What is a Bender?
The Valley Bender is an option added to your center pivot that basically "wraps" it around whatever is in its way: a tree line, a fence, a dairy, or other obstruction. Two barriers are installed by your local Valley dealer on either side of the area that you want to irrigate around. When the pivot reaches the first barrier, the span tower that has the Bender installed, also known as the "bending" tower, keeps irrigating while the rest of the pivot stops. When the "bending" tower reaches the second barrier, it auto-reverses until it becomes flush with the stopped portion of the pivot, which will then resume irrigating in normal fashion.
Bender Anchor
Only Valmont Irrigation offers an anchor for its bending drive units because only Valley center pivots have the strength to handle long Bender machines. With this anchor structure, you can use Valley Benders on longer machines, as well as on rough or rolling terrain. Now your machine can bend up to 2,000 feet to irrigate additional hectares at a low per-hectare cost. The new barricade keeps the front tire positioned on a hard surface to prevent sliding during bending and anchors the back tire close to the ground. Once the anchor package is installed, no grower intervention is needed in the field.