We were seeding today and had the strangest 'gremlin' I've seen in some time. We have a CaseIH 9390 pulling a 57' Flexicoil 5000 air drill with an anhydrous bottle out back with inter-row banders. I got into the cab today and heard a popping/snapping sound. We usually have an FM VHF radio in it but we never moved it from the combine this spring. The antenna connection was snapping just like an electric fencer would. I got quite the shock from it and got excited in a hurry and unhooked the batteries in the event we had a short and could have a fire. Nothing changed. I called my brother and his thoughts were static so we dropped the drill into the soil to ground it but the popping remained. My hired man went up onto the fender and got a shock from the antenna just like from an electric fencer (batteries still unhooked). We took the antenna off, cut both ends off the cable and taped them up and things went back to normal. We reconnected the batteries and all was well - then we got rained out and ended up in Meacham bar. I will phone Prairie Mobile on Monday to see what the hell could be going on with that antenna. Any ideas - I thought it was rubbing through against a live wire but not the case.

 

That is strange happening, I have no ideas. Hope it wasn`t hostile aliens!
At least there is a happy ending, the bar!
How much rain did you get? We got a sprinkle afew times and that was it, 1/2 hour later the dust was in the air again and I went back to rototilling the shelter belt.

 

I think around 3/10 ths. Came down hard for a while!

 

boy, thats a shocking story... we need some rain, haven't had any in a while.

 

just a thought, does anyone have a wireless fence system near there?? maybe the antenna was picking up the transmission and acting as a relay...

 

There are no yards or pastures within a couple of miles or so.

 

Severe static build up?

 

Thats what my brother thinks too! However, by putting my air drill into wet soil, shouldnt 'static' drain off (so to speak). I am quite certain the tractor to drill connection through the pin/drawbar was good - no real rust or paint but who knows? It seems like the damn antenna for the VHF was acting like a capacitor storing energy.

 

The cultivator should act as a ground strap and that would be alot of static build up to act like that.
I would call your implement deal tomorrow and see what ideas they come up with.
I`m getting real curious now.

 

digging to deep...cut some burried cables??

 

I know the problem

Your tractor isnt quite green enough

Just kidding, that is a weird problem though.

 

lol...wondered how long before the color was mentioned...

 

Would have been sooner but I was busy all day yesterday

 

Wow is taht ever weird

 

Talked to dealer - they think maybe static. It can be a big enough problem sometimes that when monitor cables run too close to air hoses, the static can cause wierd glitches.
Praire Mobile - they feel that due to the cab being isolated from the frame, the static from the frame was 'bled off', but the cab remained charged. Had a radio been connected to the antenna, the ground through the wiring harness would have rectified the problem. I thought that the ground from the cab to frame would suffice but I guess not.
Note - they said static voltage can be several hundred thousand volts or more (very low amperage though)!