Northstar sprayer questions

mthornton99

mthornton99

Member
After reading many good reviews on Northstar sprayers(Northern Tool), I recently purchased one. Got the 16gal, 2.2gpm pump, with the boomless broadcast arm.

I took it for a test drive in the yard with just water and have a couple of questions.

First, should I go ahead and purchase replacement brass nozzles for the wand and broadcast spray arm? They work well enough but seem to dump ALOT of liquid.
Second, could anyone give me a reasonable estimate on how many gallons per acre it will take to spray glyphosate on my throw and mow fields? I know there are variables but a good estimate would be nice since I will be hauling water to the land when we spray.
 
Gallons per acre depend on the pump and the speed. I recommend filling the tank with water and spray a 1/4 acre section. Keep the speed consistent. After spraying the 1/4 acre determine how much water you used from the tank. Multiply by 4 and you have your gallons per acre. Put that amount of water in your tank with 2 quarts of gly and you are set to spray an acre.
 
First thing I would do is to get rid of the boomless nozzles and switch to flat fan nozzles. (I will be posting a thread maybe tomorrow dealing with sprayers) You will have better control of application rates with flat fan nozzles and better coverage. Doubt you will get a full acre out of a 16 gal tank. I mostly use 19 to 20 gal of solution per acre.
 
dogdoc said:
Gallons per acre depend on the pump and the speed. I recommend filling the tank with water and spray a 1/4 acre section. Keep the speed consistent. After spraying the 1/4 acre determine how much water you used from the tank. Multiply by 4 and you have your gallons per acre. Put that amount of water in your tank with 2 quarts of gly and you are set to spray an acre.
Click to expand...
This is a good way to do it. The only thing I would add is if your setting your speed on smooth ground you might want to slow down because when you get in the pasture you will have to slow down.
 
Be sure to clean and drain the pump everytime you use it. On some of the Northstar sprayers you have to disconnect a hose below the pump to get the pump drained completely. I am on my 3rd NS pump on a 15 month old sprayer. I ran the tank dry and then cleaned with water each time running dry again but the first two pump heads locked up. I started unhooking the hoses to make sure they and the pump drained completely and no problems thus far. I purchased a new, bigger, NS sprayer after having an older one last (with poor maintenance on my part) for over 10 years. However, my older one was a siphon pick up type which likely was draining the pump completely every time the pump was shut down for a long time.
 
Smallplot said:
First thing I would do is to get rid of the boomless nozzles and switch to flat fan nozzles. (I will be posting a thread maybe tomorrow dealing with sprayers) You will have better control of application rates with flat fan nozzles and better coverage. Doubt you will get a full acre out of a 16 gal tank. I mostly use 19 to 20 gal of solution per acre.
Click to expand...
I love the flat fan nozzles. Great coverage. With my set-up I usually use 11-12 gallons of solution per acre with good coverage.
 
There is a place for the broadcast nozzles as well. Flat fan nozzles give a more even distribution but then you have a boom to worry about which can be a pain in small plots or plots mixed with trees. Also, the broadcast nozzles generally have larger droplets which are less sensitive to spray drift. I also find the broadcast nozzles to clog less and need less cleaning/adjusting.
 
Wolf Bayou said:
There is a place for the broadcast nozzles as well. Flat fan nozzles give a more even distribution but then you have a boom to worry about which can be a pain in small plots or plots mixed with trees. Also, the broadcast nozzles generally have larger droplets which are less sensitive to spray drift. I also find the broadcast nozzles to clog less and need less cleaning/adjusting.
Click to expand...

I agree there is a place for broadcast nozzles, on the end of a water hose!

Sorry but it is no more difficult driving around objects with a sprayer than with a lawn mower and I find it hard to believe people don't drive around trees and objects while using boomless just as much. I have never had a nozzle plug up. I have had screens plug up making it look like the nozzle was plugged but that is my fault for not cleaning the tank out like it should be.
 
It certainly comes down to personal preference I suppose. I have had both and boomless broadcast nozzles made my life easier. I have a lot of small plots and plots with trees to navigate around. If you have open ground and/or larger plots the fan nozzles on a boom would likely be my choice as well.
 
I will be using boomless for this season at least. I get a wide spray(14ft), I just wasn't expecting quite as much volume of liquid. I have about 3 acres to spray on our leased property and don't have running water so I have to carry refills with me. Thinking I need to find me a 50gal drum.

Thanks for the info guys!
 
Wow...14 ft with a 2.2 gpm pump. Your right, it's going to use a lot more solution per acre than what I'm used to. o_O
 
I have a northstar sprayer that I use. It is 26 gallons and I come close to using the whole thing on 1 acre plot. The plot isn't easy to spray though, lots of stumps to navigate around lots of nooks and crannies so it isn't as easy as just going back and forth overlapping the spray a little bit.

Maybe get one of those big totes in the cage to haul your water if you have a way to move that much.
 
Kabic said:
I have a northstar sprayer that I use. It is 26 gallons and I come close to using the whole thing on 1 acre plot. The plot isn't easy to spray though, lots of stumps to navigate around lots of nooks and crannies so it isn't as easy as just going back and forth overlapping the spray a little bit.

Maybe get one of those big totes in the cage to haul your water if you have a way to move that much.
Click to expand...

Sounds like you need to remove some stumps! Even on an area that is odd shaped you can still make straight likes to follow. Here is a quick video taken from my GPS showing the path I took and how I sprayed this area. The boom was 28 feet but imagine this is a smaller area with a smaller spray pattern.

 
Here is a quick video taken from my GPS showing the path I took and how I sprayed this area.
Smallplot,
If you don't mind, what GPS unit is that?
 
G3 Ranch said:
Here is a quick video taken from my GPS showing the path I took and how I sprayed this area.
Smallplot,
If you don't mind, what GPS unit is that?
Click to expand...

It is a Trimble CFX750 I believe. It is an actual guidance tool but I don't have the guidance part hooked up. If subscribed to RTK it is capable of sub inch guidance so not a toy but with just using satellite signals it functions rather well.


Dan
www.pikecountyfoodplots.com
 
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