Automatic Draft & Position?

[Slacker]

Can someone explain (in laymans terms) to a fairly new tractor user what the
Automatic Draft and Position is used for? My FT 360DTC has two levers where the 3pt hitch adjustment lever is. One lifts the 3pt up, what is the other one for? So far I've not used it for anything. If I knew its purpose I may find a use for it! ;-)

 

[ToadHill]

When you use ground engaging equipment such as a plow, you use the draft control to determine how deep the plow will go into the soil. For a plow you may want to go deep, for a cultivator not so deep.

 

[Slacker]

When you use ground engaging equipment such as a plow, you use the draft control to determine how deep the plow will go into the soil. For a plow you may want to go deep, for a cultivator not so deep.

OK, that makes sense. What I'm not understanding is why would it be needed? The 3pt hitch control also controls the depth that the implement rides at. What does the draft control do differently?

 

[Bird]

I'm not familiar with your tractor model, but . . . position control on the 3-point simply means that wherever you position the lever determines how high or low the 3-point hitch goes. You can move the 3-point up and down with the lever, but everytime you return the lever to the same place (position) the 3-point will return to the same height.

Draft control is something entirely different. It "senses" how hard the tractor is pulling when pulling ground engaging implements, usually a plow in the ground. If the tractor starts pulling harder, it automatically raises the plow a bit, and if it's not pulling hard enough, it lowers the plow deeper in the ground. That way, you never bog down or come to a stop; just continue plowing and the depth is automatically adjusted for the optimum performance.

 

[Farmerford]

Slacker:

The first draft control I saw was on a mid 1950's Ferguson 40 gas tractor that my father bought for our peanut farm in south Georgia. Dad wouldn't let us use it because the topsoil in our fields varied so much in depth and density. With draft control on (and set very sensitive) the bottom plow (turning plow) would be lifted up several inches as soon as the tractor hit a hard spot. Dad's position was that he wanted the hard and soft spots plowed to the same depth. There was no benefit in plowing deeper than necessary just because soil was soft or in plowing shallow when the soil was hard: indeed, if anything the hard soil was the very part that needed deeper plowing. If the soil was so hard that the engine was near stalling he expected you to shift down and work through it. Undoubtedly some agricultural applications benefit from draft control, but we never found one. When I see it on these new utility tractors I wonder how often it is used.

 

[Bird]

Farmerford, I'd agree with your dad. I never owned a tractor with draft control, never used one, but knew some real farmers who had it on their big tractors, so I'm sure there's a place and use for it.

 

[wolc123]

I always used draft control plowing with my 8n. My soil is relatively even in hardness but the terrain varried in contour and draft control actually gave me more even depth plowing than position control by allowing the plow to react to contour changes automatically. This is the real reason draft control is used with a plow. The case of perfectly level ground with varying soil hardness is a very rare one I would imagine and Harry Ferguson certainly did not design the draft control for that situation.

 

[RHughes]

I've used draft control when plowing and when using larger "ground enaging" attachments like 8ft+ grader blades.
I generally use draft in conjuction with position control to keep an implement from going too deep (by setting position) and at the same time keeping the tractor from lugging down by setting the draft control. The automatic adjustment made by the draft setting is enough to keep the tractor from spinning and leaves *way* less of a "bump" than if I tried to make the adjustment manually.

 

[Glowplug]

I've used draft control when plowing and when using larger "ground enaging" attachments like 8ft+ grader blades.
I generally use draft in conjuction with position control to keep an implement from going too deep (by setting position) and at the same time keeping the tractor from lugging down by setting the draft control. The automatic adjustment made by the draft setting is enough to keep the tractor from spinning and leaves *way* less of a "bump" than if I tried to make the adjustment manually.

Aaahhh, "MIXED CONTROL"! Now we're talking.
Position Control: Controls the position of the 3ph
Draft Control: Changes the position of the implement based on the load. A plow tries to dig into the ground and go deeper as you more forward. Either one of two things would have to give first. . .either your plow would be completely buried or your tractor will stop. Position control senses when the load increases, such as when the plow is digging deeper or hitting tougher ground conditions. The tractor then automatically raises the 3ph to keep the load the same. You set the "Sensitivity" with the lever. Less sensitive means it will be allowed to dig deeper or accept more load. More sensitive is the opposite. So if you were plowing in loose sand you would obviously want to set the sensitivity low. The sensing mechanism can be through the top link or the lower links.
Mixed Control: That's basically a combination of the two. But all it means is you set the sensitivity by using the draft control but you can set a position LIMIT so that the implement doesn't go too deep. Such would be the case is you were plowing in tough soil, had the sensitivity set low, then suddenly went through some loose soil. If you just had draft control set the plow would possibly go much deeper in the looser soil. But with the position control lever giving a depth limit you'd be okay.

That's the way I understand it. Of course, I'm not the most experienced person by any means. And if I'm wrong or someone has a better explanation please chime in. Hope that helps a little.

 

[rixtory]

So Lemme ask this please. I thought draught control (sorry, I am British and you spell it wrong ) controls the down presure on the 3PH.

So if it controls the depth due to load control, what provides the down pressure? As when pulling a 6 or 8 bottom plow and you get to the edge of row, raise it and turn the tractor for teh next pass, you drop the 3PH and the plow not onlyhits the ground but then digs into the ground for the next set of furrows, does a 3PH on larger tractors have down control? I thought they only had up control and the weight of the implement was the down and then draught drove it into the ground.
Thanks.