Spartan
II
607
Maintenance
Great Plains | 166-486M | 2019/01/29
73
Material Clean-Out
Confined Space and Suffocation Hazard
Do not enter hopper for routine cleaning or
meter maintenance. You can be overcome
by hazardous fumes very quickly, even in
an empty hopper with the lid open. A
partially full hopper, even with no bridging
present, is a suffocation risk. Oxygen
levels may be insufficient and/or dust levels
may be too high for breathing.
Regulations and Policies
These steps apply when there are no
specific clean-up requirements provided by
national, regional or local regulation, nor by
the seed and/or fertilizer supplier. Review
any legal requirements, instructions on the
material containers, and any material
safety data sheets.
For normal unloading of materials after planting, see
“
This section covers completely cleaning out hopper
and air system when residue needs to be minimized.
1. Perform normal material unloading, then fold and
lock the drill to prepare for moving to a site
suitable for wash-out.
2. Reposition the drill to a suitable site with rinse
water and hose available. This may be two
different sites if each hopper contained different
materials.
If no otherwise suitable location is available,
perform a fertilizer or treated seed clean-out on
an up-hill portion of the field last planted or
treated.
3. Leave the tractor hitched and in park with the
parking brake set. If the tractor cannot be left
hitched, block the drill tires with chocks.
4. Deploy a ladder.
5. Remove and clean the strainer. While the strainer
is removed, inspect the hopper for signs of
problems that may prevent normal clean-out,
such as objects or congealed masses too large
to exit through the meter (see “
6. Power wash the interior of the hopper.
7. Install the strainer. Do not leave the strainer out
after wash-out. Close the lid tight and secure the
handle.
8. After cleaning out the last hopper, close all doors.
Run the air system for 10 minutes to blow
moisture out of the meters and lines.
9. Open all meter doors. Run air for 5 minutes.
10. Shut off air. Clean the meter door seals and
meter box faces.
11. Close meter doors as for parking or storage.
12. Move the drill to a parking or storage site. Follow
normal parking or storage instructions.
Problem Clean-Outs
If parking and storage recommendations have not
been followed or material is defective, it is possible to
have hard-to-remove material present.
If the material fails to pass through the meter doors,
take the following steps to remove it. Do not consider
entering the hopper until first completing these tasks.
1. Open both meter doors.
2. Remove the strainer and evaluate the problem.
For example:
If the problem is a single movable large
object, such as a dead animal, fishing out
from above may be the solution.
If the problem is congealed materials, scoop
out a sample from above and see if the mass
dissolves in water. If so, and there is a small
amount of material involved, rinsing, or
rinsing and pumping the hopper from above
may be the solution.
3. For small amounts of residual materials, poking
with a long pole may push it through the
clean-out.
If poking does not produce results, and you
intend to try wash-out, poke at least one hole
down to the meter clean-out, so that water can
flow out.
If wash-out is attempted, start with a small
amount of water, and make sure that it appears
at the clean-out within 15 minutes. If not, you will
just be adding water to the problem. The hopper
is not designed to hold water at full capacity. Do
not add any more water.
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