Testimonial

This planter, his second T1200 model, is used to plant crops as diverse as wheat, barley, oats, sorghum, millet and pasture in a huge range of soil types, in an area from south of Dalby to north of Taroom in southern Queensland.

Rod believes that his latest model is a major improvement over the earlier T1200 that he purchased about five years ago. It incorporates a number of features that were recommended by early users of the machine.

Rod says that the combination of independent semi-parallelogram units, tooled with Penetrator tynes, deep fluted coulters and pneumatic press wheels is ideal. The semi-parallelogram unit and the positioning of the press wheel allows the tyne to “float”, giving an excellent ground following ability which enables an accurate planting depth to be maintained under almost all conditions.

He says that improvements made to the positioning of the hydraulic cylinders controlling tyne break-out pressure and particularly the tyne mounting assembly, and having the spring loaded coulter independently mounted in the parallelogram have made the unit almost indestructible.

Despite encountering more than its fair share of rocks and stumps and some less than ideal ground conditions the Surestrike has performed well and given very pleasing results.

Rod’s Surestrike (T1200) is a 9.2 metre model operating on 400mm centres and is used almost exclusively under zero/minimum till farming systems. The machine’s deep frame design, coupled with the coulter/tyne configuration has given excellent trash clearance.

Rod reckons, that because of the action of the deep-fluted coulter and its positioning in the parallelogram unit, the trash clearance is equal to or better than anything on the market with comparable tyne spacings’– and that includes Gyral’s Penetrator!

Being a contractor, Rod transports his planter by road, with trips of up to 130km radius from his home base at ‘Minnamurra”, Wandoan. He says that weighing in at 10.2 tonnes and folding down to 4.2 metres, he can tow the machine between jobs only needing a pilot vehicle, not an escort. He does say, however, that with his extensive travel requirements he has had Gyral ”beef-up” the frame and undercarriage.

Used in combination with a Gyral SR Air Seeder behind a John Deere 8320, the Surestrike has achieved good results in this difficult season.

Following the last useable planting rainfall on March 1 & 2, Rod was still planting as late as June 16. At growers request, some wheat and oats were planted as deep as 140mm (51/2 inches) into very borderline conditions, with the strike far exceeding Rod’s expectations.

Rodney Patch is pleased with the way Gyral takes an after sales interest in their products and listens to their customers’ suggestions.

He says that they (Gyral) took on board some of his comments and incorporated a number of them into his latest machine. eg: tyne ram clevis wear, mounting of the coulter, and the overall strength of the original T1200.

He considers his latest purchase to be a much improved unit which is suiting the heavy duty nature of his contracting business very satisfactorily.