Looking for a bean planter

[aginvestorr]

Just wondering what you all have for a bean planter? What do you recomend? Would prefer 15" rows, 40' wide. Been leaning to a JD 1790 16/32 Anybody have experience with several brands and types? Will be notilling into standing corn stubble. Heavy clay ground. What king of closing wheels do you prefer in notill(spaded,cast iron, rubber)? Would a JD 1790 have a lot of maintenance over say 10 years on items other than normal wear(opening disks, coulter blades, and bearings on such)? Do I need notill coulters in front of seed openers? Would like to find a 2-3 year old machine. When is best time to buy? Thanks for any info!

[nwobcw]

   There are some planters like you mention in my area.  They are HEAVY and will make deep tire tracks on the ends.  The sprayer operator from the local co op tells me he hates spraying in fields planted with these panters as they leave the ends so rough.  Yes in heavy clay no till openers are mandatory especially in corn stubble and we use the solid cast closing wheels although some are experimenting with the finger type wheels on 1 side of the row.  Solid closing wheels set at the lightest spring pressure possible work well on my JD 7240.   About 7 years ago I got rid of my drill as I went to all RR beans and wanted to know exactly how many seeds per acre i was planting because of the extra cost of the seed.  To my surprise going to a planter also increased yields with fewer seeds per acre planted.  Within about 2 years everybody around here had switched to split row planters from the no-till drills.  Well, almost everybody.