Maintaining Your Crop Sprayer
Whether you’re fertilizing your crops or spreading pesticides to keep them from being ravaged by insects, a crop sprayer makes your life much easier. But like any machine, a sprayer relies on you to keep it in good working order. We here at Bucklin Tractor & Implement want to help you get the most uptime possible from your equipment, so we’ve put together some tips on maintaining your crop sprayer, below. To learn more, or to see the crop sprayers we have for sale, contact any of our six locations throughout Kansas, today!
Before Each Use
Your sprayer might need to be checked before you use it to ensure it operates properly and efficiently every time. First, check your engine’s coolant, transmission oil, and hydraulic fluid levels. If your crop sprayer is self-propelled, you’ll also need to ensure it has enough fuel to finish the job.
Next, check any and all belts for proper tension and grease the boom. That includes the flag pins, sway pivots, tip hinge, and boom fold pivots. They’ll need re-greasing after every eight hours of operation.
Finally, make sure the air intake system is secure and clean, check all lighting, and ensure the machine is calibrated correctly.
After Each Use
Once you’re all done, it’s important that you flush out the wet system to prevent any fluids from sitting and causing damage over time. This also prevents the various fluids you might spray from mixing together—you don’t want to be fertilizing your crop and also spraying extra pesticides on it.
Clean out the strainers and do a through inspection to ensure there are no leaks, either from the engine’s various fluid tanks and lines or from the product delivery system.
Long-Term Maintenance
There are a few extra things you should take care of weekly to avoid any problems from building up, including but not limited to:
- Torquing lug nuts and boom lead bolts.
- Greasing steering and axle components, rear suspension, and king pins.
- Checking fluid containers and lines for leaks.
- Rephasing steering cylinders.
- Adjusting tank straps and the boom.
And finally, there are a few tasks to do on a monthly basis, including adjusting the poly tank straps again. You should also inspect and clean the engine air filter and the cabin air filter, look for visible damage or leaks, cycle the suspension, torque all axle bolts, and grease the driveline.
We hope these tips help keep your crop sprayer working hard so you don’t have to! For more information, or to see the crop sprayers we have available, contact us at Bucklin Tractor & Implement. We proudly serve the people of the great state of Kansas—let us serve you today!