Land plow

[nckennedy]

Ok thanks.
Thats true there are adjustments I can make but the JD plow manual keeps emphizing the importance of centerig the plow directly behind the tractor so that it pulls streight on the Center Link. I suppose that is the most efficient, but I may not have a choice in this and may have to pull it to the right?
nck

 

[boggen]

double check your rear wheels, on many tractors, you can change the width of rear tires, either by swapping tires around on the rear. so rims give shorter or wider spacing. or you may have to free up some bolts on the tires, and skid / slide the *forgets technical name* smaller rim/shaft around inside the tire larger rims.

there are many crop / row / field equipment, that are geared and setup for specific widths. to plant different crops at different widths. other words different crops can be planted closer than others. to make the most use of a field.

a plow, i do not see any different more so on the small size plows for smaller tractors. and dealing with getting tire into the furrow after the first pass.

if you have loaded rear tires, make sure you have another person to help you out, rear loaded tires can weigh a few hundred pounds. if you have a second tractor with FEL or forklift or cherry picker or engine lift to help move tires, if you have to swap tires around side to side to change rear tire widths. it really helps as well.

 

[nckennedy]

Ok, thanks for the idea. That sounds like a lot of work and I am not sure I would want the wheels that much closer anyway. However it is something to think about. If I were do adjust the rear wheels, I will need to figure out the opitions so that i could be sure that the said change would then make it possible to pull the plow properly.

Another opition would be to get a chisel plow and forget the whole idea of moldboard. We do have a lot of round field stone which tends to trip the bottoms a lot anyway, then we have to pack up to reset the bottoms. Any thoughts on the pros and cons of chisel plow? I wanted to use the moldboard because it would bury the trash so it can rot up and provide some organic matter to the soil. Since we are trying to develop an organic approach to farming ( pasture for grass fed beef, grains) I thought that would be the best way to go, But now I am not so sure. Any ideas? How many tine chisel plow should we have for a JD 5425 (65 HP on pto) with out over burdening the JD?
Thanks,
nckennedy

 

[MHarryE]

Centered sounds nice but it is difficult to achieve. Back to the picture of the guy with a 1 x 16 plow. It has to be offset well to the right to line up with the tire edge. For centered pull he could only have 16 inches between tires. The landside takes most of the side thrust created by the bottoms. I have one old horse drawn plow out in the antiques in front of my place that has a 3 foot long landside. Now that has me thinking and I need to look up some pictures of horse drawn plows. With a 2 horse team, does one horse walk in the furrow while the other gets to walk on the sod? I'll never get to sleep tonight thinking about that.

 

[Chilly807]

I've never had to fiddle with tire position on the L3400 Kubota.. maybe I'm just lucky, but I don't think so.

For a 16 inch plow, the first landside should be 16-17 inches inside the right rear tire. Give or take a little. Simple. Any more and you'll have a narrow strip of sod the plow won't flip well on each pass, any narrower and you won't have even furrows.

The plow needs to be pulling straight behind the tractor, with the front mabe slightly to the left of the rear to help flip the sod if you have heavy sod. Mine was like that the first year.

I don't see the plow being directly behind the centerline of the tractor being critical, not on a 2 or 3 bottom anyway. If it pulls the tractor around because it's not centered, maybe.

Sean

 

[nckennedy]

Ok, that helps clarify my thinking and gives me something to work on. Thanks so much.
nck

 

[crowbar032]

Let me add something else to possibly think about. An old timer once told me that your moldboard width should match your tire width. I thought he was nuts, but after he explained himself it made a little bit of sense. He went on to say that if you've got 16 inch tires, they aren't going to fit into a 14 inch plow furrow. Most people have a tendancy to keep the inside of the right wheels against the furrow wall. Assuming that the converse is also true, if the plow is wider than the tires that could be at least a couple of inches of your issue.

All that being said, he could have just been screwing with me too.

 

[downslope]

Interesting discussion. I am having a similar problem with my JD5425 pulling a JD 1000 3 bottom 16" fully mounted.
Nice plow but the first plow (right) is not to the right far enough to turn over the soil. It leaves a wide strip maybe 8 inches unplowed. The plow manual says I need to adjust the right wheel of the tractor but I am not sure that is even possible or desirable. I like the wider stance and would loose that by bringing the wheel in closer to the frame. I guess the problem is that the older plow is really not compatable with the new tractor. Any hope in making this moldboard plow work correctly? Do we just need to switch to a chisel plow?
Thanks
nck

How wide do you have the tires set, center-to center, and what does the book recommend? That plow and tractor should work well together and a 5425 should have plenty of adjustment choices. From my experience a wheel setting of around 68"-72" center to center should do the job and will also be a good spacing for working in row crops that you plant. I hope you don't have them set out in the 80 inch range. Another thing to think about is lining up the narrower front tires with the rears. For plowing and general farm work it is best to line up either on the inside edges or the centers. If you line up the inside edges you know that if the front wheel is against the furrow wall the rear will be also. If you line up the centers you will usually plow with the front wheel a few inches away from the furrow wall; tire sizes can figure slightly into all of this.

 

[idaho2]

I have a 5530 Mahindra 4wd Turbo which I hooked up to a 3pt Ford-Dearborn 10-209 3x16's. Setup didn't take more than half an hour. All my adjustments were with the plow. All said and done the plow tracts directly with the midline of the tractor (top link for visual affect), my Rt. Lift Arm is the only bar that I change from the starter rows to the furrowed plowing. My stabilizer bars have minimal amount of play and are equal in length - no sway. The top link is measured (center pin to center pin) once the plow was leveled fore & aft. This way when I use it the next time I follow my setup info and ready to plow. I set my draft control for 8" depth. The result was easy pulling by the tractor and I could not tell how many bottoms were used when the plowed field was viewed from a distance. Last time I plowed was 45 years ago as kid.

idaho2

 

[SGBotsford]

I have an old international 3 board plough. On it. one of the hitch pins is mounted eccentrically, so that you can raise or lower one side by loosening the bolt, rotating it, and retighten. I've never done this as it's rusted solid.

My tractor instead has adjustible lift arms, so I can fix it that way.

An additional ad-hoc adjustment is tire pressure. You can get a couple inches either way by playing games with the tire pressure.

Also: The first row is always a bit wonky unless you readjust for the first row, and then adjust back. In normal operation, one front wheel is in the trough adjacent left by the previous strip. This means that on the second and subsequent rows, you are 4-6 inches lower on one side. On a long day, this is tough enough on lower back, that I end up either bringing a cushion with me, or wadding up my jacket into a wedge shape to sit on.