Now available: Forges de Niaux’s superior blades for Case-IH Precision Disc 500 / NH P-2080 / 2085. Same dimensions as OEM, but with the greater durability of the Forges de Niaux! Harder on the periphery, for 20% greater wear life. Stays sharper longer. (Note: We don’t stock these in our warehouse; all orders will incur shipping.)
Introduced in 2013, the Case-IH Precision Disc 500 / 500T and New Holland P-2080 / 2085 has many desirable features, including a true gauge wheel running beside the 18″ blade. However, a major downfall for no-till seedbeds is the lack of any in-furrow seed firming device, which would apply a small but consistent pressure directly onto the seed.
Instead, these drills try to squash all the soil from the surface down to the seed with the packer wheel. Sometimes this severely compacts the soil over the seed—not good. Sometimes the furrow cracks back open. And sometimes, if the soil is quite firm, the packer wheel cannot achieve any seed firming at all.
Keetons + Mojos greatly enhance Case’s Precision -500 drill performance.
The bracket kit holds Thompson wheels at correct position and angle to create 7-degrees of toe-out.
OEM packer wheels are pathetic for closing the furrow, and when the springs are set at high pressure, this robs a lot of down-force from the opener blade. Exapta’s closing bracket kit with Thompson wheel is vastly superior for getting the furrow closed, especially in damp clay no-till soils, or sod, or other tough seedbeds. Minimal pressure required on Thompson wheels to get the job done, so more down-force is available for the opener itself.
Now available: Forges de Niaux’s superior blades for Case-IH Precision Disc 500 / NH P-2080 / 2085. Same dimensions as OEM, but with the greater durability of the Forges de Niaux! Harder on the periphery, for 20% greater wear life. Stays sharper longer.
Exapta provides a ready solution to this with our steel bracket to allow a special Keeton & Mojo Wire to be used on these drills. Our Keetons for these drills have been customized to fit, and to allow use of our robust K.608 Mojo. We have 2 Keeton models, depending on which closing system you’re running—a full length Keeton for use with our closing system, and a shortened version to use with OEM closing arm (see next paragraph). We also have a specially designed Mojo Wire for the P-500 / NH 2080 to give the Keetons a lot more pressure, while withstanding the extra flexing imposed on the Keetons running on these drills. The Keetons will wear out a lot faster with Mojo Wires, but you probably want all the seeds to come up, no?
Once you overcome these drills’ lack of seed firming by adding a Keeton and Mojo, the next order of business is improving the closing action—which is rather pitiful in long-term no-till with their smooth packer wheel. Exapta’s closing bracket is the ideal upgrade for these drills, by allowing our Thompson T3 closing wheel to be ran at a 7-degree toe-out, along with lighter spring pressure. Toe-out has been the key to successful furrow closing on other planters and drills (John Deere 50/60/90-series drills have always had 7-degrees of toe-out built into the closing arm, and our toe-out wedge has been hugely popular with planter owners running a variety of closing wheels, even the smooth cast). Exapta’s closing system for the P-500 must be used with a Keeton and Mojo Wire, since the Thompson wheel doesn’t do any packing. Also, our closing system is the only one to allow use of the full-length Keetons with the liquid application capability. This is because Exapta’s closing system moves the closing wheel a couple inches rearward. If using the OEM packer wheel, or any wheel bolting directly into the OEM closing arm, it is necessary to run our shortened version of the Keeton (no liquid capability).
Avoid stand failures! Do firming & closing as separate steps, and do them well.
Yes, the foreground is seeded at a 2″ depth. The openers are that low of disturbance, and the Thompson wheel is closing it up that well—nearly invisible seeding!
Closing bracket for Thompson wheels on Case’s Precision-500/500T & NH 2080/2085 grain drills
Content of this page is copyright 2005-2024 Exapta Solutions, Inc. (reprint with written permission only).
Thompson wheel covered by U.S. Patent No. 6,907,833. Liquid delivery feature of Valion seed tube guards is U.S. Patent No. 8,978,564. Ninja seed bounce flap U.S. Patent Pending. UniForce U.S. Patent Pending. All rights reserved on other designs. Exapta is a registered trademark of Exapta Solutions, Inc. Keeton is a registered trademark of Precision Planting. Mojo Wire, Thompson wheel, Valion guard, Ninja flap, UniForce, DuraLok, No-till Seeding Explained, and No-till Seeding School are trademarks of Exapta. Disclaimer: Recommendations & page content are current, accurate, and believed to be broadly applicable as of the time of writing (Dec 2005) and last update (2005 – 2014). Because of diversity of soils, climate, crops, planter & drill models/designs marketed worldwide, combinations of attachments, etc., actual results may vary. No warranty is made as to actual results obtained. Should you encounter exceptions or worthwhile annotations to the statements made on this page, please contact us.
Derek is Kansas native who grew up in a 100% no-till farming operation. From an early age the benefits of no-till were made known to Derek by his father and by attending no-till conferences. From there he furthered his passion for soils while at Kansas State University getting his agronomy degree. He has had the experience of working in various roles and sectors of agriculture from sales and consulting, to management, which have all been within production agriculture. Derek has also worked in specialty ag markets such as turf and ornamentals.
Sales & Service Representative
Prior to joining Exapta, Bob Pagel was an Agricultural Territory Sales Manager for Ritchie Brothers, serving parts of MN, WI and IA. He continues to support his family farm in SE Minnesota.
Current Product Engineer
Jonathan Zeller joined Exapta excited to return to working with no-till planting equipment. He supported research of no-till planting and other ag related projects for 7 years with Kansas State University’s Agricultural Engineering Department after getting his engineering degree. He later worked 3 years for Landoll Company, LLC. where he gained experience in a design engineering role. Jonathan grew up on a small family farm in NE Kansas working with row crops, hay and cattle. Jonathan enjoys solving engineering problems and improving or creating products to be robust and easy to install and service.
