What are sub-soilers and middle busters used for?

   / What are sub-soilers and middle busters used for? #1  

shop_rat45

New member
Joined
Jun 7, 2007
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14
Location
Columbiaville, MI
Tractor
New Holland TC30
I have been looking at some attachments lately and I came across a middle buster/sub-soiler combo at TSC for $125. I'm not exactly sure what they are used for, but if it's what I think it is, it will work great for me. So, what do they do? Can it be used to dig trenches at all? I need to dig a trench to bury wire and another to bury drainage tile for my gutters. Will this work at all? Will it at least get me a good start so I don't have to dig so much by hand? Any help is appreciated!!

Thanks,
Kris
 
   / What are sub-soilers and middle busters used for? #2  
Kris, a subsoiler cuts a very narrow, but pretty deep distance into the ground. It throws little, if any, soil out of the trench. It's most commonly used to loosen the soil a bit, allow moisture to get into the trench and then soak into the soil rather than run off.

Middle busters are also sometimes known as potato plows because that's one of the primary uses; digging potatoes. But people also use them just to tear up, or plow the ground. They're not as good at that as a moldboard or turning plow in my opiion, but I used mine that way occasionally, then followed up with my tiller.

As to whether they're suitable for the trenches you want to dig . . . maybe! They'll dig the trenches, but whether they'll go deep enough for your purposes is something I just don't know.
 
   / What are sub-soilers and middle busters used for?
  • Thread Starter
#3  
Bird said:
Kris, a subsoiler cuts a very narrow, but pretty deep distance into the ground. It throws little, if any, soil out of the trench. It's most commonly used to loosen the soil a bit, allow moisture to get into the trench and then soak into the soil rather than run off.

Middle busters are also sometimes known as potato plows because that's one of the primary uses; digging potatoes. But people also use them just to tear up, or plow the ground. They're not as good at that as a moldboard or turning plow in my opiion, but I used mine that way occasionally, then followed up with my tiller.

As to whether they're suitable for the trenches you want to dig . . . maybe! They'll dig the trenches, but whether they'll go deep enough for your purposes is something I just don't know.

Well, for $125 it wouldn't hurt to try. Worse thing that would happen is that I end up with another attachment for my tractor. :D Thanks for the info and quick response!!

Kris
 
   / What are sub-soilers and middle busters used for? #4  
Kris

I have used mine to dig trenches, Birds right they don't dig very deep with the middle buster but it will give you a fairly good start.

Solo
 
   / What are sub-soilers and middle busters used for? #5  
I can get almost 1 foot deep with my KK middle buster. The trench will be about 1 foot wide also, but not too clean on the edges (of trench) in my soil. A second pass helps.
 
   / What are sub-soilers and middle busters used for?
  • Thread Starter
#6  
ScottOkla said:
I can get almost 1 foot deep with my KK middle buster. The trench will be about 1 foot wide also, but not too clean on the edges (of trench) in my soil. A second pass helps.

I wonder if it could be modified and made longer to dig deeper?

Thanks for the input guys! I'm going to go get one tomorrow. :cool:
 
   / What are sub-soilers and middle busters used for? #7  
shop_rat45 said:
I wonder if it could be modified and made longer to dig deeper?

Thanks for the input guys! I'm going to go get one tomorrow. :cool:


This is what you can do with the potato plow AKA Bottom Buster but it will not make for the great seed bed for garden as Bird mentioned above. You'll need to till to get a good seed bed started like on the second pic. For the price it is a great tool and can take the load off of your tiller plus a few other general uses around the farm.









JC,


By the way it take a lot of tractor to pull this beast deep in the ground. I do have issues with my turf type tires. I loose traction long before loose power. What size of tractor do you have? do you have ag tires?
 
   / What are sub-soilers and middle busters used for? #8  
I wonder if it could be modified and made longer to dig deeper?

You can always modify anything, given enough time and money.:D The problem with making it longer though is being able to lift it high enough with the 3-point hitch to get it out of the ground to transport from one place to another.
 
   / What are sub-soilers and middle busters used for? #9  
They are also good in conjunction with the 3PH lift at ripping out small stumps and bushes. Just rip into the ground before the stump to get the point down to full depth untill the point engages the rootwad, then lift on the 3PH. Pops most small stuff right out.

They can also be used to pull wire and pipe thru the ground by attaching the end of the wire to the base of the shank with a chain or cable. Search "cable pulling" or "Pipe Pulling" and you should find several threads on the subject. Since this thing dosn't lift the dirt out of the trench, you need to shovel it out with a trenching shovel to get whatever you are burying down to the bottom of the trench. This is much easier than digging from scratch, but still a lot of work. Pulling the cable or pipe thru the ground skips all the shoveling.
 
   / What are sub-soilers and middle busters used for? #10  
shop_rat45 said:
I wonder if it could be modified and made longer to dig deeper?

Thanks for the input guys! I'm going to go get one tomorrow. :cool:

Like Bird said, you can always modify anything. But will it work comes into question. Not only is there an issue as to whether you can lift it high enough to clear the ground but there is the issue as to whether you have enough power to pull it. There's a reason they make 400hp true 4WD tractors. I remember out of curiosity looking up the most powerful tractors one day. The most powerful tractor ever built was something like 800hp and true 4WD designed and built specifically for soil disturbance to a depth of 4 feet. Probably the deeper you go the hp requirements go up exponentially.
 
 
 
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