Larry Hofmann

"I don’t know that I ever had to change a hose on the worm drive pivot. It even has most of the original tires. T-L makes their pivots pretty reliable."

No. 1 T-L Worm Drive Delivered 44 Years Of Service

The first ever installed T-L Irrigation worm drive proved itself and then some.

The first of a newly created product has a higher likelihood of being flawed. That certainly didn’t prove true for the first ever T-L Irrigation worm drive propelled pivot.

After installation it spent 44 years soldiering reliably to and fro season after season watering Larry Hofmann’s Sutton, Nebraska crops.

After decades of stalwart performance, 2023 marked the final season for the first-edition worm drive. T-L Irrigation founder, Leroy Thom, installed the worm drive pivot in 1979 on a field he leased to Hofmann. This installation preceded the official 1983 launch of the option by several years as the Thoms always test products in their own fields prior to offering them for sale to their peers.

“It was a simple system that worked without much trouble for years,” Hofmann says. Though it was starting to show its age by 2023, it was still getting the job done. “I think I could have patched it up for one more season, but it was time,” Hofmann says.

The worm drive was offered as an alternative to the existing T-L Irrigation planetary gear drives. Both provide smooth, continuous movement with hydrostatic power. The replacement for the original worm drive pivot will bring to the field the latest timesaving, efficiency-boosting technology paired with the classic rugged materials and straightforward designs T-L Irrigation is known for.

Hofmann appreciates how well the worm drive performed all those years, but he’s not worried about change.

“Pivots today make you free,” Hofmann says. It’s just a glance at the phone to know where the pivot is at and if it’s working. “I know what it’s like to be in a corn field at 4 o’clock in the morning soaking wet and covered in mud. Now all these guys have to do is hit a button on their phone.”

Since he started irrigating as a teenager, the 84-year old farmer has transitioned through multiple systems, each making the job easier. It all started with 30-foot sprinkler pipes purchased from T-L Irrigation in the 1950s.

“To move them we’d take apart the pipes, pick them up over our heads, walk 60 feet over and hook them back up. There were 44 lengths in a quarter mile, and we did it once a day,” he says. Next, they moved to tractor tow lines.

“It was much easier to move, but you destroyed two rows of corn everywhere you pulled it. Every once in a while, it would pull apart and you’d have to get in the mud to put it back together,” he says.

Then there was land leveling and a gravity system before he got his first pivots in the 1960s. He recalls there being a lot of irrigation brands around at the time, but he preferred T-L for safety among other reasons. He has six pivots on his fields now, all but one of which are T-L Irrigation pivots.

“I don’t have to worry about getting shocked when I’m on a T-L pivot,” he says. They’re also relatively fuss free. “Other than checking gear boxes and looking at hoses and such, there’s really not much maintenance with them at all. I don’t know that I ever had to change a hose on the worm drive pivot. It even has most of the original tires. T-L makes their pivots pretty reliable.”

“Much like the farmers who use them, T-L Irrigation systems embody the ‘Buckle down and get the job done,’ spirit,” says John Thom, T-L Irrigation Co. vice president. Sturdy materials, simple operation, and straightforward engineering keep them consistently on the job—even continuing to work when in need of some repair. “The long run of the first worm drive is a testament to the tenacity of T-L Irrigation products.”