checked the output on Fimco 25 gal atv sprayer = whacked

Persimman

5 year old buck +
I have the Fimco LG-3025 boomless sprayer with handwand. 3 nozzles. Older model, but the calibration charts in the manual are the same as current. I didn't like it much on the 400 cc atv. 4wd ATV was always hard to steer and maintain constant speed, and tank made it very tippy, I strapped weights under the atv frame, and put a couple bags of fertilizer on the front rack, and still only ran the sprayer half full. Bought a backpack sprayer and let the ATV sprayer set for a quinquennium.
Now I have a scut, and can mount the sprayer on my carry-all frame, on the carry-all box, or on the cultipacker {I love my cultipacker}. Wired to a dash switch for easy on/off. I am only using the center nozzle due to over spray issues and it's easier to see where I've been from tractor tracks. Works great. I need to develop a one-pass spray technique so I can do specific small areas in my field, and unmeasured areas as foodplots expand.
So I applied the technical part of my brain, which is about 98% of it. Manual says 2.40 gpm at 40 psi. Also says "rate of spray shown in the chart will be the same with 1, 2, or 3 nozzles. Only the width will change". Okay, that's interesting, but not really the target of the discussion. So, I did a spreadsheet {guaranteed results} for desired glyph/acre, spray width of 7 ft, ground speed of ... 5 mph, sprayer output 2.4 gpm and came up with a nice table to get what I want by varying either the total spray volume or the ground speed. Way cool.
THIS IS THE POINT OF THE POST I did the set-up and sprayed 2,4-D on the yard dandelions and had way too much left over. Afterwards I calibrated the nozzle by weighing the output on a scale. It's running .43 gpm at 50 psi, and .39 gpm at 40 psi. Checked it 4 times. No dandelions were injured when running this experiment.
The 2.4 gpm rating seems unreasonable. At that rate you would empty a 24 gal batch in ... 10 minutes. My testing says a 25 gal batch will last 60 minutes. that seems reasonable. Do you guys find that a full batch only lasts 10 minutes? Could some of you'ns measure the output on your nozzles and share what numbers you get?
Since my output is so much lower than expected, I either need to reduce speed to less than 1 mph, or mix my batch at a very high concentration, or plan on covering the same spot twice. Or maybe 3 times. And dang it now my spreadsheet is messed up. Or maybe the pump is failing.
Please share your volume calibration info and run time per tank. Thanks in advance for the valuable responses.
 
Hers what I did (non technical). I put a 5 gallon bucket under each nozzle and ran the sprayer for 1 minute. That gave me gallons per minute. if I remember right it took less than 10 minutes to empty 25 gallons at 40PSI. More like 5 minutes. As it worked out. If I could keep the 4 wheeler at 4 miles an hour, the 25 gallons would cover right around 1 acre. Spreadsheets , charts and calculators weren’t involved. Lol.
 
I would say you have something clogged in your screens or your pump just is not pumping the way it’s supposed to. However you’re right. Put the appropriate chemical in for the area you need it for and keep going around until it’s all gone.
 
I have the Fimco LG-3025 boomless sprayer with handwand. 3 nozzles. Older model, but the calibration charts in the manual are the same as current. I didn't like it much on the 400 cc atv. 4wd ATV was always hard to steer and maintain constant speed, and tank made it very tippy, I strapped weights under the atv frame, and put a couple bags of fertilizer on the front rack, and still only ran the sprayer half full. Bought a backpack sprayer and let the ATV sprayer set for a quinquennium.
Now I have a scut, and can mount the sprayer on my carry-all frame, on the carry-all box, or on the cultipacker {I love my cultipacker}. Wired to a dash switch for easy on/off. I am only using the center nozzle due to over spray issues and it's easier to see where I've been from tractor tracks. Works great. I need to develop a one-pass spray technique so I can do specific small areas in my field, and unmeasured areas as foodplots expand.
So I applied the technical part of my brain, which is about 98% of it. Manual says 2.40 gpm at 40 psi. Also says "rate of spray shown in the chart will be the same with 1, 2, or 3 nozzles. Only the width will change". Okay, that's interesting, but not really the target of the discussion. So, I did a spreadsheet {guaranteed results} for desired glyph/acre, spray width of 7 ft, ground speed of ... 5 mph, sprayer output 2.4 gpm and came up with a nice table to get what I want by varying either the total spray volume or the ground speed. Way cool.
THIS IS THE POINT OF THE POST I did the set-up and sprayed 2,4-D on the yard dandelions and had way too much left over. Afterwards I calibrated the nozzle by weighing the output on a scale. It's running .43 gpm at 50 psi, and .39 gpm at 40 psi. Checked it 4 times. No dandelions were injured when running this experiment.
The 2.4 gpm rating seems unreasonable. At that rate you would empty a 24 gal batch in ... 10 minutes. My testing says a 25 gal batch will last 60 minutes. that seems reasonable. Do you guys find that a full batch only lasts 10 minutes? Could some of you'ns measure the output on your nozzles and share what numbers you get?
Since my output is so much lower than expected, I either need to reduce speed to less than 1 mph, or mix my batch at a very high concentration, or plan on covering the same spot twice. Or maybe 3 times. And dang it now my spreadsheet is messed up. Or maybe the pump is failing.
Please share your volume calibration info and run time per tank. Thanks in advance for the valuable responses.

I NEVER go by a calibration table in the manual. I've got the 55 gal boom with a PTO pump. It is always more difficult with an ATV or UTV where you can't hold a constant speed like a tractor can, but either way, I'd calibrate myself. Pressure gauges may not be accurate, nozzles may not output what they are supposed to. Screens and filters clog.

I like the 1/128th acre method. Whatever method you use, once you determine how much output you are getting it is just simple math.

If I were you I would start by deciding how much fluid output you want. You need enough to evenly distribute product on the vegetation. Beyond that, the amount doesn't matter. I generally like less, as you say time between refills increases with less water output. You can adjust both pressure and ground speed to get a reasonable fluid output. Once you have that, figure out how much fluid you put out when covering an acre. Like I say, I like the 1/128th acre method for this, but I've know folks to simply go spray an acre with water and subtract any fluid left from a full tank to get output per acre. Once you know output per acre and are happy with it, simply apply product according to the label



Thanks,

Jack
 
Thanks for the quick come-back. If yours pumps out in 10 minutes, and mine takes an r, that's the same result as when I calculated .4 gpm. Yah, maybe the pump is worn out. Actually, I'm going to check the hoses first. 20 yrs old maybe hoses delaminate inside and cause blockage. I'll take them off and see. If I'm getting 40 psi during flow, the problem has to be between the gauge and the nozzles.
 
Does The hand wand work ok?
 
Instead of 2-4d look for Strike 3. It has 2-4d, Dicamba, and one other chemical. It smokes weeds so much better than straight 2-4d.
 
yeah, the hand wand seems fine, but I haven't measured the flow rate. works so good for the bil that he keeps borrowing it.
I took apart everything between the pump and the nozzle and it's all clear. Did another test with teh same result. .43 gpm. I'm thinking their table is for 3 nozzles at once, even though they say 1 nozzle has just as much flow. I'm going to order a nozzle rated 2 gpm at 40 psi, cuz that will work well with my tank size and ground speed. See what happens.
Nightvision, do you use Strike 3 in your yard? okay with grass?
 
I don't think they are saying you should get 2.4 gpm for only one nozzle. You should get the same Gallon/Acre coverage. The manual says the boomless wand should cover 30' Wide and the center nozzle should cover 80" = 6.67'. Using that I think you should get 2.4*6.67/30 = .53 Gal/Min using only the center nozzle.
 
RCD, thanks for the clear explanation. Sounds right. Makes more sense than the manual. If I'm testing 0.43 compared to 0.53 that's reasonable.
Any recommendations for a 110 degree fan nozzle 1.5 gpm at 30-50 psi?
 
I have the Fimco gallon sprayer. You most definitely will not get full rate with only the middle sprayer open. The two outside sprayers have more volume than the middle one as it is.
When I close the outside nozzles on mine, the pump has to cycle on and off because the pressure switch is tripping it off. When running two or three nozzles, it almost never shuts off due to over pressure.

I've got my situation set up like this - a full ish tank ~24 gallons will spray about 2 acres +/- at 7 mph. I keep it between 6 and 8 mph on my wheeler and adjust the capacity of my tank and chemicals according to how much I need to spray. Not an exact science but it's been working well for me.
 
I got this to try:
TeeJet nozzle XRC11015-VP
1/2 nozzle body 22251-311-500-NYB
QJ111-3/4 mount (fits 1" od pipe)
First test gave me 1.1 gpm at 30 psi and 1.3 gpm at 40 psi. That's a much better fit for my ground speed.
There's more fine mist than I would prefer, but that will float between the stems for better coverage. The assemblage incorporates a 10 psi check valve; works great for no drip at on/off.
8' wide pattern when mounted at 36" high, at a bit of an angle.

After I ordered my stuff, I noticed the AITTJ60- 11015VP, which is a dual nozzle that angles one forward 30 deg and one back 30 deg. That would really give good coverage in the tall weeds I work with. But since my overall rig is so small, the forward-facing nozzle might just wash my eqt. But I included the part number here for a sense of completeness.
Well, tomorrow's Friday. Hope to get home from work in time to pull the cultipacker around. Great way to start the weekend.
 
We have a 45 gallon sprayer with a small boom for a Utv roughly 10 gallons and acre for us. With speed and spacing inconsistency that is about as close as we are ever going to get. Just have to live with it. If I was spraying in the 00s of acres may have to try harder to get more precise.
 
I have a chart that is from the company on calibrating your sprayer but I can't get the pictures to upload. It's telling me the file is to big. Any ideas how to upload?
 
I have a chart that is from the company on calibrating your sprayer but I can't get the pictures to upload. It's telling me the file is to big. Any ideas how to upload?
Reduce the size. Use a picture editing program, to reduce the resolution. Then upload the smaller file.

Or, you can adjust the resolution on you camera and take the picture again.
 
I'll be honest, I don't know what I did to get it to fit now but I got one to load. I'll try again. I'm good at farming but not so hot with electronics. Sorry
 

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This is the other one, I did this with my atv sprayer and it works great.
 

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I believe that is a version of the 1/128 acre method. If you look that up, you will find similar instructions with the formula for any nozzle spacing and number.
 
I believe that is a version of the 1/128 acre method. If you look that up, you will find similar instructions with the formula for any nozzle spacing and number.

That could be, I run my atv sprayer that way, my neighbor did this with his atv sprayer as well and it worked. The sprayer for the farm is a whole different ball game.
 
That could be, I run my atv sprayer that way, my neighbor did this with his atv sprayer as well and it worked. The sprayer for the farm is a whole different ball game.
But calibration method is generally the same. You figure out fluid output per acre of coverage by whatever method, and then apply the product according the the label on a per acre basis.
 
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