Rotary plow wheel spacing?

[Maine Hills]

Any thoughts based on experience of how critical wheel spacing is when using a rotary plow?

The BCS/Berta rotary plow manual recommends wheel spacing with 36 cm to 40 cm (14.2 in to 15.8 in) between the tires.

Earthtools says Distance between wheels needs to be 16" to 18" measured from the inside of one wheel to the inside of the other), and the closer you get to 18" the better the plow will perform because it takes a bigger bite?

I have a BCS 749 with 6.50x12 wheels and tires, and the distance between the tires is currently 19 inches. I can get to 18 inches by removing one set of axle extensions and flipping the rims on the wheel flanges.

 

[ottawarob]

I'd give it a shot with how you have it, I'm sure it will probably work pretty well. Often this stuff becomes a lot clearer when you're using the tool. I bought 4.5" wheel extensions for bush mowing after mowing it stock for a while, and thought "man this thing takes you for a ride when you get the wheel in a hole."

 

[leonz]

Nope, nope, nope, don't change a thing.

The wider the track you have the more stable the 2 wheel mule is and the lower the side hill angle is.
The slower you travel in forward speed the deeper you can plow and mix lime, gypsum, compost etc. and the better the ground is aerated to get worms in the soil.

Keep in mind that you are using a rotary plow that follows the center line of the 2 wheel mule rather than seeing
a side hill tractor and plow.

If you remove an extension you will lose ground clearance on that side

If it were me I would add windshield washer fluid to the tires and 2 link ladder chains when plowing simply to add more traction/adhesion with a rotary plow but that is just me. It would let you operate at the lowest forward speed and obtain the deepest tillage if you have already applied lime, gypsum and 5-5-5 fertilizer in a very small quantity.

If you remove one set of axle extensions the side to side forces of weight distribution will no longer be equal and the center line of the mule will be lower to the ground surface and you may end up with a lot of rubbing damage to the under body of the mule.

 

[Maine Hills]

Thanks for the replies. So far I've used the rotary plow to break up thick pasture sod in wet to muddy conditions. The current 19 inches between tires appears to be working okay but it is difficult to judge because the sod is being moved in large lumps and the soil under the sod tends to clump together.

When I mentioned the possibility of removing one set of wheel extensions I meant one extension from both sides, not two from one side, so the wheels would continue to be equally spaced on either side.

 

[leonz]

Are you running in the lowest gear speed?

You might want to check the cutting edges as they may be a bit dull. It sounds as if they are dull. You should not have any thick clumps of sod when fitting ground with the rotary plow.

If you have a good thick fine cut triangle bastard file that should do the trick nicely for you as you will not ruin the temper of the blades by sharpening them by hand and the rotary plow will work much better.

 

[freedomlives]

A "sticky" post on rotary plows would be good in this forum to combine information on spacing wheels, and other issues with the rotary plows, as these questions come up often.

 

[Maine Hills]

The rotary plow is doing a good job of cutting through the thick sod, but does not cut it into fine pieces. That is because of the speed of the plow. The BCS 749 is in 1st gear.

The current wheel space of 19" between the 6.50x12 tires is working well, though occasionally the tractor skews so that an uncut strip of sod is pushed over. That isn't a problem because I'm going over the soil with a tiller to break up the large lumps after using the rotary plow.

When large rocks are encountered the rotary plow either flips them to the side or wiggles past them. A few times smaller rocks have jammed it and stalled the engine. The smaller rocks get caught between the top of the blade and the gear housing.