Hydroseeder question

[Stonehenge]

On a truck or on a trailer? Which do you (or would) prefer?

[Paul]

It depends on the job, and the size of machine you need.

For us a 600 gallon machine is fine for sports fields, not too much weight and suppliers can be carried in a one ton dump, that gets us away from a CDL driver being tied up. If I needed a larger machine I would pick a 1500 gallon model, mounted on a truck. You would need a support truck for it or a trailer for supplies.

[Stonehenge]

When you say suppliers can be carried in a one ton dump do you mean a nurse tank and pump, or are you talking about hydromulch/BFM, seed, etc?

[Paul]

With a 1500 gallon machine you can do 2 plus acres a day, so yes mulch, seed, tack, ect need to be on site or brought to the site by trailer. 4000 to 5000 lbs of mulch (100 bales) would be hard to fit on most 1500 gallon machines.

[Stonehenge]

Ok. Makes sense. Did you say at some point that you have a nurse tank w/ pump to quickly refill your seeder?

We've got a 600 gallon unit (jet) and for now it sits inside the bed of an F600, along with enough hydromulch, seed and fert for 1 or 2 residential seedings (plus rakes, shovels, etc). I'm trying to see if freeing up that truck by trailering that unit would be a wise move.

[Paul]

99% of our jobs we have access to a fire hydrant, so fill ups are fast. we have used a nurse tank on a few jobs plus when we have a road repair to water we will use our hydro seeder and nurse tank to water sod. the most difficult hydroseed job was a landfill, we had to truck water up to the top about a mile. There we used two tanks on on the ground with a 3" pump the other was mounted on a F550 to haul water to the nurse tank.

Now I don't know the weight of your unit, but for your needs you might have the best set up. Most of your seeding is from hoses while ours is from the tower. I don't know how or where you get water to load your tank, but if it's from the house your doing that can be a long process.

We have fitted our Finn with a 3" pump to draw out of lakes when we have the chance.

[Stonehenge]

:( Yeah, we're taking the water from the spigots at the houses where we work...

One of the 'to do' items as part of my land purchase is some kind of retention pond, so we can fill up before we leave to a job, to at least get a head start. Most of the time we aren't very close to water to be able to pull from, so we have to get good at logistics (grade a section and seed it, grade another section and seed it), so that we don't have one or two guys standing around waiting for the tank to fill.

[Paul]

Ok I know it's a bit of a chore, check out a 1000 gallon plastic tank from Farm and Fleet. I think they are about $400. place it on the job site the night before with a garden hose to fill it. You don't have to have it on all the way just a slow stream will fill it over night.

[start2finish]

You could also rig up a float valve similar to a toilet. They are very common in livestock waterers. This will shut off the water in the tank when full.

[billwlod]

We have a bowie 800 w/trailer. I like the trailer type because it doesn't tie up a truck. Once It gets busy I would like to get it mounted on a 3 ton dump so I can take it off still when its not being used but have the mobility in rough terrain.

[billwlod]

hydroseeding kelowna on Flickr - Photo Sharing! (http://www.flickr.com/photos/billwlod/3877593057/)