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World's Largest Sprayer |
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World's Largest Sprayer |
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I was
sophomore in college when we built the TLS-165 in 1966....Mort
led and I followed...I welded on the weekends and whenever I
could get home to help....I still remember boning out the
D-6's....it took 3 total Cat's from Norm Wilson's used tractor
yard....The budget was $125,000. We started in November and the
TLS 165 was spraying in March....
The power
train is all operated with Air Controls.....and Hydraulic
Accumulator Ride Control on the triple track frame maintains the
flexibility of the track and allows the machine to turn on six
rollers.
I can still
hear the TLS-165 now....the 8V-71 at 318 horsepower screaming
out.... every stroke of piston as a power stroke.... at maximum
horsepower climbing those steep Palouse hills with a whopping 9%
torque rise. Horsepower is work measured in time.....torque is
the force with time not considered.....torque means nothing when
you have all the horsepower you need. Just add more horsepower
and you can climb a mountain at 4 mph.
...The
air controls gave the signal to the outrider..."Head's Up...Mort
is making a steering correction from the Gyro compass"...The
notification came as a.....KaWisssh...ChaChu....KaWissh...ChaChu..
since you always steer a Cat twice and the correction was
made....... And watching it level to 60% compound angles still
puts chills up my spine....the track frames came right to the
top of the deck...in a parallelogram movement....
The Cat track
pads are clipped and 12 inches wide....about 2 inches wider than
the rail. So there is virtually no counter lever action on the
rollers.
The TLS 165
automatically levels with a dual stage mercury switch that
Raymond Hanson invented in 1947 for hillside pull combines.
One time Mort
made a pass with the TLS-165 across a Palouse, flooded flat, in
the spring...the hills had eroded into the mud flat...too much
tillage and erosion from an adjoining field drainage was the
cause of the flooded flat as we sprayed for Fred Mader.......I
was the outrider and I could not get the Harley Davidson Ranger
motor cycle across the flooded flat....
I just sat on
the HD Ranger motor cycle stuck in the mud and watched the
TLS-165 start to sink into the mud....My first thought, "OK,
get a choker and a really big tractor, maybe a D-8". but
Mort knew what that baby would do....
..and now for the rest of the story....As the TLS 165
sank into the wet mud flat the big rig kept leveling and
maintaining the Center of Gravity...one side of the power
unit would sink 12 inches... and then the TLS-165 would level
and move the weight to the opposite track...the sinking
stopped when the machine weight was evenly shared by both track
frames....the power unit kept moving forward at 4 mph.....
Morton Swanson
Three generations, "The Four Horsemen" 1963
The
TLS-165 Enterprise actually leveled it's way across 400
feet of mud and water and left deep ruts.... the TLS-165
never got stuck because it leveled and transferred the weight
and kept the tractive power load balanced equally.
The TLS-165
ran and ran with never a rebuild...finally a new set of tracks
in 1984 at about 500,000 acres....it was
reliable..... and TLS-165 had it's own lowboy for
transport....Mort finally decided enough of the lowboy transport
and just stayed within track walking distance and sprayed about
30,000 acres per year. He liked to sleep in his own bed at
night...pretty good advice to you custom applicators.
A nozzle
change was a big deal....135 nozzles to change....Screens
cleaned and two end wrenches required...Spraying Systems made
the screens and tips...and we have a selection for every
combination. From Insecticides to wettable powders to simple
Bronate....2 gallon, 5 gallon, 10 gallon 15 gallon, 20 gallon
and 40 gallon tips plus insecticide tips...... We actually built
our own screens for the big pumps...so building our own filters
for Exactrix was a not problem for me.
Lots of pumps
and a means to actually change boom pressure on the uphill side
was activated automatically...to make sure that the
slope elevation to did not change the spray tip pressure....Mort
wanted coverage and the right droplet for the kill.....
Wettable powders were tough on pumps....so we had a few extra
rebuilt pumps on hand.
Six total
boom section controls. And you can just about divide out the
booms by looking at the picture. Sometimes the booms would
disappear over the horizon....You would not see the boom end
section for up to 1,000 feet of travel....Welcome to the steep
slopes of the Palouse.
The booms
fold.... all hydraulic fold for transport...as a one man show...
two men could fold in 10 minutes and be ready for transport at
a whopping six miles per hour.
The outside
boom wings are controlled by hydraulic cylinders that allow for
the fence lines and power poles and difficult field margin
problems.
The
TLS-165 Spray Booms have never failed...the welding is unique...The
tubing is not welded across the forming angle...the tubing is
backed up by larger outside tube wall that is heat shrunk around
the main tubing at all the joints. So the booms can flex and yet
the welds never fail....the booms were built for deep furrow
winter wheat...16 inch and 18 inch deep furrows...
You can not
drive a pickup across a deep furrow winter wheat field...it is
like trying to drive across Ridge Till Corn....Steve Mader made
the call a few years ago...."We will take it a 50 mph.....that
will smooth out the ride". Second Lieutenant and Navigator Mort
Swanson hated flying but he sure remembered the B-29 and how the
wings would flex.
The only
thing that failed on a spray job was the motor cycle....so
we had lots of motor cycles and always scouted the field
ahead...looking for weed issues and making sure we had the field
laid out right. I never thought that I would know Evil Knievel....but
as I grew older Bob Knievel has become a good friend.... and
Elna has one of Evil's paintings.
I have
lots of scars from the motor cycle. I was riding bike
outrider when I was nine years old....a few trips to the doctor
and few stitches have been added...No wonder I am Bow
Legged. Evil had his problems too. You will notice the extra
motor cycle on the deck of the Enterprise and the jib crane to
lift it off.
The TLS-165
has two transmissions both air controlled and an air clutch also
operated by air controls....Mort seldom shifted....If the hill
was too steep to pull at 4 mph.... he would shift at the bottom
of the hill and climb at 3 mph setting down the boom pressure on
the three pumps and trying to keep the gallonage on the mark.
The steering
clutches and the steering brakes are air controlled.
The was an
E-ticket ride if you were so lucky ride on it...Mort called it
the Enterprise....not quite nuclear
powered but close enough.
The
TLS-165 is why I have a WSDA Certified Applicators License....I
was trained to be a weed warrior. I gave up my applicator bond
many years ago. I think it was a $50,000 bond.
You can not
believe this machine....It ran for 26 years and then Frank
decided the Enterprise was too much for him. He went back to
high speed wheel pickup sprayer since peas were not in his
rotation.... Frank is the tenant farmer at the Swanson Farm. I
could fire up TLS 165 today....but it would probably take
another $125,000 to bring it up to current specs.
The machine
was primarily focused on weed control in Peas....40 gallons per
minute using the skull and crossbones, Dionseb at the 3 and 4
quart rate with 40 gallons of water...Thus Dinoseb killed weeds
based on differential wetting....the peas fields smelled like
silage within the hour....the peas have a waxy leaf and the
Dinoseb rolls off the wax.....2,200 gallon stainless Steel Tank
meant about 50 acres and time for a little water.
The picture
shows Fred Mader and Vince Hensel Farms....Fred and Vince would
team up their rotation so Mort could have a full two mile run on
two deeded farms.
The TLS 165
was also designed around Karmex, a subsituted urea wettable
power, for late fall application on winter wheat....but the
Karmex label failed the true test. Right to line of the last
pass, Winter kill vs survival of winter wheat.... fall applied
Karmex was dropped due a weakened winter wheat plant and winter
kill. My U of I Weed Control professor Clarence Seely pioneered
the fall applied use of Karmex on Winter Wheat.
The TLS-165
Enterprise operates with a gyro compass circa 1981.....straight
up the hill or on a slope....it makes no
difference......straight as an arrow at 165 feet. The motor
cycle out rider was retired, thank goodness.
You will
notice very few tracks in the field...in fact no or little crop
damage....Mort always said..."You get the spray job for free
with a uniform application and no tracks" at $3.25 per
acre.....Not exactly true...the big rig would damage the crop at
the lands and corners as it turned on 6 rollers....Mort would
raise the track frames and make the turn.....set a new vector
and back we would go for 2 miles straight as an arrow. Actually
even this was very little damage when you are shifting over 165
feet.
Now you know
why Caterpillar hired me as a engineer in the fall of
1969....Caterpillar came to the campus in October and I got an
interview....I showed the Caterpillar boys the pictures of all
the projects and TLS-165...I started quoting Cat serial
numbers...and everything I knew about a Cat D-6....
John McNally
the head of Service Development at Caterpillar said..."Can we
watch this machine run" I said, "I will be back at 5:00 PM to
pick you up." We went to Pullman and I found Mort spraying fall
applied Karmex for Clark Farms.....John McNally said,..."I may
need you to sign a waiver of non-compete." and I said..."Not a
problem, it is one of kind." Three months later I had my little
family in Peoria and I was working for Caterpillar as a Junior
Engineer making a cool $850 a month with stock options and all
the health care we needed.
This was in
1970.....Soon we were in Europe, acutally in Munich in 1972, and
Caterpillar paid for all the hospital expenses with our little
baby girl Shelly, born August 6, 1972...Rod, our son at age
3 was playing soccer in the back yard and I longed for the
Palouse and seeing Mort again.
The
1972 Olympic massacre in Munich basically brought an end to my
career with Caterpillar...I was reassigned to Nairobi, Kenya for
a better security climate as I was told....Idi Amin was on the
warpath in Uganda....and I figured it out...Go where your heart
is...not where Caterpillar thinks is best for your career...do
what is best for your family. Always follow your heart...not
the money and not the security...follow your heart.
My
Grandmother gave me a stern lecture about giving up such a great
job. But she soon learned that it was all about family and not
the money. Always follow your heart, find your spot on the
planet, security and wealth will come to you.
 I
forgot about the car ride with John McNally to see the big
sprayer, Enterprise....Trudy and I had built a hot rod car
together before we were married....It was a 36 Chevy Coupe and
Red....Trudy bought the Holley four barrel carburetor for
the Hemi engine. It was birthday present from her ...a 650 cfm
four barrel carburetor....I had installed a Dodge Hemi in 36
Chevy Coupe, a KD-500, which had won B-Stock at the Deer Park
Drag Strip.
...I modified
the Hemi for brute power since I knew the transmission would
take it. Gas was 25 cents a gallon on the farm.... Mag
wheels...Torque Flite Transmission. Straight Axle up front with
a 12 inch rake. Quite a ride for the Cat Service Development
Manager, John McNally and a little difficult to steer on gravel
roads....John liked my car. Trudy and I got married in our
little Cherry Red, 36 Chevy coupe.
Mort was the
first to explain Roll, Pitch, and Yaw to me at about age 12. He
was a B-29 Navigator in W.W.II. In fact I still remember the
B-29 instrument panels in the old shop from the Strato-Fortress B-29..
Mort had
bought the instruments as surplus in Spokane...I marveled at the
switches and the Altimeters and the Compass. Mort was training
in Amarillo and when August 6, 1945 came.... One atom bomb from
the Enola Gay, a B-29 Strato-Fortress, and the war came to
an end. This event set up new marching orders...Mort was turned
loose and back on a Cat D-4 seeding winter wheat in the Fall of
45. By June 6, 1947, three years after D-Day, Mort had a new
partner...his name was Guy.
It must have
been quite a time...in the fall of 1945..... America had train
loads and boat loads of boys headed home and American Admirals
and Generals headed back to the Pentagon.
In fact Mort
taught me so good....that I got in a big argument with my Sixth
Grade teacher Mrs. Davidson....We had a quiz and she marked my
paper wrong.....Mrs. Davidson would not believe there is more
than 640 acres in a Section of Palouse land.....When you start
correcting your teacher you don't seem to get the best
grades...She must have been a Democrat.
....Some of
the really steep Palouse ground is 720 acres to 740 acres...so
the yields in the Palouse need to be tempered a little. When
you hear 165 bushel average Winter Wheat Yield per acre....is
that hillside acres or surveyed acres. In 1980 Winter Wheat
No-till custom seeding was charged out at $32 per acre by the
acre meter...not by the land survey.
The TLS-165
Enterprise might be my restoration project in a few more years
and maybe my nephew, "The Dougster" would like to go into the
business of killing weeds and raising great crops. I do not
think you can build a TLS-165 today if you had a cool million
dollars to invest. That would take about 100,000 acres per
year....but it might work out if you had 5 good years to nail
the debt.
Our goal was
to have a second TLS-165 so Mort and I could spray the Palouse....but
the Karmex label failed on late fall application so we kept the
fleet at two machines...a leveling 135 foot wheel applicator and
the TLS-165. By 1973 I was back with Mort and we were
pioneering No-till in the fall. Mort new that Stauffer had
shelved sulphasate/glyphosate and Monsanto brought it back
in some way...Lyle Nagel at WSU Weed Science kept us up to speed
on a new numbered material and assured us that ParaQuat was
history.
Mort went on
a Hawaii trip with Frank Lessiter in 1974 or 75. The Editor of
the No-till Farmer had his eye on Mort. Frank wrote many great
articles about No-till farming
Now
you know the Legacy of Morton C. Swanson....If I could
do at least half as much.... if I could fill one of his shoes it
would be quite an accomplishment. The greatest leader of the
No-till Revolution was a commercial applicator with knowledge
and wisdom...The knowledge and the wisdom I miss from America's
greatest generation.
Your Great Plains Reporter
Guy J Swanson
ASABE, ASA,
ASM, WSDA Certified
Exactrix
Global Systems
Spokane
Exactrix Global
Systems LLC www.exactrix.com |
