N80
Super Member
A few weeks ago I posted about how my box blade was no longer working to 'till' for my little food plots. At that time my B-I-L had told me he had a 'plow' and I was thrilled to find a very rusty, beat up, but very beefy middlebuster in one of his many junk piles. Well I was back down at my place (next to his farm) and I was showing him the middlebuster since he hadn't seen it since I extracted it from the junk heap. I told him it worked great but that what I really needed was a real plow. "What do you mean by a 'real' plow?" he asked. So I described a moldboard plow and he says,"oh, you mean a turning plow; I think I've got one of those too." And he directed to to a completely different junk pile.
Once I got the briars, barbed wire and old truck parts cleared out I was very happy to find this:
I don't think it is anything great but it is all in one piece. In fact, it looks similar, but not identical to, the cheap KK and Howse type stuff you see around. There are some remnants of a decal that was on it and I'm wondering if anyone might know what brand it was. Here is a closeup:
The back of the moldboard also has this stamped in it. I can't make out the image or any of the letters, but does anyone recognize this stamp?:
Here's the fun part of the story. There's this guy who hunts on my B-I-L's property who bought this Korean version of the JD 5400 and a bunch of implements to do food plots and to plant a dove field. Well, it didn't take him long to realize that even his heavy duty disk and 65 hp ag tractor didn't do much but scratch our dense dry dirt. So he's interested in the plow too. Now, he's been around tractors a good bit but this is his first one and like me he's learning as he goes. And he's very proud of his big tractor. When I mentioned the plow to him, he says how great it is that my B-I-L is going to let us use it and I agreed. Then he looks at me kind of funny and tells me that my little tractor won't be able to pull that huge plow. I've only been doing this tractor stuff for 2 years and I've only been using a plow for...well, never, so even though I doubted him I certainly wasn't sure enough to disagree. I knew the plow had Cat I hitch pins, and I was able to wrestle it out of the junk heap and so I know it weighed less than my boxblade. But I agreed that the moldboards did look huge but that I'd give it a try and see how it did. This guy is a real nice guy but he and his buddy kind of laughed. They drove up later while I was hooking it up and had another good little chuckle about how it looked way too big for my little Jap tractor. I told them I was just going to try it out and began to wonder myself.
Now, my tractor is a Kubota L4400 which is 45hp and has 4wd . But it is still very light, I'm guessing about 5000 pounds with loaded tires and FEL. And I know nothing about plowing and our 'soil' is terrible, rocky clay. There were some hard areas in my plots that had maybe 4-5 inches of topsoil under which was hard pan that the middlebuster would not go through. It didn't slow down the tractor, it just wouldn't bite and would ride up over it. So I'm thinking I may not be able to pull this plow at all. Here it is all hooked up:
So, I head down to where one of my plots is. It has already been planted and the greens and oats are just starting to come up. So I drop the plow, put it in first gear/lo range and start off in dirt that hasn't been plowed in 75 years (it had trees on it up until 2 years ago) and the tractor is doing just fine. I switch to 2/lo, no problem and in some places 3/lo. At this point I'm very proud of my little tractor (and not quite as impressed with the guy's tractor knowledge). As I'm headed back to the barn my B-I-L comes by on the road. He stops and looks at the plow on my tractor and comments that it looks too big for my tractor. Apparently he also thought my tractor was too small. In any case, it was my turn to laugh now.
Now, after plowing new ground for about 45 minutes it became clear to me what others (particularly Farmwithjunk) have said about pulling a plow. Set up is everything. It took a good many trips up and down from the tractor to tweak the top link adjustment to get the front and the back to engage completely. There were still times that the rear moldboard did not engage as well as the front. It was also important to always have one side (the same side!) of the tractor in a furrow. I am also certain that I will need to adjust the lower lift arm height as well in order for it to plow perfectly. The plow will also adjust left-to-right on its frame but the bolts are rusted and frozen and I'm not sure I'll be able to find replacements. But that's for another post.
There were still sections of hardpan that the plow would ride up over. But at other times it would catch and break it up. It would give the tractor a bit of a lurch and require a little more throttle but it kept on going.
I also still had some trouble where if the sod and grass was too thick it would bunch up between the two moldboards and kind of bulldoze along. I guess colters would help with that?
In any case, it was fun. I'm learning a lot. The plow was free and my B-I-L doesn't care if we tear it up. He was pleased that one of his junk piles was a little smaller and he says we can continue to use it as long as we promise not to bring it back. I am a bit worried that the other guy is going to tear it up with his 65hp ag tractor. The thing it looks big and hefty but I suspect that plow is 1) cheap 2) old and rusty 3) made for a 30-40 hp tractor. We will see.
Once I got the briars, barbed wire and old truck parts cleared out I was very happy to find this:
I don't think it is anything great but it is all in one piece. In fact, it looks similar, but not identical to, the cheap KK and Howse type stuff you see around. There are some remnants of a decal that was on it and I'm wondering if anyone might know what brand it was. Here is a closeup:
The back of the moldboard also has this stamped in it. I can't make out the image or any of the letters, but does anyone recognize this stamp?:
Here's the fun part of the story. There's this guy who hunts on my B-I-L's property who bought this Korean version of the JD 5400 and a bunch of implements to do food plots and to plant a dove field. Well, it didn't take him long to realize that even his heavy duty disk and 65 hp ag tractor didn't do much but scratch our dense dry dirt. So he's interested in the plow too. Now, he's been around tractors a good bit but this is his first one and like me he's learning as he goes. And he's very proud of his big tractor. When I mentioned the plow to him, he says how great it is that my B-I-L is going to let us use it and I agreed. Then he looks at me kind of funny and tells me that my little tractor won't be able to pull that huge plow. I've only been doing this tractor stuff for 2 years and I've only been using a plow for...well, never, so even though I doubted him I certainly wasn't sure enough to disagree. I knew the plow had Cat I hitch pins, and I was able to wrestle it out of the junk heap and so I know it weighed less than my boxblade. But I agreed that the moldboards did look huge but that I'd give it a try and see how it did. This guy is a real nice guy but he and his buddy kind of laughed. They drove up later while I was hooking it up and had another good little chuckle about how it looked way too big for my little Jap tractor. I told them I was just going to try it out and began to wonder myself.
Now, my tractor is a Kubota L4400 which is 45hp and has 4wd . But it is still very light, I'm guessing about 5000 pounds with loaded tires and FEL. And I know nothing about plowing and our 'soil' is terrible, rocky clay. There were some hard areas in my plots that had maybe 4-5 inches of topsoil under which was hard pan that the middlebuster would not go through. It didn't slow down the tractor, it just wouldn't bite and would ride up over it. So I'm thinking I may not be able to pull this plow at all. Here it is all hooked up:
So, I head down to where one of my plots is. It has already been planted and the greens and oats are just starting to come up. So I drop the plow, put it in first gear/lo range and start off in dirt that hasn't been plowed in 75 years (it had trees on it up until 2 years ago) and the tractor is doing just fine. I switch to 2/lo, no problem and in some places 3/lo. At this point I'm very proud of my little tractor (and not quite as impressed with the guy's tractor knowledge). As I'm headed back to the barn my B-I-L comes by on the road. He stops and looks at the plow on my tractor and comments that it looks too big for my tractor. Apparently he also thought my tractor was too small. In any case, it was my turn to laugh now.
Now, after plowing new ground for about 45 minutes it became clear to me what others (particularly Farmwithjunk) have said about pulling a plow. Set up is everything. It took a good many trips up and down from the tractor to tweak the top link adjustment to get the front and the back to engage completely. There were still times that the rear moldboard did not engage as well as the front. It was also important to always have one side (the same side!) of the tractor in a furrow. I am also certain that I will need to adjust the lower lift arm height as well in order for it to plow perfectly. The plow will also adjust left-to-right on its frame but the bolts are rusted and frozen and I'm not sure I'll be able to find replacements. But that's for another post.
There were still sections of hardpan that the plow would ride up over. But at other times it would catch and break it up. It would give the tractor a bit of a lurch and require a little more throttle but it kept on going.
I also still had some trouble where if the sod and grass was too thick it would bunch up between the two moldboards and kind of bulldoze along. I guess colters would help with that?
In any case, it was fun. I'm learning a lot. The plow was free and my B-I-L doesn't care if we tear it up. He was pleased that one of his junk piles was a little smaller and he says we can continue to use it as long as we promise not to bring it back.
I am a bit worried that the other guy is going to tear it up with his 65hp ag tractor. The thing it looks big and hefty but I suspect that plow is 1) cheap 2) old and rusty 3) made for a 30-40 hp tractor. We will see.
