When running both ranks of openers on the 30, 36, 40 & 42′ 1890s, 1860s, and 1850s, it’s easy to run short of frame weight when running in firm no-till soils—and this is especially true if you’re still running the OEM springs on each opener, rather than hydraulic cylinders (see our UniForce system). The openers don’t work well if they’re skating out from lack of downpressure, and cranking up the downpressure without adequate frame weight can make the problem worse by excessively ‘rolling under’ of the openers (furrow actually gets shallower, because the opener is now riding more on the gauge wheel, since it’s located rearward of the blade). Better to prepare now, and have extra ballast ready when you need it—sooner or later, you will.

We’ve long been advocates of placing additional ballast over the rear transport wheels on the JD 1850/60/90 air drills, as this is the best location to offset the leveraging from the rockshaft torque on the openers (the rear wheels always lift first). It’s always been do-it-yourself thing for securing the weights—until now.

We took a farmer concept, and made it more robust with the help of stress-analysis software, and now can offer you a ready-to-go solution. Our brackets are for the wing transport wheels on 3-section drills, where those wheel frames are attached with bolts (see photo).

All hardware included. (Doesn’t include weights, nor shipping.) Holds up to 12 JD suitcase weights per bracket. For 1850/60/90 air drills with carts (not compatible with CCS drills).

Call to order 785-820-8000