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The biggest downfall of the JD 50/60/90/Pro-series drills is how down-force is applied—the rockshaft twists to compress a big coil spring on each opener. Because the spring is nearly parallel to the arm, the opener has almost no down-stroke—i.e., the spring is in the optimum position (applying the correct amount of down-force) for only about 1/4″ of its range. Had the spring been oriented differently (e.g., pushing straight down), the problem wouldn’t be nearly so bad.
So, you must have fields that are laser level for these openers to work correctly. Even 1/2” depressions give them fits. The spring starts to relax as the opener goes into these miniscule depressions, and you lose down-force—the opener loses depth, and starts hairpinning. To compensate, everyone cranks the pressure way up—so that the majority of openers have far too much pressure, just to keep those passing thru mild depressions working halfway decent. You end up with excessive sidewall compaction on most of the rows, while some aren’t even holding depth. Not to mention it takes a bunch of extra ballast on the frame. For this reason, it’s much more important to get rid of downpressure springs on these drills than it is on planters with a parallel link.
The big coil spring on JD 50/60/90/Pro-series drill openers is a major downfall of that design. If the spring relaxes when the opener goes into the slightest depression, it loses down-pressure and fails to cut the straw & stalks (hairpinning!) and the furrow may be shallower if soil is hard.
Maintain a completely uniform pressure across all the openers of the drill.
Our UniForce hydraulic system fixes Deere’s design debacle. Now, you can get uniform pressure on every single opener throughout its full stroke. The result is much better cutting, less hairpinning, holding depth much more accurately, and far less sidewall compaction. Another problem with springs is that they bounce: Hydraulics don’t have this problem. When developing the UniForce, we’d often leave at least one opener with the OEM spring. Watching them run side by side, it’s amazing how much the row(s) with OEM springs bounce, whereas the rows with UniForce are smooth and steady.
UniForce uses single-action cylinders along with the OEM rockshaft, which is still used to raise and lower the openers. The two hydraulic circuits may be plumbed together so that everything runs on a single tractor remote*, or they may be kept completely separate (two tractor remotes are used). *We prefer them kept separate.
Large 3/4″ header hoses* allow oil to move quickly from one end of the drill to the other, and between the front & back ranks. This keeps pressure almost perfectly constant even while going over steep terraces or through swales at high speed. Special brackets support the header hose on most air drill sections. Large 1/2″ drop hoses let oil move in & out of cylinders very rapidly. But don’t be fooled by the size of the hoses: The flow requirements are relatively low—for 48 rows, the UniForce takes only 4 – 8 GPM (for comparison, the air cart fan needs 25 – 30 GPM). (*Box drills use 1/2″ header hoses.)
Call for UniForce pricing and receive a free quote. All of our Exapta team members have hands-on experience with UniForce. They can answer your questions and work up a quote for you.
For those who farm in terraces, especially when using only a single rank of openers, Exapta offers an optional 2.5-gallon accumulator for the UniForce system (JD 50/60/90/Pro) on air drills, or a pair of 1-gallon accumulators for a pair of box drills towed together on a hitch. When hitting terraces square-on, even the largest-capacity tractors can’t supply enough oil flow to keep the pressure constant, but our accumulator improves this considerably. (If you don’t farm in terraces, you don’t need an accumulator.)
Includes brackets, hoses, fittings
About the UniForce hydraulic down-pressure system
Don Titlon shares with No-Till Farmer about his experience with UniForce. Read more.
Exapta Solutions’ new UniForce hydraulic down-force Replaces the OEM springs on each opener with hydraulic cylinders to apply uniform force to the opener throughout its range of travel, for greatly reduced hairpinning of residue and much better holding of opener depth. Read More
Tom Cannon shares with No-Till Farmer that the Exapta upgrades to his drill including UniForce allowed him to lower his soybean seeding rate from 150,000 seeds down to 100,000! 1/3 lower seeding rate! As Tom stated, “That is a huge savings when you look at today’s high seed costs.” Read More
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.
