That will save me traveling back and forth for water and more than enough to do all the sloped parts and the flat plots.

 

[Bullwinkle]

I have a 200 gallon Demco sprayer and am very pleased. Nice easy to use features. Id buy another.