Sprayer Rebuild

14718 Views 22 Replies 7 Participants Last post by mjncad, Mar 24, 2012

RRMCCABE

Discussion Starter · Feb 22, 2012

Looking for any tips you guys might have to offer.

My brother inlaw gave me a sprayer for my tractor. It has a PTO mounted pump and a tank I am guessing to be 35 gallons. It also has a 60" straight boom. Everything is in decent shape except it has a broken fitting (nozzle body) and the boom is bent up a little.

My intention is to strip the thing down, repaint it green, build a new boom with breakaway arms and replace the hoses and probably the spray gun.

It currently has 80 degree spray nozzles (three of them) on a round boom. I was considering switching to a 1" square tubing boom but was wondering if sticking to round was wise so I could tip the nozzles back a little to get a wider spray pattern.

Seems that I would want to keep the spray bar low to the ground so I dont get chemical blowing back on me or the tractor.

Not sure if tractor supply sells the nozzle bodys like mine or not. All I have seen is the twist on bayonette type. I have no issues with replacing all of them if there is something better.

So looking for input related to the boom. I should have enough pump to run 4 nozzles if needed. Wondering how wide I should go and if there are any better nozzle systems than others. As I said I plan to make the booms hinge so I can hit a tree and have them fold out of the way.

This is to be used on 3 acres and I have a decent amount of trees. So its not like I am spraying fields with it

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mjncad

· #6 · Feb 23, 2012

Rich:

Here is my FIMCO 55-gallon FrankenBORG sprayer.

https://picasaweb.google.com/110106108324823291002/FIMCOSprayer#

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mjncad

· #13 · Feb 26, 2012

RRMCCABE said:
Thanks everyone. I think I am going to replumb mine since I dont know the condition of the plastics. I have a diverter valve to go from spray bar to nozzle now but think I might just built a manifold with ball valves so I can manually turn on the jets and sprayer manually.

Since I went the electric valve route, I no longer use the manual manifold. https://picasaweb.google.com/110106108324823291002/FIMCOSprayer#5219770196980124722 Interested? PM me and I'll get a fresh picture of it off the sprayer, and we can figure out a fair price.

RRMCCABE said:
Got the bar mounted today. I need to pick up some sprayer bodies, mounts and hose. I will probably mount tabs on the bar to attach the hose and possibly a guard on the back of the outside sprayers.

I welded 1" bar to the end of square tubing for my hinge to make it stout. I also capped the square tube to keep the wasp out.

I have so many trees they would be impossible to spray around easily so going with heavy duty spring loaded arms that will fold when I hit the tree and for storage too.

Here are a few pictures

Your sprayer boom looks very nice. Good job fabricating it.

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mjncad

· #18 · Mar 4, 2012

I like it. Those are the fanciest boom nozzle connectors I've ever seen. I suggest you try out the spray pattern before having it powder coated in case you need to add nozzles for proper overlap. I found this out on a water broom I built out of copper tubing where I didn't put the nozzles close enough together for good overlap and coverage.

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mjncad

· #21 · Mar 23, 2012

Rich:

Overall it's looking good based on the video. However; I suggest setting the boom height around 18" - 20" above grade per FIMCO's instructions. This will help minimize drift and get a wetter solution on whatever you're spraying. That's where my tennis balls on ropes come in handy as a height gauge on mine.

When you have a full tank, I'm going to suggest putting the loader back on or add some front weights if the front end feels light.

I use the blue dye all the time, and it sure makes it easier to see what you've sprayed. Even with calibration bottles, etc; the lack of a speedometer makes it tough for me to know if I'm going too fast or slow. Therefore I end up relying on the dye to give me an idea if my ground speed is close enough for Gummint work.

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mjncad

· #23 · Mar 24, 2012

Here's a picture of how I use the tennis balls as a boom height gauge. https://picasaweb.google.com/110106108324823291002/FIMCOSprayer#5238183702422712770

I don't recall the dye being all that expensive as a little goes a long way. As I recall, I use 10-ounces per 55-gallons.

I use an anti-foaming agent also to make it easier to see the fluid level in the tank.

I've seen foam generators that drop a dollop of foam every so often to mark where you've sprayed; but those generators are often as expensive as the sprayer itself.

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Sprayer Rebuild

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