BRANDON – Blair Woods has used a hydraulic Scott’s anhydrous ammonia tank winch for the past decade. He has become enough of a believer in hydraulic power that he now sells the winches from the shop on his farm near Elgin, Man.
Woods said he has good reasons for choosing hydraulic over electric.
“Your anhydrous tank is nearly always towed behind your air seeder. The hydraulics are already in place for you on the cultivator frame, so why would you go to the extra trouble of installing an electric system? You can simply plumb into your existing hydraulics,” he said.
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“With an electric winch, you need to run a long, heavy cable all the way up to your tractor. And it needs to be a heavy one, too, or else you experience too much voltage drop.
“Or, some guys buy a deep cell battery and a solar panel to keep it charged up. Then they use their electric winch. I think that’s a lot of extra stuff to hang on your seeder when you already have more pulling power than you’ll ever need right there in your hydraulics.”
Woods said the original Scott hydraulic winch has undergone a complete makeover after 10 years of field testing and refinements on hundreds of North American farms.
The new Series 2 incorporates more safety features and a better spool tension control and cover so the cable winds up better.
It has an Eaton hydraulic drive orbit motor, double reduction No. 50 chain drive and oil-impregnated bronze bushings on the shafts. The Series 2 also has lower maintenance requirements and comes with a two-year warranty on chains, bushings and the frame. It weighs 150 pounds.
“It comes with 30 feet of 5/16 inch aircraft grade cable, so you don’t need to be perfectly lined up behind your seeder. You can be off at an angle and you still have enough cable and enough power to pull it right into line. We can also set it up with 40 feet of that same aircraft grade cable,” Woods said.
“There’s a safety factor here, also. It lines itself up so well right behind the hitch that the operator no longer needs to position himself in front or behind the cable. You can stand off to the side and it pulls the tank perfectly into place.”
Woods said the winch is rated at 12,000 lb. pulling capacity, but a safety shear pin snaps at about 7,500 lb. Typical line tension when pulling up a 2,000 gallon tank in a spiked field is less than 5,000 lb.
“It pulls up the big tanks in soft fields without a problem. I use it to pull a 2,000 gallon tank. I have some customers who use it to pull two 1,500 gallon tanks in a line. And I have one customer who uses it to pull up three 1,250 gallon tanks. He has reported no winch problems.”
Woods said most air seeder manufacturers already have a hitch built onto the frame. He drills each winch to fit a specific frame. The most common ones he stocks are for Bourgault, Flex-Coil, Concord, John Deere and Morris.
The winches are built in North Dakota and Woods sells them from his farm shop.
For more information, contact Blair Woods at 204-769-2243.
