2 bottom breaking plow adjustment

[heehaw]

i used an old ford 2 bottom breaking plow this afternoon: first time in 15 years i have used it: the last time i had a JD 1020, gas burner, an i plowed about 8 acres with no problem what so ever: it turned up two of the prettiest rows you would ever want to see: today, with my Kubota, i could not get it to stick the back plow in the ground?? i adjusted every which way i could...lengthing the top link an neither would go in the ground, so i kept shortening it...till the front plow would really sink in like it should, but the back one would just scrape the top of the ground?? any suggestions?? the kubota is a taller tractor than the JD..does that have anything to do with it?
heehaw

 

[Larry Caldwell]

You need to adjust your 3-point arms to drop lower. There is a stop on the control lever that sets the bottom height. Yours is too high. Lengthening the top link was the right idea, but it is the lift arms that are causing the problem.

 

[sweettractors]

After the right wheel drops down in the furrow and you proceed to plow about 10 ft. The plow should be level with the ground left to right and level with the ground front to back. The initial setting for your tractor tires are 23 1/2 from the center of the drawbar to the inside of the right rear tire for 12 inch plows. 25 inches for 14 inch plow and 27 inches for 16 inch plows. I suspect your tractor is not set to the plow? Ken Sweet

 

[Chilly807]

Ken's right, the tractor has to be set up for the plow, and vice versa. You can do a dry set-up on level ground with the left wheels up on blocks about 6-8 inches high. With this set-up, the plow should be close to level, side to side and fore and aft. If not, you'll have to tweak your set-up.

I have a link to a Ferguson plow manual if that'll help. I used it to set mine up, and it worked like a charm.

Ferguson Moldboard Plow Service Manual

Sean

 

[schmism]

the plow depth is half the width (16" wide plow is designed to cut 8" deep)

starting on a firm lvl surface

take a block of wood that is approx the depth of the plow place it under the tire that would NOT be in the furrow.

this simulates the tractor at an angle as it would be if you were plowing.

then go about setting up the plow. adjust the top link so that both points of the 2 bottoms are inline and the landslides (the long flat "side" of the plow) are parrell to the ground.

also set your 3pt depth so that the plow is slightly above the ground.

last setting is left and right on the back of the tractor. the rear outside edge of the plow shear should just overlap inside edge of the tire in the furrow.

that will get you 90% of the way there. after that you just have to watch the plow and look at the results and tweek it.

youll eventually get here
YouTube - Plowing the garden <---- thats me

 

[heehaw]

thanks to all...i will do some adjusting on the set up....the lift arms go down as far as they can possibly go: i did notice that the hookups on the plow are at different heights: the one on the right is a lot lower than the one on the left, looking from the back of the tractor to the front: the plow has an adjustment for that, an i really didn't know what to do with it, so i just left it the way it was: the front plow was really going deep, so deep, without 4wd i would not have been able to pull it: but this garden needed to be broke deep, in my opinion..first garden i have ever plowed, an did not find a single rock: an great looking an smelling soil..wish i had a spot like that on my place..
heehaw

 

[heehaw]

i could not find a place to download the ferguson manual?? where am i missing it??
heehaw

 

[Ford850]

Sounds like you aren't following the instructions above. Specifically, having the left side wheels (front and back) up on 6 - 8 " blocks to simulate the tractor in the furrow while you adjust the right lift arm by crank or whatever method is on your tractor. You want the tractor on blocks and then adjust the plow so it sits level. when you drive back off the blocks the plow will be lower on the left side, which is what you want.

 

[heehaw]

thats where i made my mistake, because i used the crank on the right lift arm to level the plow while the tractor was level...i will readjust an try again..it worked great as a single bottom plow..just took twice as long to plow the garden as it should have.
thanks for all the info...
heehaw

 

[Chilly807]

i could not find a place to download the ferguson manual?? where am i missing it??
heehaw

Downloading it would be easy... I had to save each page as an "image", then print them and piece a book together from that. There are 18 pages.

One good thing about doing it, once you have the book made, you can put it in a binder and write your setup notes on one of the pages. That's what I did. Once the plow was working good, I measured the top link length, how far each ball end was from a level floor (there's about three inches difference on my L3400), how far from the tire edge the lift arm was, etc.

This fall when I'm ready to plow, I just have to set the tractor up the same way and go to it. No experimenting or trying to remember.

I'll send you the image files in a PM.

Sean