Customers ask how often to oil chains on planters. Here’s my opinion, and reasoning: I recommend running planter drive chains “dry” during the actual planting season. If there’s a pause between corn and beans, or there’s an obvious rainy spell approaching, it’s good to have them lubed during that lay-off. But during actual, day-to-day planting, run them “dry.”
Then, before the planter is put into storage, I recommend first soaking them with a good penetrating oil like WD-40, then coating them with thick, sticky chain lube.
My reasoning is that planters operate at relatively slow speeds in clouds of dry, powdery dust from the soil. Planter chains wear relatively quickly no matter how they’re treated, and it’s easier to identify damaged “dry” chains than chains caked with hardened chain lube.
My experience has been that chains that were lubed frequently during planting then stored with a thick coating of dry-looking lubricant on their links develop more kinks and corrosion during winter storage than chains that were ran dry during planting season, then liberally lubed before storage. So, in my opinion, planter chains should be dry and shiny during planting season, but wet and slimy-looking during storage.
