UniForce Hydraulic Downpressure
Get your JD 50/60/90/Pro-series drill to work the way it should.
- Reduce/eliminate hairpinning
- Get consistent depth!
- Better use of frame weight (& less frame stress)
- Less sidewall compaction
- Avoid misplaced seeds from sidewall blowout (gauge whls riding up)
- Greater upstroke/downstroke on openers than OEM
- Perfectly uniform pressure on all openers
Call to order 785-820-8000
The biggest downfall of the JD 50/60/90/Pro-series drills is how down-force is applied—the rockshaft twists to compress a big coil spring on each opener. Because the spring is nearly parallel to the arm, the opener has almost no down-stroke—i.e., the spring is in the optimum position (applying the correct amount of down-force) for only about 1/4″ of its range. Had the spring been oriented differently (e.g., pushing straight down), the problem wouldn’t be nearly so bad.
So, you must have fields that are laser level for these openers to work correctly. Even 1/2” depressions give them fits. The spring starts to relax as the opener goes into these miniscule depressions, and you lose down-force—the opener loses depth, and starts hairpinning. To compensate, everyone cranks the pressure way up—so that the majority of openers have far too much pressure, just to keep those passing thru mild depressions working halfway decent. You end up with excessive sidewall compaction on most of the rows, while some aren’t even holding depth. Not to mention it takes a bunch of extra ballast on the frame. For this reason, it’s much more important to get rid of downpressure springs on these drills than it is on planters with a parallel link.
The Trouble With OEM Springs
The big coil spring on JD 50/60/90/Pro-series drill openers is a major downfall of that design. If the spring relaxes when the opener goes into the slightest depression, it loses down-pressure and fails to cut the straw & stalks (hairpinning!) and the furrow may be shallower if soil is hard.
Single-Action cylinders
Maintain a completely uniform pressure across all the openers of the drill.
UniForce Hydraulic Down-Pressure
Our UniForce hydraulic system fixes Deere’s design debacle. Now, you can get uniform pressure on every single opener throughout its full stroke. The result is much better cutting, less hairpinning, holding depth much more accurately, and far less sidewall compaction. Another problem with springs is that they bounce: Hydraulics don’t have this problem. When developing the UniForce, we’d often leave at least one opener with the OEM spring. Watching them run side by side, it’s amazing how much the row(s) with OEM springs bounce, whereas the rows with UniForce are smooth and steady.
UniForce uses single-action cylinders along with the OEM rockshaft, which is still used to raise and lower the openers. The two hydraulic circuits may be plumbed together so that everything runs on a single tractor remote*, or they may be kept completely separate (two tractor remotes are used). *We prefer them kept separate.
Large 3/4″ header hoses* allow oil to move quickly from one end of the drill to the other, and between the front & back ranks. This keeps pressure almost perfectly constant even while going over steep terraces or through swales at high speed. Special brackets support the header hose on most air drill sections. Large 1/2″ drop hoses let oil move in & out of cylinders very rapidly. But don’t be fooled by the size of the hoses: The flow requirements are relatively low—for 48 rows, the UniForce takes only 4 – 8 GPM (for comparison, the air cart fan needs 25 – 30 GPM). (*Box drills use 1/2″ header hoses.)
Call for UniForce pricing and receive a free quote. All of our Exapta team members have hands-on experience with UniForce. They can answer your questions and work up a quote for you.
In-cab Adjustment for Hydraulic Down-Force
Want to change pressure on-the-go? For example, lightening the pressure in soft areas on each pass, or cranking it up in hard areas. Our in-cab manual control switch works great for the OEM rockshaft downforce on JD 50/60/90/Pro drills, as well as Exapta’s UniForce down-pressure system. The switch activates a motorized control valve that simply screws into the valve block in place of the knob.
*Not available for John Deere 5-section air drills
(includes motorized control valve, wiring harnesses, switch box)
Optional Accumulator
For those who farm in terraces, especially when using only a single rank of openers, Exapta offers an optional 2.5-gallon accumulator for the UniForce system (JD 50/60/90/Pro) on air drills, or a pair of 1-gallon accumulators for a pair of box drills towed together on a hitch. When hitting terraces square-on, even the largest-capacity tractors can’t supply enough oil flow to keep the pressure constant, but our accumulator improves this considerably. (If you don’t farm in terraces, you don’t need an accumulator.)
Includes brackets, hoses, fittings
More UniForce Hydraulic Downpressure Testimonials
“We are very pleased with the UniForce system. We noticed our openers run a lot smoother through the ground, and no longer bounce as much. The seed placement is excellent, and emergence has never been better than the last two years. It’s especially impressive with small-seeded crops. All plants emerge at the same time, and we see that right through to harvest with very even maturity. We have just experienced two drought years in a row. This past year [2018] was the worst in 18 years. With the Exapta system (UniForce, Thompson wheels, DuraLoks, Ninjas, Ingersolls) on our drills, we seem to be seeing some yield advantage at harvest time.”
“The openers run a lot smoother and they don’t bounce around like they used to [before installing UniForce]. Seed placement is definitely better, therefore obviously emergence is better. We have faced a couple drier years than normal, but I’ve been quite surprised with some of the yields!”
“UniForce really made an improvement on my drill. We now are able to keep the openers in the ground consistently. That was the biggest downfall with the JD drill, but with UniForce we solve that issue. In fact, in the same field we were using both the planter and the drill to plant beans, and the beans planted by the drill were two inches taller than the beans planted by the planter. I can see there being a huge market for UniForce on drills, because planters are so expensive anymore — but with UniForce, you can do just as good of a job using your drill and it’s a lot less expensive.”
“Prior to UniForce, our 1990 CCS JD drill would not consistently place soybeans in the terrace pans [channels]. I wouldn’t let anyone else run the drill, but now with UniForce I’ll let others operate because I’m not worried about maintaining depth when going over terraces and through channels. With UniForce, not only will it uniformly place seeds in the pans but we also are able to plant over 0.5 mph faster and still have 5,000 -10,000 more seeds in the ground instead of bouncing out on top. And that’s a conservative estimate. The big bonus—simplicity!! There’s no need for sensors and electrical nightmares. Set your pressure and plant.”
“We installed UniForce before wheat seeding and saw a significant difference with much better stands in the problem areas like terrace channels. I’m very pleased with the improvements UniForce made to the drill.”
“The system does what it should. We have more flexibility going over terraces now, and not leaving little skips. The openers stay in the ground better.”
“We installed the UniForce system on our 1890 last summer. The seed placement on winter wheat last fall in soybean stubble reminded me of planter-quality work. We seeded soybeans in corn stalks this spring, and except for areas where corn residue had accumulated in windrows, the seed placement was better than previous drilled beans (with the same drill) according to our agronomist, Matt Deyle. In fact, he said it reminded him of a planter…. I am of the opinion that the UniForce should be standard equipment on the Deere drills.”
“I have been pleased with UniForce. I appears to roll ground better and has more travel. I’m confident it’s doing a better job than the OEM springs.”
“The drills definitely pull easier after installing UniForce. My Challenger keeps track of fuel usage and all that. UniForce also lets the drills follow the terraces much better—before, there were places we couldn’t get 1/3 of the discs in the ground. Also, the drill is quieter—the openers aren’t banging around like they used to. Everything’s not bouncing like it was before.”
“With our terraces and uneven ground, we wanted to keep constant pressure on all the openers, and have more stroke. We didn’t like having to apply so much extra pressure to make the springs sorta work when the opener went through a small depression. On our old drill, we broke the frame a couple times, and the rockshafts a couple times. We hope to avoid that stress on our newer drills with UniForce’s greater stroke and more constant pressure.”
“I don’t usually jump right into new products, but I did with UniForce because it was what I had in mind needed to be done anyway to go across terraces. I really like it.”
“I am very pleased with the performance of UniForce. I am getting more consistent seed placement across the drill in uneven areas and edges of fields. More downward travel compared to the factory setup makes a big difference and there is also no bouncing of row units. I was also very impressed with the install job by you. Complete confidence that it was done properly and explained to me. Overall just really happy with UniForce and working with the good folks at Exapta Solutions! Would recommend to anyone looking to improve drill performance.”
“Thanks for doing a good job at Exapta, appreciate your dedication to the no-till system. We used the drill last season (2021), very pleased with the improvement. I have many variations in my field plane so I need the consistent down pressure. Had a better stand because of better seed-to soil contact, also improved yield. I would recommend the [UniForce] system to others.”
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UniForce Hydraulic Downpressure Videos
See the UniForce system in action
Installing cylinders for UniForce hydraulic down-pressure system
About the UniForce hydraulic down-pressure system
In the News
Exapta Solutions’ new UniForce hydraulic down-force Replaces the OEM springs on each opener with hydraulic cylinders to apply uniform force to the opener throughout its range of travel, for greatly reduced hairpinning of residue and much better holding of opener depth. Read More
Tom Cannon shares with No-Till Farmer that the Exapta upgrades to his drill including UniForce allowed him to lower his soybean seeding rate from 150,000 seeds down to 100,000! 1/3 lower seeding rate! As Tom stated, “That is a huge savings when you look at today’s high seed costs.” Read More
