Superior Tech Sprayer choice for 1023r - pressure controller?

mness4 said:

Hi all. New to the forum. I have a 1023r and recently purchased a ST sprayer from my local JD dealer. I conveyed that main criteria were: 1) the need for a pressure controller based on some assumptions below, and 2) a boom. I was directed to the LP20840. When I finally got around to installation, I discovered my model does not have the pressure controller. That would be the LP22886. They offered to swap and charge me the difference in price. The upgrade would be $965+300 (for the optional boom) versus the version I have at $860 (includes boom). So the upgrade would be another $400. Disappointing, since probably I would have chosen an off-brand instead of $1265. But now I'm stuck...expensive version that does what (I think) I need, or a less expensive version that does not.

I maintain ~1 acre with some moderately steep hills and many overlapping turns. My searches strongly suggested having pressure control to adjust the amount of chemical on the fly to prevent over-applying fertilizer or weed killer in overlapping areas. Also, I will need to adjust my speed on sloped areas. Without the pressure controller, I cannot compensate.

Did I come to the correct conclusion the first time? Looking for recommendations. FYI, I'm not an experienced tractor driver, so that might play into things.

Thanks,
Mike

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KeyboardJungle said:

those are both nice sprayers. i have one with a pressure controller and gauge, but i never use pressure to adjust spray volume on the fly. I set and leave it at 40 psi. it’s best to treat pressure as a constant rather than a variable in your sprayer calibration formula. try to figure out a constant speed that you can maintain across the entire acre and calibrate your sprayer to that speed. for reference, i spray at about 2.5 mph in a gently sloping hay field.

so…. fill up your tank and drive the property until you have a feel for a speed that you can maintain across all of it. then turn on the sprayer and do a trial run to see how far a tank goes. once you have done that, you have resolved all of your variables. now you can simply adjust the amount of product you use based on how far your 45 gallons of water went at your target speed. either sprayer will work. with one, you get to set the pressure, and with the other, it is fixed rather than adjustable. my preference would be to upgrade, but for no reason other than that’s just me.

I hope that makes sense.

be careful with all that weight sloshing around, especially when turning on a slope. too slow is better than too fast!

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• run up and down the slopes, never across them
• shut off the sprayer and slow way down on turns.
• use front ballast. i initially loaded up the fel with rocks, but now i use 4 42lb suitcase weights that i put on the front bracket.
• remove the quick hitch and hook the sprayer directly to the 3 point. this shaves off the weight of the QH and moves the payload closer to the machine.
• replumbed the boom with seven nozzles so that i can run with the sprayer closer to the ground - 20” above the canopy, rather than the 30” that was recommended for the stock 5 nozzle set up. (i think that ST should have plumbed in 7 nozzles at the factory.)

KeyboardJungle said:

i use 2,4d based products, trimec in the yard and weedmaster in the field, and find them to be pretty forgiving on both turf and field grasses. those chemicals target broadleafs, and my experience is that they don’t have much effect on grasses, so overlap hasn’t been a problem.

take a look at your boom sprayer patterns - the inner areas are fed by the overlap of two adjacent nozzles, whereas the outermost sections are only fed by the outer part of the pattern from one nozzle. so, the overlapped strips on the outer edge don’t necessarily get double coverage.

im thinking…. maybe save the $400 on an upgrade and buy a spin spreader for fertilizer. spraying fertilizer is hard on the equipment, and there is a good chance that you will see a heavier green up line where you overlap liquid fertilizer. throwing out granular fertilizer with a spreader gives a more even distribution and minimizes the overlap effect. i spray herbicides, but broadcast fertilizers, and it works well.

here are some of the things that I do/did to deal with slopes. i have probably gone overboard:

• run up and down the slopes, never across them
• shut off the sprayer and slow way down on turns.
• use front ballast. i initially loaded up the fel with rocks, but now i use 4 42lb suitcase weights that i put on the front bracket.
• remove the quick hitch and hook the sprayer directly to the 3 point. this shaves off the weight of the QH and moves the payload closer to the machine.
• replumbed the boom with seven nozzles so that i can run with the sprayer closer to the ground - 20” above the canopy, rather than the 30” that was recommended for the stock 5 nozzle set up. (i think that ST should have plumbed in 7 nozzles at the factory.)

i can’t speak to actual slope angles, but it sounds like your property is more challenging than mine.

be careful around trees. some of the chemicals that you use will have soil activity. shut off the sprayer when near drip lines.

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mness4 said:

Great advice. Thank you. I wasn't planning on counterweights. Are they necessary? I have a box blade and land plane that I've used w/o weights. I would think they're heavier, but I might have only used them with the loader attached.

I had been planning to use the sprayer for fertilizer as well, but I'll switch to the spreader. This would take care of the driveway treatment in the winter as well (900ft).

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