Boom vs Boomless

[bearcat]

I currently have a small fimco boomless sprayer that fits in the back of my Ranger. I’ve been looking at getting a 60 gal PTO sprayer for the tractor. I got tired of constantly filling up the small one when spraying plots. I don’t have a lot of acreage in plots, about 8 acres, but that should increase slowly over the new few years.
There are currently 2 sprayers that are for sale close by. There are identical except one is boom and one is boomless. I have read posts on the precision of the boom vs boomless. However, the boom covers about 12ft vs the 30ft on the boomless sprayer(both advertised #’s by Fimco).

I like the idea of almost 3x the coverage on a single pass. I thought I’d hear what you more experienced guys have to say.


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[SwampCat]

I have had both. There are two circumstances I would want a boom sprayer - row crops - and if it was often windy. I dont have row crops and I can usually choose my days to spray and only use a boomless, now. I dont mess with nozzels, dont care about trees or uneven terrain, I can spray down narrow trails, I dont have booms sticking upright that catch on overhanging limbs, and I spray about 22’ a pass. For my uses - I would never go back to a boom sprayer on my tractor. Others will disagree with their own reasons why a boom sprayer works best for them.

 

[Mennoniteman]

This is one of those discussions like Ford vs Chevy, or crispy bacon vs chewy bacon, there's not going to be a consensus because it's a personal preference type of decision. Booms cost more but give you more precision. Boomless save time and give you more flexibility at the expense of precision. Very few commercial farmers use boomless sprayers, but a lot of food plot guys do, which shows the difference between versatility versus precision very well. Boomless sprayers work best with systemic herbicides where hitting a plant with a few drops will kill it. They also work much better than booms to maintain a forest road. One of the many limitations of boomless is that they propel chemicals sideways at the outermost edges of the swath width, resulting in less than ideal leaf contact. For contact and preemergent herbicides, fungicides, and insecticides, booms work better. I own both and use boomless on small plots and road edges, but prefer booms for bigger fields for the even coverage that they provide.

 

[Turkish]

For gly or some other broad spectrum herbicide, boomless all the way.

M man is right, depends a lot on how you’ll use it. I need a little boom for my yard in a bad way. For my hunting land, a heavy duty boomless nozzle is best.

 

[Drycreek]

My main product is gly, so it’s boomless for me on both. I have a 60 gallon PTO and a 25 gallon that fits in my CanAm. I choose which one by width to spray as well as how much area to spray.

 

[weekender21]

I'm torn on this. I have mast trees planted on some of my plots that I don't want to spray so I'm leaning towards a boom...Any more opinions on this?

 

[bearcat]

For you guys with a 3 point sprayer and ATV/UTV sprayer, what do you find yourselves utilizing the most? I like the fact the my ranger is covered on hot days, but its a crew and can be tough to maneuver in a small irregular shaped plot. My tractor is 45hp, so its not huge. But with the HST its pretty easy for me to turn and get into tights spots if I have to back up. There are no 5 point turns like in the ranger! I can still use my 15 gal utv sprayer, but I like the idea of a 60 gal 3-point sprayer for most jobs.

 

[Mennoniteman]

For you guys with a 3 point sprayer and ATV/UTV sprayer, what do you find yourselves utilizing the most? I like the fact the my ranger is covered on hot days, but its a crew and can be tough to maneuver in a small irregular shaped plot. My tractor is 45hp, so its not huge. But with the HST its pretty easy for me to turn and get into tights spots if I have to back up. There are no 5 point turns like in the ranger! I can still use my 15 gal utv sprayer, but I like the idea of a 60 gal 3-point sprayer for most jobs.

I have a 75 hp tractor with cab and 150 gallon sprayer with 30 foot booms, and an ATV with a 25 gallon sprayer with 13' booms. I use the ATV to spray standing crops like soybeans because of less damage to the crops, and for smaller 1/2 to 1 acre plots of clover where the 30' booms are inconvenient. A 450 ATV can turn as tight as a 75 hp tractor. I use the tractor sprayer mostly in the early spring for bigger fields when doing a burndown or preplant herbicide.

 

[weekender21]

Any recommendations from the group on a specific ATV sprayer? Lots of poor reviews on some fairly expensive sprayers out there!

 

[Mennoniteman]

Cropcare is good quality for a higher price than some.

 

[KSQ2]

It's a boom all day everyday for me; I have way too much time and $ invested in trees near plots to go boomless. When we had a 10 acre crop field on our old property that we raised wheat on for profit, I tried the boomless route one time, renting pull behind pto sprayer from the coop, it was a disaster. Admittedly, the biggest problem was a lack of maintenance and regular cleaning after use by other renters. Anyway, after that I hired a farmer to spray for us. It took him less than 15 minutes to spray our 10 acre field.
Here's what we use now on our plots...

 

[Elkaddict]

I’m on year 5 with a northern tool boomless. It has been reliable. I find to get everything, I need to hit twice so I only sprat out on side and hit from both sides. I’ve toyed with a 3point large tank boomed model For the larger plots. It would allow one pass spraying nut because all my crops are broadcast, it means driving a heavy tractors over corn and beans. This would be fine for the first spraying, but not the second. It may make more sense to get a boomed model for the SxS.

 

[Drycreek]

For you guys with a 3 point sprayer and ATV/UTV sprayer, what do you find yourselves utilizing the most? I like the fact the my ranger is covered on hot days, but its a crew and can be tough to maneuver in a small irregular shaped plot. My tractor is 45hp, so its not huge. But with the HST its pretty easy for me to turn and get into tights spots if I have to back up. There are no 5 point turns like in the ranger! I can still use my 15 gal utv sprayer, but I like the idea of a 60 gal 3-point sprayer for most jobs.

My tractor has AC, so naturally I’d rather spray with it, but some places I just don’t want to spray 25’/30’ wide so I use my CanAm. It’s a single seater, power steering and will maneuver pretty darn well. Got a rocker switch on the seat beside me, so easy on/off.

Another reason to use it is a couple plots 100 miles away that I’ve planted for the last three years. I used to pull my tractor down there, but last year the light bulb finally came on. I pulled my CanAm down with a full tank, sprayed one plot, ran to the camp house, (2 miles), refilled and sprayed the other. That was much easier than pulling a 60 hp tractor down there with my one ton.

 

[dogghr]

Boomless for me. Simple enough for a foodplotter. Have a Fimco atv sitting in barn but never use it any more. It’s only good for making one go to extra church on Sundays! Got this 3 pt made in America sprayer few years ago love it.

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[TreeDaddy]

View attachment 19545 It's a boom all day everyday for me; I have way too much time and $ invested in trees near plots to go boomless. When we had a 10 acre crop field on our old property that we raised wheat on for profit, I tried the boomless route one time, renting pull behind pto sprayer from the coop, it was a disaster. Admittedly, the biggest problem was a lack of maintenance and regular cleaning after use by other renters. Anyway, after that I hired a farmer to spray for us. It took him less than 15 minutes to spray our 10 acre field.
Here's what we use now on our plots...

Are you SURE you don't live in East Texas?

That,there..... is a rig...........

bill

 

[TreeDaddy]

Boomless.....cabtractor AC.......Skynard,Hank......cold Coors Lite in my lap

bill

 

[shawn cox]

View attachment 19545 It's a boom all day everyday for me; I have way too much time and $ invested in trees near plots to go boomless. When we had a 10 acre crop field on our old property that we raised wheat on for profit, I tried the boomless route one time, renting pull behind pto sprayer from the coop, it was a disaster. Admittedly, the biggest problem was a lack of maintenance and regular cleaning after use by other renters. Anyway, after that I hired a farmer to spray for us. It took him less than 15 minutes to spray our 10 acre field.
Here's what we use now on our plots...

dang that's nice, I have been wanting to come up with a way to mount mine to my golf cart and make it height adjustable. I love the Unistrut idea. I have been using it in my truck just strapped to the tailgate. the golf cart will put less compaction on the plots.

 

[KSQ2]

dang that's nice, I have been wanting to come up with a way to mount mine to my golf cart and make it height adjustable. I love the Unistrut idea. I have been using it in my truck just strapped to the tailgate. the golf cart will put less compaction on the plots.

Thanks! It really works great. I can't take all the credit for it, a buddy helped me put it together and he's a pretty handy farm boy. I don't really adjust the height that much anymore, I used to, but after I while I got lazy and it didn't seem to hurt the effectiveness of the spray any. I do set it as high as it will go when spraying taller Johnson grass though. I religiously rinse and clean it after every use and because of that, I haven't ever had to perform any maintenance on it in the ten years I've been using it.
Also, I got the idea from a fella off Iowawhitetail.com years ago. That's when I was soaking up all the information I could get on plotting, most of it coming from Paul Knox, who was active on that site.

 

[Drycreek]

Are you SURE you don't live in East Texas?

That,there..... is a rig...........

bill

I guess I shouldn’t post a pic of my weed wiper set up for the front hitch on my golf cart. That splendid moment of clarity ended up as just another brain fart instead of the epiphany I thought it was. It worked well to kill behia with gly and not hurt my bermuda grass, but a little Cimarron mix with my pto sprayer works so much better, you just have to time it right. For those unfamiliar with behia it grows tall at a phenomenal rate and the weed wiper adjusted correctly wipes the behia to death while the low bermuda sits under it unharmed. It was a solution in search of a problem. So....one gently use, adjustable height, 8’ weed wiper, ....what am I bid ?

That do look a little rednecky, don’t it Bill ?

 

[Elkaddict]

There are times when a weed wiper really excels.