No Spoking

Switch to T-L and recover your lost production.

How Much Production Are You Losing?

Notice the non-uniform water application of the center pivot circles shown. This is known as “spoking,” which results from the start-stop operation of an electric drive pivot system. An electric pivot starts and stops 2,880 times a day at the end tower alone. Michigan State University field research (Fusco, 1995) verified the significant effect of “spoking” and found application uniformity ranged from 15% to 85% on a leading manufacturers electric drive pivot. Call up Google Earth Maps on your computer and see for yourself.

Common sense would say the consequence of “spoking” is lost crop production and that production losses can be even greater if the system is being used for chemigation. Your investment in irrigation is significant, and is intended to maximize your economic return from your crop. However, the intermittent motion of an electrically powered pivot system can detract from your return, sometimes significantly.

History has shown that the start-stop motion is also detrimental to component life, increases mechanical problems, creates more expense, causes downtime, and generally makes irrigating miserable. Many growers have experienced these problems.

Hydraulic vs Electric Center Pivot Systems | Smooth & easy to maintain Hydraulic Center Pivot
Electric Pivot Spoking

Electric Center Pivot

Electric center pivot spoking | Uneven irrigated field

T-L Center Pivot

Hydraulic T-L Center Pivot | Smooth well irrigated field | Even Water Application

“We would have been better off if we would have had T-L pivots all along.”
Steve Rogers
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“We looked at electric units, but we just felt like the continuous movement of the hydraulic drive would work a lot better in this situation.”
Bill Hoekstra
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"I believe that irrigating with my T-Ls can make a difference between making or not making money in farming."
J. R. Thompson
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