2 or 3 shank chisel plow and tractor HP

   / 2 or 3 shank chisel plow and tractor HP #1  

Spindifferent

Gold Member
Joined
Oct 23, 2010
Messages
467
Location
Central Texas
Tractor
JD 3520, JD X584
Howdy Folks,

I have a Deere 3520 tractor rated at 37 engine HP with R4's, and I'm wondering if it can effectively control a 2 or 3 shank chisel plow to an 8 to 10 inch depth.

My soil has never been plowed, and is a clay loam to clay texture with few to no rocks or roots.

I'd like to use a chisel plow to improve the soil drainage and soil air without inverting the soil profile and to minimize compaction.

By chisel plow, I mean something like this:

Buckeye Tractor Online Catalog Page 14-02 Chisel Plows

Anyone have experience or advice to share?

Much obliged,

Spindifferent
 
   / 2 or 3 shank chisel plow and tractor HP #2  
Howdy Folks,

I have a Deere 3520 tractor rated at 37 engine HP with R4's, and I'm wondering if it can effectively control a 2 or 3 shank chisel plow to an 8 to 10 inch depth.

My soil has never been plowed, and is a clay loam to clay texture with few to no rocks or roots.

I'd like to use a chisel plow to improve the soil drainage and soil air without inverting the soil profile and to minimize compaction.

By chisel plow, I mean something like this:

Buckeye Tractor Online Catalog Page 14-02 Chisel Plows

Anyone have experience or advice to share?

Much obliged,

Spindifferent

On sod with R4's I would expect you will have traction issues. Rule of thumb used to be 10 - 15 HP per shank depending on soil type and depth of work. You are talking about drainage so how deep do you want to go? Will the two shank version take the stress of going deeper without bending something?

Roy
 
   / 2 or 3 shank chisel plow and tractor HP #3  
I run a 6 shank pasture renovator with a 75 hp tractor. It is fine in sandy loam. Traction will be more of a issue than hp. The tractor salesman said that depending on soil conditions I might need to remove 1 shank and only run 5. First time I used it I went really slow, worried about the HP rating and I ran into issues with the tires spinning. I found that if I went faster there was less of an issue with traction. Those shanks look pretty flexible to cut very deep. Best of luck!
 
   / 2 or 3 shank chisel plow and tractor HP
  • Thread Starter
#4  
Thanks Roy and Gsquared.

Roy - I'd like to get the chisel points down below the depth of a rotary tiller, so this would put the depth around 8 to 10 inches. I'm not sure how sturdy the Buckeye chisel plows are, so it may require a couple passes to get to that depth without lots of bending force on the plow frame. I don't own a plow yet, and I'm still in the research phase. :)

My master plan is to plant vegetables in single rows, and right now, I'm thinking that I'd like to subsoil down the middle of the row, then chisel on each side of the subsoil, and then lightly rotary till to finish the bed for planting.

I'd like to get the subsoiler down to around 16 inches if possible.

I'm thinking that I'd like to rotary till to about 5 inches.

My soil needs to drain better, and to aerate better, and I want to avoid as much compaction as possible given the clay content.

Gsquared - what part of Central Texas are you in? I'm in western Williamson County.
 
   / 2 or 3 shank chisel plow and tractor HP #5  
Howdy Folks,

I have a Deere 3520 tractor rated at 37 engine HP with R4's, and I'm wondering if it can effectively control a 2 or 3 shank chisel plow to an 8 to 10 inch depth.

My soil has never been plowed, and is a clay loam to clay texture with few to no rocks or roots.

I'd like to use a chisel plow to improve the soil drainage and soil air without inverting the soil profile and to minimize compaction.

By chisel plow, I mean something like this:

Buckeye Tractor Online Catalog Page 14-02 Chisel Plows

Anyone have experience or advice to share?

Much obliged,

Spindifferent


I think you can use this Cat 1 used chisel and remove shanks as needed for $695. Ken Sweet
 

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   / 2 or 3 shank chisel plow and tractor HP #6  
Howdy Folks,

I have a Deere 3520 tractor rated at 37 engine HP with R4's, and I'm wondering if it can effectively control a 2 or 3 shank chisel plow to an 8 to 10 inch depth.

My soil has never been plowed, and is a clay loam to clay texture with few to no rocks or roots.

I'd like to use a chisel plow to improve the soil drainage and soil air without inverting the soil profile and to minimize compaction.

By chisel plow, I mean something like this:

Buckeye Tractor Online Catalog Page 14-02 Chisel Plows

Anyone have experience or advice to share?

Much obliged,

Spindifferent

In clay soil you will need at least 15hp to 20hp. The engine 37 hp may only equal 25hp drawbar. R4 tires are against you and getting enough weight . I looked up you may be 3,000#. Clay soil is tough to chisel if it hasn't been tilled before. We have added tractor weights to our chisel to help get it in the ground. We have added coulters before and it pre slices the ground in front of each chisel which helps some.

I pull a 7 shank pull type chisel (much larger framed) 8 inches deep in bean ground with my JD4430 which is a 125hp PTO which is rated at 108hp drawbar. We are running Firestone RI radials also. Injector pump turned up as well. Pulling a clay knob is all it wants do.:D The 4430 also weighs near 15,000lbs. Chisels can pull like ancors.

Multi passing might help. Some moisture will help also. Once you have broken the top up do a soil test. Gypsum can help keep clay soils loosened up. That will help tilling it in future years. A lot of guys no tilling in hard soils are using vertical tillage with gypsum to help keep their clay soils loose to premote better root growth. No-Till Farmer - Gypsum Improves Soil Profile, No-Tillers Say

Good Luck and let us know how it works out.:thumbsup:
 
   / 2 or 3 shank chisel plow and tractor HP #7  
Thanks Roy and Gsquared.

Roy - I'd like to get the chisel points down below the depth of a rotary tiller, so this would put the depth around 8 to 10 inches. I'm not sure how sturdy the Buckeye chisel plows are, so it may require a couple passes to get to that depth without lots of bending force on the plow frame. I don't own a plow yet, and I'm still in the research phase. :)

My master plan is to plant vegetables in single rows, and right now, I'm thinking that I'd like to subsoil down the middle of the row, then chisel on each side of the subsoil, and then lightly rotary till to finish the bed for planting.

I'd like to get the subsoiler down to around 16 inches if possible.

I'm thinking that I'd like to rotary till to about 5 inches.

My soil needs to drain better, and to aerate better, and I want to avoid as much compaction as possible given the clay content.

Gsquared - what part of Central Texas are you in? I'm in western Williamson County.


Here is a Tool that we have running on Ebay that may be something you can easily pull and get the results you need without going to a chisel. Ken Sweet
New 9 Shank Pasture Renovator,Tiller, Shearpins - eBay (item 150511450083 end time Dec-24-10 06:53:52 PST)
 
   / 2 or 3 shank chisel plow and tractor HP #8  
In our clay a chisel plough will struggle to get deeper than 6 inches and as the shank bends it becomes increasingly harder to pull .
For a decent deep job with low disturbance a subsoiler or flat lift is better !

3 Leg Flatlift (2.85m) machine only - Spaldings
 
   / 2 or 3 shank chisel plow and tractor HP
  • Thread Starter
#9  
Thanks Ken, HHM, and D7E.

I'll look into the gypsum and equipment that you all mentioned.

- Spindifferent
 
   / 2 or 3 shank chisel plow and tractor HP #10  
Howdy Folks,

I have a Deere 3520 tractor rated at 37 engine HP with R4's, and I'm wondering if it can effectively control a 2 or 3 shank chisel plow to an 8 to 10 inch depth.

My soil has never been plowed, and is a clay loam to clay texture with few to no rocks or roots.

I'd like to use a chisel plow to improve the soil drainage and soil air without inverting the soil profile and to minimize compaction.

By chisel plow, I mean something like this:

Buckeye Tractor Online Catalog Page 14-02 Chisel Plows

Anyone have experience or advice to share?

Much obliged,

Spindifferent

Chisel plow? That think looks more like a cultivator. If you want to work down to 16" depth, a one-shank ripper is about all you can handle with your little tractor. You're low on hp and have the wrong rear tires for what you want to do (need R1's).
My neighbor grows 30 acres of irrigated alfalfa and used a 75 hp MF294 tractor to pull a single shank ripper to work down to about 20" depth to prepare his hayfield for planting. That 294 weighs about 8000 lb and was really laboring in dry soil (which is what you want when ripping--doesn't do much good to rip damp soil since the idea behind ripping is to fracture the soil to improve drainage and aeration).
 
 
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