Another Homebuilt Sub-soiler

[gclark94560]

Hi All!

I have been laying out a new garden area and have been tilling it the hard way with my brand new Troy-Bilt mid sized tiller. Well the tiller was bringing up rocks as big a half of a football and after an hour I had snapped off two tines!

OUCH! Being as I just bought the thing, I wanted to cry!

Motivated by all the cool stuff the TBN folks have been building, I decided to make a sub-soiler and use it as a super heavy duty plow behind my Yanmar YM2000.

I have a nice steel pile that my step father left here when he died. In it I have some 2 X 3 I-beam. It is all quite rusty but sound. I used this I-beam as the frame as I wanted to be sure it was heavy and strong.

 

[gclark94560]

The main "hook" of the sub-soiler is a replacement scarifier I got from Agri Supply. As it was only $15, I figured I would never make anything better for that price. It is he-- for strong and welded in nicely.

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[gclark94560]

The sub-soiler is mated with my HFT Quick Hitch. I have REALLY gotten to like that thing. For $69 I can't imagine doing without it.

Note that the pointy nosed little dog in the center isn't part of the project. He does the QC checks on the welds for me.

BTW - the welding was done with a Lincoln AC225 buzz box welder. Most was at 135 amps with 7014 rod.

I put the cross beam behind the main frame for strength. I figured that this put a few fewer welds in tension as I was plowing.

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[gclark94560]

Here is a rear view of the beast. It is unpainted as I just HAD to jump on the tractor and try it just as soon as the welds were cool enough for me to pick it up.

As it weighs almost 100 pounds, picking it up isn't something I do casually!

 

[gclark94560]

Here is a picture of the sloppy, patched and unpainted top pin setup. It is sloppy and patched as I miss-guessed as to where to put the top pin!

The bracket is 2X2 angle so I used my torch to cut the sides and heat the top. I then massaged it with a big hammer until it lined up OK. Then I welded in 1/4 inch gussets to mend the side cuts and strengthen it.

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[gclark94560]

It all worked better than I had ever hoped!

I did about 10 passes over a 8 X 75 foot area and then it started getting dark. During those passes, I brought up many rocks that were about all I could lift and roots as big as my fore-arm. On several passes the tractor was brought to a complete halt by something underground. Attempts to raise the TPH to pull it up only brought the front wheels off the ground a few inches!

Scary feeling!! Anyway, a quick clutch jab and the front went back down. Several trys from several directions brought some of them up.

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I put my keys on the rock and the root so you can see the sizes.

All in all it is a big success so far. No damage of any kind has been noted at this point.

Thanks for lookin'

Greg

 

[BTDT]

Your links wouldn't open for me.

BTW, good job. How did it work? Are you planning on putting a plow on it to make it more aggressive?

 

[gclark94560]

Your links wouldn't open for me.

BTW, good job. How did it work? Are you planning on putting a plow on it to make it more aggressive?

This whole link/picture thing has me a bit buffaloed. Sometimes I got a link and sometimes the picture posted in the message body. I just tried the links and they opened for me.

I don't think I will be adding a plow tip. I will most likely use the tiller for finish work.

Greg

 

[Highbeam]

So did you use the SS to "till" the sod and soil? Was the grass long? Could you have just made 1000 passes with the SS? I've got a field that needs the sod tilled up and I have no tiller.

 

[gclark94560]

So did you use the SS to "till" the sod and soil? Was the grass long? Could you have just made 1000 passes with the SS? I've got a field that needs the sod tilled up and I have no tiller.

Hi!

Actually, there was very little grass. It was heavily wooded and the trees/pine straw kept the grass away.

It was cutting about 10 to 12 inches deep on the second pass. It will bury itself a full foot deep but can drag me to a stop if I do that on the first run. A heavier and more powerful tractor would have an easier time. Mine is 24HP and about 2000 pounds.

Burying a lot of sod is bad if you want to plant soon, or so I am told. They say that the decaying sod will deplete the nitrogen in the soil.