How does the John Deere 1240 plateless planter work (very basic)

[@AnglesideFarm]

I keep saying fingerless when I mean to say finger or plateless

[@badencraig7778]

I remember my grandpa saying his dad payed 1200$ new for one of those planters. We still have it today in the back row and hopefully it will be usable next spring.

[@AnglesideFarm]

I wondered what the cost was new. My brother worked at a Deere dealership and would set these up for delivery but he didn't remember the cost.....I'm glad to know, and thank you!

[@elmoreglidingclub3030]

Really interesting and helpful. I remember seeing these in use when I was a kid following my dad, who taught vo-ag, to various area farms. Good memories!

[@AnglesideFarm]

@@elmoreglidingclub3030 thank you for your kind comment

[@jeanbrandt2624]

I remember when these came out, the plateless model was $600 extra, big farmer for the time said he could change a lot of plates for $600. But wasn’t 2 years until he had a plateless planter.

[@AnglesideFarm]

Do you remember what these planters cost new? $600.00 was a lot of money back then, I can understand what big farmer said. Thank You

[@jeanbrandt2624]

@@AnglesideFarm I don’t remember what they cost new, but someone else in the comments said they thought $1200 so yeah $600 extra is significant

[@jamespittman3365]

Great planters in their day and still useful today. You did a good job of explaining how they work.

[@AnglesideFarm]

Thank you James. There sure where a lot of them.

[@evanaustin2636]

Thanks for the explanation Steve! I had wondered how the plateless units worked, that's pretty slick. Glad you can still get those stainless pieces from Deere. I saw a few 1240's for sale when I was looking for a planter but I was kind of intimidated by them so I stuck with a 494A. And I already had a bunch of plates. Thanks again for the video, hope you have a good weekend!

[@AnglesideFarm]

Thanks Evan. I’m not really sure why I chose to go with a 1240, dad has a bunch of plates at his place I could have used. Maybe it was meant to be that I challenged myself with a plateless planter. You have a great weekend sir!

[@AgWildNebraska]

Dad had one just like it. I remember turning those dials from corn to beans. We still have the fertilizer boxes that are in good shape. I was always going to make a toy box out of one of them.

[@AnglesideFarm]

If it wasn’t such a drive I’d buy those boxes so I wouldn’t need to fix these. They aren’t shot by any means just a few annoying holes. Thanks for watching

[@AgWildNebraska]

@@AnglesideFarm he cleaned them out and oiled them so they wouldn't rust. When he got a 7000 he ended up using the fertilizer augers out of the 1240 because they weren't rusted up.

[@AnglesideFarm]

amazing that the fertilizer augers were/are interchangeable...... I just learned something!@@AgWildNebraska

[@pagrainfarmer]

I had a JD 494 planter that I used up until 10 years ago when I bought a White 5100 air planter. The JD was a great planter and probably planted thousands of acres. I sold it to my friend, who still has it.

[@AnglesideFarm]

A lot of longevity in that old 494!

[@pagrainfarmer]

I appreciate you showing us how that plateless planter works. I never saw one apart before. @@AnglesideFarm

[@Pennies_on_the_dollar]

Thank you Mr Steve, had no idea honestly!! That is a pretty slick setup honestly!! Very good explanation and in detail of the motions!! So pennies on the dollar huh!! 😁😁😁 Thank you very much for doing this one, learned alot!! Good to see ya, and look fwd ri whats next!! 😁😁😁🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸👍👍👍🌽🌽🌽🇺🇸

[@AnglesideFarm]

Hey Nelson thanks for the push to make this video, it’s been on my mind to do it just needed time and motivation. Thanks for watching and your continued support

[@Pennies_on_the_dollar]

@@AnglesideFarm Yes sir always, I really had nomidea that made such back then, loved it!! 😁😁👍👍

[@AnglesideFarm]

I believe the 1240 paved the way for the JD 7000 planter, ours had the finger units like the 1240's just configured differently.@@Pennies_on_the_dollar

[@Pennies_on_the_dollar]

@@AnglesideFarm That is truly amazing, have seen a few before but passed by them, unknown to me they were plateless!! I totally agree with Mr Steve!!

[@crslyrn]

Thanks for taking the time to make a Tutorial Video on the Operational Basics of the John Deere 1240 planter. Take care.

[@AnglesideFarm]

Thanks Ron, I hope it’s useful to someone Take care also.

[@GosselinFarmsEdGosselin]

Good afternoon Steve. Great explanation! The older equipment was simple, compared with most new equipment. Always nice when you make a longer trip and the seller makes it more worth your while 😉

[@AnglesideFarm]

Howdy Ed! Thanks, I like simple it doesn’t make my head hurt! Yeah he shaved off $200.00 which made it worth cleaning up and fixing what needed fixing.

[@Rollinghillsfarmsmn]

Great explanation! I feel like I could operate one. I’ve always liked figuring out the mechanisms behind farm equipment. The engineering on this JD is very cool and Definitely a step up from my old IH two row and bucket of plates😊.

[@AnglesideFarm]

Thanks As always looking back on a video I think of ways I could have improved it. It really is not hard to use this planter, however it’s a stepping stone to a JD 7000 if I ever find one....

[@twinbrookacres]

Great explanation, Steve. I am always amazed at the innovation and complexities of farm equipment. - Rick

[@AnglesideFarm]

Thanks Rick, and it continues to get more complex.

[@dalethomas8866]

Thanks so much! I have an international 56 I bought last year for sweet corn on our truck patch operation, needless to say I've not been happy with the plate situation. It's either skipping like crazy, the only option is to use bigger holes in the plates, but then there's two and three seeds per drop. I'm going to have to sell it and get a 1240 or a finger pick up 7000. I was able to find out that apparently the sh2 hybrid corns are partially tricky with plate planters because of the variance in size and uniformity, which is pretty much all I plant.

[@AnglesideFarm]

I have sold this planter and bought a 7000 plate,hearing what you say i hope I don’t regret it being a plate planter

[@dalethomas8866]

@@AnglesideFarm yeah I hope you don't regret it either. Best of luck. I'm sure you are busy, but it'd be cool to see a run down on your experience with the 7000. Have you used it yet?

[@AnglesideFarm]

@@dalethomas8866 thanks,sounds like a upcoming video idea sir! Yes I planted about a half acre with the 7000 already I’ve got some more yet to plant

[@brycewiborg8095]

Good to see you Steve. We used IHC planters, but a Uncle used two 694 planters so i sort of understand. Thank you.

[@AnglesideFarm]

Thanks Bryce, I have been absent for a while. So much going on right now that KZbin has had to take a backseat on a very long bus. I sure haven’t been a good supporter recently of so many others.

[@gleanerk]

We learn as we go ! Thanks for sharing, enjoyed watching! I too have heard of them but never used one ,so I thank you for your time in showing us!

[@AnglesideFarm]

Yes we do Cousin Scott, I learn every day. Thanks for watching if you ever do get a plateless at least you know a little now. Hope all is well sir!

[@lukestrawwalker]

One other big advantage to the plateless planters was the accuracy of the finger pickups over plates... and the handy factor. No more carefully graded and sized seed corn, no more deciding and trying to get small, medium, or large seeds in flats or rounds, and then carefully trying to match the seed plate to the seed size and shape. No more swapping plates out between sizes or types of seeds between flats or rounds, either, because the number you wanted to plant on certain ground was only available in a particular size or shape of seed that didn't match your "favorite" or usual seed size and shape... (some guys swore by rounds, some by certain sizes of flat corn seed... course flats come from most of the cob, but rounds only from the tip and butt of the ear, and their size can vary widely by variety, maturity, growing conditions, etc. SO it really was a struggle from year to year, even variety to variety, to match seed to the plates and get a good job singulating and planting the corn well. Big job for the seed companies as well, having to sort and size all that seed corn and meet quality control guidelines, to make sure all the seed in the bag was a given size/shape, within reasonable limits. There's always some variation and you had to match the plate carefully to the seed or you'd have problems at planting-- too big a cell on the plate and two or even three seeds could possibly squeeze into a cell, and drop together... too small and you'd have seed wedging in the cell or riding high and the spring-loaded cutoff pawl that the plate rotated under might crack or shatter the seed, and a seed broken in half wouldn't come up or germinate... seed knocker wheels would make sure that any mangled or wedged seeds would get knocked out of the plate cell when the spring-loaded wheel rolled over the cell as it rotated over the drop hole over the seed tube, but even then a scuffed or cracked seed probably wouldn't germinate. SO it was a battle to get it right, and the faster a plate meter turned, the more seed it dropped-- get out of the "sweet spot" of seed plate speed (planting higher populations and/or driving too fast) and seed plate meters will over-plant (too much seed). Finger pickups (finger meters) could handle just about ANY size/shape of seed, so suddenly the seed companies could sell "plateless" seed, which was basically ungraded and unsorted for seed size/shape. Fingers could handle rounds or flats, large or small seed sizes, and a mixture thereof... so they could sell "Plateless" seed cheaper than carefully sorted and sized plate type seed of a given shape and size. This was huge not only for the seed company but for the farmer-- switch numbers to a variety with a different seed size/shape, just dump it in and go, no swapping plates! Maybe change the sprocket combination on the transmission if you wanted a different population, but that was it... the fingers would handle the different size and shape of seed no problem. The other big thing was, if you drove too fast, a finger meter would plant LESS seed as the speed increased over the "sweet spot" of seed meter speed, unlike plates that planted MORE seed as you increased speed, because of more doubles and stuff. SO guys that were having to plant at 4-4.5 mph could usually plant at 5 mph with finger pickups and still do a good job, where with plates you'd have a mess of doubles and triples and stuff... Some guys would even run fingers at 5.5 mph and get away with it at lower populations... THAT is why the "plateless" or finger pickup meters ended up owning the market... they just beat plates all to pieces on accuracy... Only thing that could hold a candle to them in the plate planter department was the Cole double-inclined plate planters... but they came out about the same time as the Deere 7000's and they were a blackland type planter, where the double-disk planters like the 494's and 71 Flexi's had already taken over most planter sales... The blackland planter had a gauge wheel not unlike a 71 Flexi or 494, but running in front of the unit, with a large triangular "buzzard wing" sweep behind to open the bed or ground, followed by a sword opener to place the seed and form a seed furrow, and then a pair of offset covering shovels to throw loose dirt over the seed and cover it up. We then had to follow with a roller about an hour or so later, after letting the heavy clay soil we farmed on dry out a bit, so it wouldn't stick to the rollers... and roll the soil down tight over the seed, and we banded herbicide down the row at the same time with a belly boom under the tractor... Worked good, but in 96 we lost our entire crop to drought because we lost the bed moisture at planting because the blackland style planter rips the ground wide open and nearly flattens the bed on bedded ground, losing all the soil moisture. That's when I finally decided to retire the old Deere #18 blackland planter we had, and even the mid-70's Cole twin plate planter... More to come..

[@lukestrawwalker]

Continued... From a metering point of view, the Cole was a fine planter, best of the plate planters for sure. It used TWO plates per row, mounted at the front of a square hopper that was divided down the middle into two separate halves. The front of hopper consisted of a cast-iron frame which the plates rotated in at about a 45 degree angle to vertical... with twin plate drive gears and bearings and cross-shaft to turn the two counter-rotating plates. The plates were slid in over the drive gears engaging drive lugs around the periphery of the gears, and then a 'spindle" was rotated down over a threaded bolt with a flared edge that overlapped the plates to gently hold them in place... not snug the plates slid round inside the flared edge, and then a divider metal plate with a hex hole was slid over the "spindle" to keep it from turning with the plate, and to act a standoff to hold the seed back from the plate, about a couple inches away. The divider plate was form fitting to the inside of the hopper, with a roughly 1x2.5 or 1x3 inch oblong slot at the bottom to allow seed to slide in under it to form a seed pool at the bottom of the plate while holding the rest of the seed in the hopper back. This was then secured to the spindle with a large "acorn nut" that spun down onto the same threaded rod holding the spindle... Having two counter-rotating plates meant that each plate only had to turn half the speed of a single plate, and the slower a plate planter turned, the more accurate it was. As the plates turned, seeds would slide under the edge of the plate at the bottom into the empty cells along the plate edge, filling the cells. As the plates continued to turn they'd rise up out of the seed pool, and any extra seeds would drop back. If two seeds happened to be in a cell, as the plate rotated upwards soon gravity would take over, and cause one seed to fall out, as there was only room in the cell for ONE seed to be held as it neared the top and the cell, which was nearly flat to the bottom of the hopper at the bottom due to the slight "cup shape" of the plate, was now nearly completely vertical near the top, and each cell had a tapered back cell from the front edge towards the back to cause the seed to roll to the back of the cell and remained trapped there... but there simply wasn't room for TWO seeds to be in there and one not fall out as the plate edge became vertical near the top... It was like holding your arm at a 45 degree angle with a cupped hand-- rotate your hand down and the fingers are nearly flat horizontal, but rotate your cupped hand upward and the fingers are almost vertical... so any seeds would drop down between your fingers, and 'wedge' between them... so only one could pass between each finger. Same principle... Anyway, just past vertical the plate rotated over a hole in the backing plate, which allowed the seed to drop out the back and down a V-shaped metal funnel that came from each plate's drop hole, and guided the seeds down a rubberized tube inside the top part of the sword opener, which vertically dropped straight down to the seed furrow. Now, this was were the problem was... for corn, the plates would alternate their drop, as each one was timed so the cell of one was aligned with the hole while the opposite plate in the other half of the hopper was between cells, so it dropped right, left, right, left..... and both seeds were dropping the same distance, but through a V-shaped funnel to the seed tube, which created a lot bounce and roll of the seed as it dropped and slid down the funnel to the seed tube... then the seed dropped VERTICALLY straight down the seed tube, telescoping up and down inside the sword opener tube, straight down vertically to the ground, where the sword opener have formed a V-shaped seed furrow as it slid through the soil with its V-shaped chisel point runner... this promoted a lot of seed bounce along the rectangular seed tube, and the seed hit the ground and rolled from the forward motion of the planter before it stopped. This all created some inaccuracy in the spacing. The plates and hoppers were mounted by separate brackets to the toolbar, so they rode nice and smooth, while the ground opener unit would flex up and down as the gauge wheel rods over clods and high or low spots, and the sweep ripped the soil open to expose moist loose soil for planting, but the seed was dropping STRAIGHT DOWN the seed tube into the tube welded to the top of the sword opener point making the furrow, so the seed rolled when it hit the ground. Then the following offset cover chisel sweeps threw loose dirt over the seed furrow to bury the seed at the correct depth. By this point, "Zero drop" planters had proved that accuracy could be increased by dropping the seed with either a vertical disk (as the Allis Chalmer's air planter of the time used, a disk running basically right above the ground, which dropped the seed from the rotating disk between the opener disks into the furrow with a near "dead drop" from the rotating disk down into the furrow close below. Deere had put a backward curved seed tube on their planters to drop the seed down the smooth inside of the plastic tube after a rearward slide that would fairly closely match the forward ground speed by the time the seed dropped out of backward curving tube into the furrow behind the disk openers, so the seed approximated a "dead drop" into the furrow... far less roling and bouncing than a straight vertical drop. Interstingly enough, the old Deere #18 blackland planter built in the 50's we had before the Cole used a similar backward curving tube from the plate bottom to the sword opener, only problem was it was one of the spiral steel strip "hoses" similar to the fertilizer drop or grain drill drop hoses on machines of that time, so all the overlapping spirals of coiled steel created a 'funnel" that the seed bounced around in as it dropped, negating any benefit of the recurved setup... Anyway, had the Cole planter incorporated a modern double-disk opener style row unit and recurved seed tube for "zero drop" accuracy, it would have been a world beater at the time... the slow--turning double plates could plant very accurately particularly since they were inclined and nearly vertical at the top and singulated far better than any other plate planter could, and the toolbar mounted hoppers isolated the plates from sudden movements as the ground row unit rose or dropped over clods or rough spots in the field, maintaining accuracy of the plate drops, but the funnel arrangement and vertical seed tube hurt accuracy before the seed hit the furrow... The twin plates had one other advantage... you could get a kit that swapped the single V-funnel to a twin V ("W" shaped) double funnel, then adding a second sword opener and seed tube and respace the covering shovels, and adding a third covering shovel between them, one could plant DOUBLE ROWS with the same planter... twin rows of corn alternating seed to the left and right as it planted the twin rows, or twin row grain sorghum or cotton or soybeans or whatever else... IF you wanted to set the planter up that way. That's something even modern planter cannot do without adding another row unit and meter for the staggered second twin row... Alas it wasn't meant to be. The 7000 had come out a few years before and took the planter world by storm. Plates were passe. We got the Cole planter thrown in when Grandpa bought a Case David Brown tractor, in a package deal they gave him in about 75 IIRC... the Cole planter had been sitting on the lot for quite a while and I think they wanted to get one out there in the field to show what it could do. We still have it in the barn. If it hadn't been for the 7000's superior row units, opening a narrow seed furrow with twin disks and then pinching it shut right behind the openers and seed tube, I'd not have bought the 7100... Conserving the planting moisture would have saved our crop in 96, as the neighbors with more modern planters all got a stand and managed to get a crop after surviving the drought until it finally rained after a couple months-- stunted crop, but a crop nonetheless, versus NO crop and NO stand withour old blackland planter, which taught me all I needed to know, twin plates or not. Course going tback to the same Deere plates as the old #18 built 30 years before, which were on the 7100, was a big letdown and visibly less accurate in the stand and seeding rates, so I converted it to plateless hoppers and drives and installed Kinze brush meters for the next season and got near vacuum planter spacing and accuracy... couldn't have been happier, it even blew the twin inclined plate Cole out of the water for accuracy...

[@lukestrawwalker]

Very interesting... basically looks identical to the finger pickup mechanisms used on 7000's and Kinzes which you can still get IIRC. I know my BIL and nephew still use finger pickup 7200 planters for their corn although the BIL has a 1780 Deere 12/23 row interplant planter where you lower every other unit to plant soybeans in 15 inch rows and raise them to plant corn in 30's, and those are equipped with vacuum meters. I used to go up to Indiana to help with planting and harvest before I started driving a school bus again, and I have to say that the vacuum planters just seem more trouble than their worth IMHO for the job they do. Well maintained and properly set up and operated finger pickup meters will do as good a job as any vacuum planter, without all the hassles of the seals, hoses, disks, wipers, picker wheels, fans, and hot hydraulics that it takes to run a vac planter. I saw in the comments you traded for a 7000 plate-type. I bought a 7100 (3 point hitch mount 7000) plate type planter back in the mid-90's when we were still row cropping. It was a well worn unit but in good operable shape, used with the dome-type plates for planting peanuts up in north central Texas about 4 hours north of us. First year I planted with the plates, since it also came with the hopper bottom conversions for regular plates and used the same plates as our old #18 Deere blackland style plate planter... AFAIK all the Deere plates (and most others for that matter) are interchangeable. The bottom plates flip over for some plates, the manual tells you which side of the bottom latch plate to use with what seed plate. I have quite a collection of seed plates for our old plate planters because we used them for many many years, before I was born in 71 all the way up until I bought the 7100 in 97 IIRC... There used to be a farm equipment sale yard up west of Abilene or Sweetwater, TX that used to have these huge pipe racks on rollers with literally hundreds of different plates, mostly the old cast iron plates, and I bought a bunch of full sets from them of various types and sizes of cells and different crops... even got a couple weird plates, the blank steel ones Deere used to sell that you could grind your own cell design and number of cells into the edges of the plate to make your own, these were for planting watermelons or pumpkins the guy told me, or so he thought... only two cells on opposite sides of the plate and they looked about right for a watermelon or pumpkin seed. At any rate, he also had boxes of different colored plastic seed plates for different sizes and types of seed corn and other crops, mainly soybeans IIRC, so I sifted through them and bought a box of them so I'd have several different sets of different sizes and types of plates for both flats and round seed corn, as well as just about any other crop I wanted to plant. The year after I bought the 7100, I found a salvage yard up north of us near College Station that had plateless hoppers for the 7000, and decided to convert it. I wasn't planting corn by then, only cotton, soybeans, and milo (grain sorghum) and I bought four Kinze brush meters from a guy up in Iowa IIRC who mailed them to me. The plateless hoppers will fit right onto the same planter unit brackets, hinges, and latch as the plate type hoppers. The plates of course lay flat on the bottom of the unit and use a right-angle plate drive mounted on top of the unit shank, with a short driveshaft off to the side with a sprocket to run off the planter row unit cross-shaft from the transmission. Basically you take one thumbscrew off at the back (or is it a nut or bolt can't recall ATM) and the entire plate drive bracket mechanism will lift right off the top of the unit shank, it's got a hook on the front IIRC that locked into the top of the shank. To swap to plateless, you have to remove the plate drives off the shanks and replace them with plateless drives which bolt directly to the side of the hopper bracket-- there's a large hole and two small ones, one above the other, to which the plateless drive sprocket/clutch bolts IIRC. I bought the plateless clutches at the same yard, but you can get them from Shoup as well... there's a bearing and sprocket that the chain attaches to from the planter drive cross-shaft sprocket, I think I had to add a few links of bicycle chain (or whatever it is, #40 perhaps?) to make up for the fact that the drive is in a slightly different spot from the plateless type vs. the plate drive sprocket. Maybe I had to shorten it a few links, can't recall. I had the insecticide boxes and they run off the same sprockets, so you shorten one chain and lengthen the other. The sprocket has a short shaft with a spring-loaded drive coupler that turns the meter, and a small handle/latch that you pull back to release the drive to raise the hopper off the planter unit to dump it or swap seed disks in the brush meters for different crops. You can also swap out the brush meters for the finger pickup meters for planting corn, sweet corn, sunflowers, etc. The finger pickup meters and Kinze brush meters attach to the bottom of the hopper absolutely identically and interchangeably, even the drives are the same, so it's very simple just remove two thumb screws and swap the meters out. more to come...

[@lukestrawwalker]

Continued... I have to say that the Kinze brush meters were like night and day in the job they did over a plate planter... the Kinze brush meters use a vertical seed disk that looks somewhat like a seed plate, but with "agitation grooves" that stir and guide seed down to the pockets at the seed disk edge as the rotate around the bottom of the meter housing. A large black cutoff brush guides the seeds toward the edge and provides a cutoff so only the seed in the pockets can rotate past it, and then a blue brush around the periphery of the plate edge holds the seeds in the pockets as the disk rotates up and over the top to the drop point over the seed tube, where the brush ends and releases the seeds to drop down the seed tube one by one as they pass the end of the brush... basically the same way a vacuum or air planter works, but mechanically, without al the hassle of air or vacuum hoses, fans, seals, wipers, disk pickers, doubles knockers, etc... I planted everything from BB-size grain sorghum seed at 80,000 seeds/acre to teardrop shaped 1/4 inch long cotton seeds at 52,000 seed/acre to round soybean seed at 140,000 seed/acre with the Kinze brush meters, and since we were farming on 40 inch rows, that put a soybean seed about an inch apart, and that's EXACTLY where it dropped them! AND I planted at 6 mph, so that thing was churning out seeds and just did a marvelous job of putting out spot on whatever population I set the transmission for... As good as any vacuum or air planter! I had considered putting an air planter system on the 7000; the local dealer had an add-on unit that someone had either ordered or pulled off a planter than they had converted for additional row units or something that he had left over and offered to sell me the whole thing, fan, hoses, and vacuum meters for four rows, plus some other parts, the whole pallet for like a grand, but I didn't really want to spend that much. I'm glad I didn't, because years later working with my BIL and seeing how finicky the vac planter he has is, and the job it does compared to the Kinze brush meters, the brush meters do the same job but SO much simpler and with no problems, no air or vacuum level adjustments, no clogged air hoses or mouse nest problems, no hoses popping off the meter and it going dead, no wiper or seal leak problems that throw the population off by a huge amount, no overheated hydraulic oil and screaming orbit motors and fans, etc... PLUS if the air/vac system loses hydraulic flow even for a second while lifting, or the flow is reduced enough to drop the fan speed enough, ALL the seeds will fall off the disk when you raise the planter and turn at the field end, and then you lower the planter and take off, but it's not dropping any seeds for usually 8-12 feet depending on the seeding rate and disk cell count/speed, until the disk rotates nearly a full turn and brings pockets with seeds vacuumed or blown against the disk up over the top to the cutoff point and starts dropping seeds again. This will leave a huge blank spot in the field. The Kinze brush meters will keep the seeds trapped in the pockets by the brush bristles when the meter stops turning, overnight or over the weekend or if you're rained out several days, and when you drop the planter in the ground and it starts turning the disk it starts dropping seeds instantly again... The brushes last about 200 acres per row, but honestly I never changed mine and it planted just fine... I just followed the recommendation to remove the disks after planting season and vacuum out the brushes with a shop vac to remove debris that might attract rodents and I never had any problems. The Kinze brush meters were certainly an improvement over the old "controlled spill" of the "bean cups" they offered for planting crops with the plateless hoppers and drives back when the 7000's first came out-- their solution to planting other crops that the finger meters weren't designed to handle, like soybeans, cotton, milo, etc... was to make a plastic conversion housing to fit in place of the finger meters and install a "bean cup' which was basically a small plastic version of a double-run grain drill meter, that would "meter" seeds out for high population crops like soybeans and milo where spacing and precise population weren't a big deal... basically just a controlled spill... but of course seed was cheap back then so it wasn't an issue. Not anymore... now those bean cups are junk, and the Kinze brush meters make them so. So good in fact that Deere copied the design but over complicated it, with their "radial bean meters" which are more complex but inferior to the Kinze brush meters. Only problem with the brush meters is, they don't plant corn reliably, so you swap them out for finger meters to plant corn... i recently picked up a set of finger meters for about $120 bucks for six, they need a little TLC and some parts like belts, but they'll plant just fine once I rework them, plenty good for a patch of sweet corn or field corn for cows... maybe some sunflowers for the wife along the edge of the field for kicks... I only need four meters to now I have a pair extra for parts... and of course the Shoup catalog has all the parts I might need. SO If you ever decide you want to go back to plateless, you can easily convert your 7000 over, all you need is the row unit drive clutches, plateless hoppers, and finger meters for corn and brush meters for anything else, all of which can be found cheap as used parts... and anything you're lacking you can get from Shoup... I'd keep the plate hardware, though, you never know when you might want to plant beans or peas or watermelons or pumpkins or something LOL:) Later! OL J R : )

[@tractortalkwithgary1271]

Very interesting Steve. I had a 1240 platelets planter. If I still have the manual, I will send it to you.

[@AnglesideFarm]

Thanks Gary, but I do have the original manual which is in good condition for its age.....unlike me 😂

[@RandWFarmstead-TonyWalsh]

Great explanation Steve. Thanks for sharing and hope you have a blessed day and weekend my friend.

[@AnglesideFarm]

Thanks Tony! I hope you do as well sir!

[@timpingel9607]

Never had any luck with those planters. We used one when I was a kid used it only 2 years. Thought I would try a different one again 10 years later same results. Great explanation on how it works.

[@AnglesideFarm]

Thanks Tim. Jury is still out on whether I keep it, not that I’m dissatisfied with it....but it’s a stepping stone for me to a JD 7000

[@timpingel9607]

@@AnglesideFarm You will definitely be happier with a 7000. Good luck

[@terryhawkins4295]

Pretty cool, I get funny looks planting my sweet corn with a jd 4 row 7000. Love the old stuff

[@AnglesideFarm]

Thanks Terry I like the old stuff too, I keep looking for a 7000 4 row for here but even if those are now considered old they sure are highly sought after.

[@RedMudStainsFab]

Thank you for the information, Im looking at purchasing a 1240 now !

[@yellowbirchfarm7794]

I replaced the clutch in my 3020 it was not a bad job at all. hope all is well with you and your family .

[@brokentractorbarnandgrill6598]

Great explanation, hope your dad's hanging in there and all is well.

[@AnglesideFarm]

Thanks He’s hanging in there pretty well especially for his age. Thanks for asking.

[@Imoto23]

Where did you end up finding the stainless wear strips? And do you have a part number?

[@AnglesideFarm]

I got the strips at my local Deere dealership I don’t remember the part number, just asked the parts guy to bring up the planter unit on his computer and a little searching he had the schematic on the screen and it had the part number

[@Imoto23]

@@AnglesideFarm thanks for info !

[@jasonmiddlemiss2171]

Hi Steve my name is Jason I recently bought a 1240 in super nice shape unfortunately the gentleman that owned it before passed away. There are wires and that go to each box and a plug 🔌 to plug power in to what does that do ?

[@AnglesideFarm]

If the wires go to each of the seed tubes it is for a monitor to make sure seed is going down each tube. This planter had them at some point in its life, but not when I got . Good luck on your planter, sounds like a nice one!

[@1jnova]

❤❤❤❤❤

[@stevenlarsonii]

Hey I have one like it. But kind different hook up to 3 point.

[@AnglesideFarm]

I bet that works nice!

[@stevenlarsonii]

@AnglesideFarm I made change to it. Add 2x2 solid bars from a IH. And add 12 go dig on front 3 each row. Makes it like a no-till planter.

[@AnglesideFarm]

Wish I could see it

[@TheGrumpyFarmer]

Gotta always give em less than they want 😂

[@AnglesideFarm]

Whenever you can..... Have a great weekend Andy