The John Deere 1870 Air Hoe Seeder includes a variety of core features for precision placement and depth, and pressure control. But, one of the most exciting features is the Relative Flow blockage system that lets operators monitor the relative flow rate of seed and fertilizer right from the cab.

Unfortunately, blockage in the air hoses happens periodically. When a problem develops, having the ability to catch these blockages early will ultimately help prevent a small problem from turning into a larger one. Relative Flow blockage from John Deere allows customers to monitor seed flow from one essential page.

After watching the video below, you’ll be able to use the information displayed on your Relative Flow blockage screen to monitor blockage levels on the drill.

Key Features of John Deere Relative Flow

We’ll highlight some of the key features and uses in the information to follow.

• The screen is divided into an upper area and lower area. The upper area shows the towers on the seeding tool.
• Towers T1 through T8 are numbered to the corresponding tower on the John Deere 1870 Air Hoe Drill and indicate flow from the top shoot on the air cart.
• Tower B1 through B8 indicate flow from the bottom shoot on the air cart.
• By pressing on any tower icon, the bottom of the screen will display that tower showing more information, including the secondary status.
  The outer ring on each tower shows relative flow compared to the other towers on that shoot.
• The central area of the tower icon displays overall status of each primary tower based on color.
• The bar below the icon displays performance of the secondary flow based on lowest flow on the tower. The bar status is also based on colors.

As a blockage begins to develop in the primary, the outer ring will decrease indicating a blockage in the airflow to that tower. The secondary bar (below that icon) will also begin to decrease.

As a blockage continues to increase the outer ring will continue to decrease to the point where the primary is fully blocked. At this point, the center of the primary icon will turn red alerting the operator of a total blockage.

Final Thoughts

You can see the Relative Flow blockage system gives a great view of what is happening from the cart to the opener to spot problems before a blockage occurs. Now, you are able to use the information displayed on the blockage screen to monitor blockage levels on the drill.