milkman636
Veteran Member
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2010
- Messages
- 1,545
- Location
- Palm of the Right Hand
- Tractor
- Bobcat CT335 + John Deere 1023e (former owner of Kubota BX2370-1, John Deere 5210, and Ford 2000)
Last year I picked up a 1x16 plow off CL for $100 with the intent of trying my CT335 HST with a plow. The plow was made by the Independent Manufacturing Company of Noedesha, Kansas. It is spring trip, has the rockshaft adjustment on the hitch, and a coulter. There is a small crack in the moldboard by the upper plow bolt, the shin should be replaced, but everything else is good.
So today was the day. I got her pretty well adjusted on the first couple passes. The hydraulics are quick and responsive enough that I was able to replicate draft response by working the position lever. I didn't measure but I'm pretty sure I was plowing a good 8"deep, and even deeper in a few spots. The loader was removed to keep the weight distribution heavier on the larger, loaded rear drive tires. The plowing was in Medium range and using 4WD.
One thing that was noticeable is the lack of ground clearance on this tractor equipped with R4 tires. If I were in soft ground it wouldn't take much sinking before the tractor bottomed out on the furrow wall. Using smaller bottoms or plowing shallower would help this, but the wide tires like the 16" furrow and I wanted to go deep. I was favorably surprised at the amount of tire grip I had. I was able to really bog the engine down when I got too deep or hit a hard spot. There were a couple times where the plow stopped the tractor and I had to back up, raise a little and start plowing again.
Would I recommend this tractor as a plowing tractor, yes it works fine with a single 16. Will I be putting put my two bottom Ford 101 plow on and trying it? No, I think the 1x16 is a good match for it.
Now I'm curious to try one of the 400 series with a bigger engine driving the same HST to see what they can do with a draft load. After two years I still have to say that Bobcat/Kioti tractors are comfortable machines to operate. I am seriously considering selling both my current tractors and replacing them with a larger CT4xx if I can find a deal out there, or possibly even switching to a DK.
So today was the day. I got her pretty well adjusted on the first couple passes. The hydraulics are quick and responsive enough that I was able to replicate draft response by working the position lever. I didn't measure but I'm pretty sure I was plowing a good 8"deep, and even deeper in a few spots. The loader was removed to keep the weight distribution heavier on the larger, loaded rear drive tires. The plowing was in Medium range and using 4WD.
One thing that was noticeable is the lack of ground clearance on this tractor equipped with R4 tires. If I were in soft ground it wouldn't take much sinking before the tractor bottomed out on the furrow wall. Using smaller bottoms or plowing shallower would help this, but the wide tires like the 16" furrow and I wanted to go deep. I was favorably surprised at the amount of tire grip I had. I was able to really bog the engine down when I got too deep or hit a hard spot. There were a couple times where the plow stopped the tractor and I had to back up, raise a little and start plowing again.
Would I recommend this tractor as a plowing tractor, yes it works fine with a single 16. Will I be putting put my two bottom Ford 101 plow on and trying it? No, I think the 1x16 is a good match for it.
Now I'm curious to try one of the 400 series with a bigger engine driving the same HST to see what they can do with a draft load. After two years I still have to say that Bobcat/Kioti tractors are comfortable machines to operate. I am seriously considering selling both my current tractors and replacing them with a larger CT4xx if I can find a deal out there, or possibly even switching to a DK.