A sprayer rarely dies. It drifts off rate.
Most sprayer faults do not stop the machine. They quietly change what is going on the ground while the cab display says everything is fine. We come out to sort the pump, the booms, the plumbing and the nozzles before a pass gets wasted or repeated.
- Open 24 hours, seven days
- No hourly minimum
- Pull-type, mounted and self-propelled
- Vineyard and row-crop rigs
The only farm machine where being slightly wrong is the expensive failure
A tractor that breaks is obvious. A sprayer that breaks is often still spraying. That is what makes this machine different from everything else in the yard. Output is measured in gallons per acre across a boom that may be sixty or ninety feet wide, and a fault that shifts that number by fifteen percent produces no noise, no warning light and no visible sign until weeks later when a strip of the field looks different from the rest.
The consequences run in both directions. Under-application means the pass did not do its job and has to be repeated, if the label and the calendar even allow it. Over-application costs product, risks crop injury and can put you outside what the label permits. Either way the fix is the same: the machine needs to be right before it goes in, and it needs somebody to look at it when the readings start disagreeing with reality.
Spray work also carries a window nothing else on the farm has. Wind limits, temperature inversions, reentry intervals and preharvest intervals all narrow the hours you are allowed to be in the field. When a pump fails on a morning that finally has no wind, waiting for a shop appointment is not a real option.
Typical faultOne boom section dropping out, pressure that will not hold at speed, or a rate controller chasing a target it cannot reach.
The money sideYou get a real number before the truck leaves, with no hourly minimum underneath it, so a filter and nozzle job stays a filter and nozzle job.
Ground we coverVineyard blocks through Napa and the Suisun Valley, row-crop ground toward Dixon and the Delta edge. The areas page lists the counties in full.
Nozzle wear is the fault nobody sees coming
Tips wear from the inside. Every hour of spraying pushes abrasive solution through an orifice that was machined to a precise size, and that orifice slowly gets bigger. A worn tip still looks fine, still sprays a pattern that reads as normal from the cab, and still passes a walk-around. What it does is put out more than it should, at a rate that climbs gradually enough that nobody notices the day it crossed the line.
Abrasive products accelerate it. So does running higher pressure to compensate for something else, which is a common trap: pressure goes up to fix a poor pattern, flow goes up with it, wear goes up faster, and the machine ends up further from rate than when it started. Brass wears fastest, stainless and ceramic last considerably longer, and a set that has been on the boom for several seasons is worth checking with a catch test rather than a visual one.
The other half of this is pattern. Tips that are plugged, partly plugged or fitted at the wrong height for their fan angle leave stripes across the field even when total output is correct. Mixed tip types across one boom, which happens easily over years of replacing a few at a time, produces the same result. Those are cheap problems to find and cheap to fix, but only if somebody actually looks.
Systems that get worked on
Symptoms here cross systems constantly. A pressure complaint is as likely to be a clogged suction filter as a tired pump, and a dead section is more often a solenoid or a connector than a valve.
Nozzles and boom plumbing
Tip wear, catch testing, body and check valve replacement, spacing and height, and the diaphragm checks that stop drips between passes.
Pumps and pressure
Centrifugal, roller and diaphragm pumps. Worn impellers, failed diaphragms, cavitation from a starved suction side and pressure that falls off under load.
Filters and strainers
Suction, pressure and inline screens, plus the tank-mix problems that plug them. Mesh sized wrong for the tip is a recurring cause.
Agitation and tank
Jet and mechanical agitation that has stopped moving product, leaking tank fittings, sump and valve faults, and rinse system trouble.
Boom hydraulics
Fold and unfold cylinders, drift and creep, tilt and level circuits, hoses chafed along the boom, and couplers that will not hold.
Boom structure
Cracked sections, breakaway hinges, bent tips from a fence post, and the welding that puts a boom back in plane in the field.
Controls and sensors
Section solenoids, flow meters, pressure sensors, rate controller faults and harnesses that spend their life in a wet, chemical environment.
Planters and seeders
The same spring window covers planting. Meters, down pressure, row unit bearings and depth control are all part of the same call list.
Rinse discipline prevents most of what we get called for
A large share of sprayer repairs are chemical residue problems wearing a mechanical disguise. Product that dried in a line, a screen or a valve does not go back into suspension. It builds, it breaks loose in pieces, and it plugs something downstream at the worst moment.
- Rinse before it dries, not before it is used nextThe difference between rinsing at the end of the day and rinsing the following week is most of what decides whether a system stays clean. Dried product has to be dissolved out; wet product just flows.
- Use the whole circuitRinse water needs to go through the booms, the agitation and the return line, not just the tank. Anything that was not flushed is where the next plug starts.
- Match the screen to the tipA strainer finer than the nozzle orifice plugs constantly and teaches everyone to run without it. Sized correctly, it protects the tip and stays clear.
- Take the tips off at season endRemoving, soaking and inspecting tips and check valves once a year catches wear and residue together, and it is the cheapest hour available on this machine.
- Watch what the controller is compensating forA rate controller quietly raising pressure to hold target is telling you something is wearing or restricting. That message gets missed because the number on the screen still looks right.
Proving the fix before anyone drives away
A sprayer repair is not finished when the part is on. It is finished when the machine is putting out what it is supposed to. That means running it with water at working pressure and speed, watching the pattern along the whole boom, and checking output against what the controller claims rather than accepting the display at face value. A catch test on a few tips across the boom settles arguments that a pressure gauge cannot.
This matters most on the faults that were intermittent. A section that dropped out twice in a morning will not necessarily misbehave in the first two minutes after a solenoid swap. Running the machine properly on site, with the mechanic still standing there, is how you avoid finding out in the middle of the next pass that the fault was somewhere else.
Questions from the spray season
If the machine is in the field right now, calling beats reading. The phone is answered at any hour.
How do I know whether my tips are worn if they look fine?
By catching output rather than looking at them. Run the boom with clean water at your normal working pressure, catch from several tips for a timed interval and compare what you collect against the published flow for that tip at that pressure. Anything meaningfully above it is worn. Tips fail this test routinely while looking perfect, which is exactly why the visual check is not enough.
One boom section stopped working. Is that the valve?
Often not. The valve body is the part people replace first and the part that is least likely to have failed. A solenoid coil, a corroded connector, a broken wire where the harness flexes at a boom hinge, or a controller output are all more common. Testing for power at the solenoid before it gets replaced takes a few minutes and saves buying a part that was never the problem.
Can boom hydraulics be repaired with the booms out in the field?
Usually yes. Fold cylinders, hoses and couplers are field work, and hose is made up on the truck to the right length and rating rather than ordered. The thing to be careful about is supporting the boom properly before anything comes apart, because a boom section that drops while a cylinder is off is dangerous and expensive at the same time.
My pressure drops when I speed up. What causes that?
Most often the supply side rather than the pump itself. A plugged suction strainer, a partly closed valve, a collapsing suction hose or air being drawn in at a fitting will all starve the pump, and a starved pump cannot hold pressure as demand rises. Worn pump internals do produce the same symptom, so the order matters: check the easy restrictions first, then test the pump.
Do you work on vineyard sprayers as well as boom rigs?
Yes. Air-blast and over-row machines are common calls through Napa and the Suisun Valley. The fans, drive and nozzle arrangement differ from a field boom, but the pump, plumbing, filtration and control side are the same systems. Access is the practical difference, since narrow rows decide how the machine has to be positioned before work starts.
Can the sprayer be gone through before the season rather than during it?
That is the visit worth booking. Tips and check valves inspected and flow tested, filters cleaned, pump checked, hoses and boom structure looked over, controls verified against actual output. It takes a scheduled morning in the quiet part of the year and it removes most of the reasons a machine goes down on a day with no wind.
Call before the window closes.
You reach the mechanic directly. Tell us the machine, the boom width and what the rate is doing, and you will hear what the job runs and when the truck can be there before the call ends. Nobody gets talked into parts they do not need.
HoursMonday to Sunday, 24 hours
Based inAmerican Canyon, CA
Nearby workWhole-machine calls under farm equipment repair, fault tracing through machinery diagnostics, previous jobs in the gallery, and the details form at contact.