Seed Hawk boss Pat Beaujot says rubber tracks are on the agenda at his company, but they need more work to meet farmer demands.
“We know a cart will float better on tracks and it’s less likely to get stuck, but there are issues we need to address before we offer tracks,” he said.
“We have a tentative plan for a track setup. One of our customers has put tracks on two of our 800 carts.”
He said Kent Hamner of Govan, Sask., bolts Soucy tracks directly to Seed Hawk hubs.
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Beaujot said Hamner imported the tracks this winter. Seed Hawk considered offering the Soucy tracks as a factory option, but said there’s an inherent problem with tracks on any big air cart.
“The fill auger cannot manoeuvre around the tracks for full access. It just will not happen.
“There’s no way you can get an auger to do everything it’s capable of with tracks in the way, on any cart, any manufacturer.
“Fill augers are a big deal with farmers. It seems we spend more time improving our augers each year than we spend on the drill. Farmers are very touchy about messing with their fill augers.”
Beaujot said if a customer wants to buy a complete drill minus the cart tires, that’s fine with him. The customer can then to buy the tracks.
“But if we sell it with tracks of any brand and the customer doesn’t like the fill auger obstruction, then he’s mad at us.
“So for now, this is the way we’re doing it until we re-think the whole engineering aspect.”
Beaujot said hydraulic metering has eliminated the ground drive problem associated with tracks and more producers are opting for this option.
For more information, contact Pat Beaujot at 306-538-2221 or www.seedhawk.com.
