Moldboard plow shenanigans

   / Moldboard plow shenanigans #1  

msjanket

Silver Member
Joined
Oct 14, 2006
Messages
222
I just bought a second hand International one bottom. It has the trip release when you hit an obstacle in the soil. Can anybody 'splain how this mechanism works? Mine looks jury rigged a bit and I'd like to have it set right so I don't suffer a bad whiplash while plowing. Are these plows any good, they kinda look like they are a cheapo product.
 
   / Moldboard plow shenanigans #2  
   / Moldboard plow shenanigans #3  
most trip plows have some sort of "spring" from a coiled up spring (kinda looks like threads on a screw), to a leaf spring "kinda shape of a bracket ), and found on vehicles.

the primary goal of the spring is when the spring compress so much. the plow itself (what is in the ground) will rotate and fold up backwards....

think of the bottom plow as your foot. and if you are about to stub your toe walking. you angle your kneed backwards.letting your foot hopefully slide over the object. vs cracking toe nails or fracturing toe bones and or bruising your toes.
trip plow.png

the plows with "trip function" pretty much all act the same way.

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there can be a "shear bolt" setup as well on some stuff. much like a PTO shaft. hit something to hard and the shear bolt gets cut up. but for trip plows it allows the plow to rotate up and out of the way of the given obstacle.

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be careful about tree roots. the nature of bottom plows / moldboard plows. is the triangle shape nature, and the point of the plow can get up under a tree root. and not able to "trip" and bend out of the way.

other words someone playing a very ugly trick. and ran a string across a hallway a couple inches off the floor. and your foot ends up going below the string. (you fall down) unable to get your foot / knee to move right to get out from under the string (err tree root). for a tractor you may end up coming to a quick stop or bending / breaking something.

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running and setting up a bottom plow can be some what tricky, and suggest reading up how to "plow" setting the point to far down vs rear end. or having point to far up vs rear end can cause problems.

also issue of getting first row going, then coming back for each row after that. and getting your tires in correct spot. so everything "turns over on top of itself"

for the old allis chalmers CA 1954'ish tractor and 2 bottom plow i have. i had to keep hand on the hitch lever to raise / lower the bottom plow pretty much all the time. it was more about making sure i could keep tractor moving and keep going more than anything. and then dealing with picking up plow out of the dirt before i made any turns.
 
 
 
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