Capacity without Complexity

Of course, there have been a few negatives, such as, “Can I get one for spring?” or “I’m not buying another drill until I have this new 100' on my farm.” And,“What, no pricing available yet?” Despite these comments, we welcome them because they show our customers are eager for this new design.

The 3545 ParaLink Hoe Drill comes in two base sizes of 80' and 100', each available in either 10" or 12" opener spacing. The 80' is primarily designed for controlled traffic applications but can be configured to 83'4" on 10" spacing and 84' on 12" spacing. For simplicity, we’ll refer to this size as 84'. All sizes feature a 7-plex frame design in a narrow conventional folding system. Despite being labeled as conventional, our engineers have incorporated innovative designs in the wing folds that are anything but ordinary. However, don’t mistake innovation for complexity. If you can fold/unfold any drill from us over the past 50 years, you’ll handle the 3545 with ease. Simply push the lever forward in the tractor to unfold the drill and pull it back to fold it up. The only thing you’ll need to do is sip your coffee and check the markets for about 3 ½ minutes.

This design is not only a 7-plex for excellent contouring in rolling terrain but also very narrow for navigating busy secondary highways, dirt roads, and bridges. This model is available in a 3545SE Standard Edition Series or a 3545QDA Quick Depth Adjust Series.

It’s remarkable how our R&D team managed to reduce the transport width of the 100' 3545 to essentially the transport width of a 76' 3335, yet still low enough to fit in a 20' door! However, the size is just one aspect of the improved design. When we set out to redesign the 100', evolving from our 3420 design from about 10 years ago, we identified several areas for improvement.

One key area was flotation. We retained our well-known HiFlotation feature, which is used on over ¾ of the drills we build, but this version is enhanced. The mainframe of the 3545 features 900/65R32 tires for exceptional flotation, surpassing even our best-selling 76' 3335. The wings are equipped with 600/50R22.5 front casters for equally great flotation. While this heavy drill is built with legendary Bourgault frame construction, it’s designed to stay on top when you get stuck. Your tractor will likely spin out, and you’ll need to hook on from dry ground using a strap or cable or get another tractor to give you a tug. And rest assured, you won’t rip this frame in two.

You might think a drill of this size has compromises, such as only 15" spacing or the absence of Mid Row Banders®. But that’s not the case. We strive to provide a product that meets all agronomic needs without yield compromises.

Plus we’ve even added a convenient hitch walk-over and handy toolbox as standard equipment.

You can customize it to suit your fertility program and farming practices. The air kit design is another highlight. We kept it close to the frame to allow for tight folding, but it still offers the same capacity as an 86' 3335. You can put down 350 lb of fertilizer through the MRBs while placing 140 lb of wheat and 120 lb of phosphate through the seed runs at 5 mph. Thanks to new hose technology, we designed a straight-through hose system that reduces wear and improves capacity. We also added more steel lines to reduce the overall 2 ½" hose required. The real marvel is how our R&D team evenly spaced the secondary towers across the drill, minimizing long runs that can cause plugging problems. The icing on the cake is the increased clearance between rows, providing better residue clearance than any ParaLink Hoe Drill we’ve ever sold. This allows taller, heavier crop residue to clear between the opener and the packer wheel of the row in front. When you need to get under the drill (which isn’t often with our Quick Depth Adjust), there’s more room to change openers or grease packer wheels.

Finally, this design includes a game-changing concept. At Bourgault, we know the resale value of your trade-in affects your cost of ownership. When you trade this drill to your dealer as a 100', it can be converted to an 80' by removing the two outer wings, transforming this 7-plex into a 5-plex. This simple design opens a new market at 80'. If the next buyer upgrades their tractor, they can easily convert it back to 100'. Just remove the outer wing fold cylinder, cap the hydraulics, block the outer wing frame with a forklift or loader, remove the wing pins, and move one opener from the outer wing to a stub added to the middle wing. That’s it—you’ve converted your 100' to an 80'. The same applies to the 84' 3545 7-plex, which can be reduced to 66’. In both cases, all that’s left is converting your 10-port ASC kit to an 8-port on the tank if it’s still to be paired with the newly configured drill.

The 3545 is a full-featured drill, available with every option offered on our smaller series:

• 10" or 12" opener spacing
• PLS™, PLX™, or PLDS™ openers
• MRB® ID, MRB® III, or
• Mid Row Shanks™
• TriMax™ with PLDS + MRB, or
• PLX/PLS + BTT side-biased boot
• AccuSet™ (on QDA frame)
• PackMaster™ and LiftMaster™
• PowerPlus™

This, in a nutshell, is capacity without complexity. Massive capacity up to 100' yet the simplicity of a conventional-folding frame with no compromises whatsoever. The only question left for us is how are we ever going to build enough! The 3545 ParaLink Hoe Drill will be fully available for model year 2026.