subsoiler

[Sully2]

In the instances you described the blade of the subsoiler was probably in too much of a vertical position. If I run through my clay soil with the toplink too short, the subsoiler will grab the soil and try to "dive" to China (and provide rapidly increasing resistance to forward motion.) It will stall my tractor in 5 feet of trench or less. Lengthen the top link a bit, and the subsoiler will not pull itself too far into the ground. I use my hydraulic toplink shortened to get the subsoiler to depth, then lengthen it to allow me to move forward.

I dont have a HYD toplink...and you cant open up a top link anymore than its max length!!!

 

[Highbeam]

Thanks Glenn for the input, it was my first subsoiling experience and the clay ground was indeed very dry. I failed to mention that in that picture I was backing up with my front tire on top of the "row" to try and break up clods and knock them down some. There is lots of time to ponder while making these rows and I decided to not run over the rows after awhile since that would be the opposite of my goals. The rows were taller but very chunky.

I planed the rows level with my mower and now the rows have melted/collapsed into shallow trenches which works very well for draining the low areas.

 

[Glenn9643]

Thanks Glenn for the input, it was my first subsoiling experience and the clay ground was indeed very dry. I failed to mention that in that picture I was backing up with my front tire on top of the "row" to try and break up clods and knock them down some. There is lots of time to ponder while making these rows and I decided to not run over the rows after awhile since that would be the opposite of my goals. The rows were taller but very chunky.

I planed the rows level with my mower and now the rows have melted/collapsed into shallow trenches which works very well for draining the low areas.

I took another look at the picture you posted, and it doesn't look to be really dry. When I made my mess it was dog-days dry here, and I had a lot of clods 15-20" diameter, and because it was so dry and the clay content they were hard to shatter. I eventually had to run the tiller over those areas to smooth things out, but it still helped with the drainage.