HOW THEY WORK
Turbo Turf makes Jet Agitated Hydro Seeding Systems from 50 gallons to 2000 gallons and Mechanically agitated units in 500, 750 and 1000 gallon sizes. Turbo Turf makes the finest hydro seeding systems of both types on the market and all Turbo Turf systems have many major advantages over competitive units. Jet systems are simple, powerful, lightweight and easy to use. They are the best of a great technology that has changed hydro seeding and the way lawns are seeded. Our mechanical systems are a break through in hydro seeding design and offer convenience, reliability and design features no one else has.
THERE ARE TWO MAIN TYPES OF HYDRO SEEDING UNITS
MECHANICAL SYSTEMS
Until the end of the 1980’s most all hydro seeding units had metal tanks and were what is called a mechanically agitated hydro seeding unit. Mechanical units have one or more rotating shafts with paddles inside the tank stir the material to blend the mix. These units work well and are good quality units. One disadvantage of a mechanically agitated system is that to rotate the paddles it requires a complicated drive system with hydraulic motors, chains sprockets and other parts. The metal tanks and added mechanism makes the units much heavier and usually requires a heavier tow vehicle. The second major problem is with the metal tank rusting. The manufactures work hard to make mechanically agitated units as rust resistant as possible by putting a coat of rust resistant material such as epoxy inside the tank. However with vibration that coating will crack, and all metal tank units will eventually rust. Frequent, thorough cleaning will help delay the rust, and will prolong the life of the unit. Some owners of mechanical systems will apply the fertilizer separately with a spin spreader since the fertilizer is the most corrosive part of the hydro seeding mix. Turbo Turf mechanically agitated units have a poly tank that can never rust and is so reliable the tanks in those units now have a 20 year pro rated warranty. The paddle assembly is mounted on heavy exterior metal supports and carry any weight and stress from operation of the paddles and the poly tank simply acts as a carrier for the liquids. Turbo Turf makes the only paddle units on the market where you never have to worry about the tank rusting.
TURBO TURF, THE FINEST PADDLE SYSTEMS MADE
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Turbo Turf’s mechanical systems use a poly tank that can never rust. You will never spend your winters sand blasting your tank and coating the inside with smelly coal tar epoxy.
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Turbo Turf’s Hybrid units combine the best of Jet and the best of mechanical units. The design is simple and has few moving parts. This is the easiest to run paddle machine on the market and has the lowest maintenance.
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Turbo Turf’s HARV and HARV-E use a hydraulically driven Bowie Gear pump and hydraulically driven paddle assembly. Unlike other competitive units both the pump and paddles can be reversed. Should you get a clog in the suction line you can simply reverse the pump and blow it out. Paddles can be reversed and you can control the speed. This makes it the best unit on the market for handling difficult to use erosion control products.
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Turbo Turf’s T series has a belt driven Bowie gear pump. The T series offers a low cost machine capable of spraying difficult materials and to spray through up to 500 feet of hose
JET SYSTEMS
Jet agitated hydro seeding systems began to appear about 1990. Turbo Turf’s jet agitated hydro seeding systems offer fast even mixing with no moving parts inside the tank. Turbo Turf’s agitation system has two large jets on the lower left side of the tank. Inside the tank these jets are pointed up, and parallel to the outside surface of the tank. A very high volume of water and materials (up to 740 g.p.m.) shoot out of these jets creating an intense rolling action inside the tank. Turbo Turf’s jet systems have a plastic tank that can never rust. A fast mixing action that will mix a full load of materials in minutes. A light transport weight that allows the use of a lighter towing vehicle. They offer wide open passages that virtually never plug. Turbo Turf systems have low maintenance cost and only 4 moving parts excluding the engine (an impeller that screws right on to the engine shaft, and 3 ball valves).
Turbo Turf’s jet systems are equipped with a very powerful centrifugal pump with an adjustable bypass into the tank. The operator has full control of the pressure at the gun which means You can reduce the flow to trim, or totally shut off the gun valve without making adjustments at the unit. Some mechanical systems (including our HARV units use what is called a positive displacement gear pump. This type of pump has great power and is a high quality pump. As long as this type of pump is turning, material must come out the discharge. These pumps are good quality pumps but are not nearly as easy to use and have much higher maintenance. Units with a gear pump are harder for one person to operate, are much more difficult to use in trimming, require the pump to be dismantled every 6 months or so to remove paper gaskets and generally go about 2 years between total rebuilds. A centrifugal pump will goes years and years without ever being touched. Gear pumps however are better for some hard to use erosion control materials and do have some advantages for certain applications.
TURBO TURF, THE FINEST JET SYSTEMS MADE
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Turbo Turf has bigger pumps with great pressure. Turbo Turf’s ZX series have 4″ x 4″ pumps with a maximum flow of 740 G.P.M. and maximum pressure pressure of 78 P.S.I. More pressure mean more spray distance and the ability to use longer hoses.
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More horsepower. compare our units to other jet systems. Our standard engine on the ZX series is a 27 H.P. Kohler Command Pro.
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Bigger hoses to flow more material and get the job done faster. Our hoses are 1 1/4″ inside diameter on all models except the ZX series and are 1 1/2″ I.D. on the ZX units.
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Bottom Suction. We feed our big 4″ x 4″ pumps using a 4″ suction line that feeds from a small sump in the bottom center of the tank. Others drain with a fitting vertically mounted on the end of the tank. Turbo Turf’s units won’t leave 4″ of material on the bottom of the tank like other units. Typically when you are done with a load you will see about a cup of material left not the 25 gallons you see with other units. Turbo Turf mixes are good to the last drop.
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Jet bale buster. A Turbo Turf exclusive is the jet bale buster that minimizes breaking up the mulch. The bale buster is standard on the gallon and larger units and optional on the 300 and 500 gallon units. It allows you to add mulch in any size clump that you can fit through the opening. Speed loading 75%. Turbo Turf’s ZED series accepts full bales of mulch.
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Continuous Agitation. In normal operation you are always bypassing material into the tank, and always mixing. Unlike some other units on the market, you can shut this down temporarily if you need that little bit extra to reach maximum distance. The ability to control your bypass gives Turbo Turf better trimming ability than other units.
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Big Jets, Some other jet systems use a long tube running along the bottom of the tank from the front to back for agitation. This tube has small 9/16″ holes for their jet mixing. Turbo Turf’s powerful 2″ jets can provide up to 6 times the mixing power. The tube machines have a rear clean out and they say to take a stick and put a nail in it to free the clogs (which happen often). Turbo Turf big 2″ jets virtually never clog and if they do they are quickly accessible through quick coupler connectors.