New Garden, First Attempt at Plowing

[Ford850]

Jim,
I think it would plow better if you can get the bottom back to the line where the front bottom used to be. And I think you can do it fairly easily by swapping the main beam and the 'Z' bar, side for side, as it sits now. First remove the main beam with coulter, bottom, and tail wheel attached. Then remove the heavy Z-shaped support. Now attach the main beam the to right side of the frame where the support was (next to your angle iron). And flip the Z support so it attaches to the left side of the frame and comes across to the right to connect to the rear of the beam. You'll end up with the bottom on the right side, but not have the front of the beam in the way of the 3ph. It sure looks like you could do that by removing 4 or 5 bolts. That would eliminate the side force on the tractor I think. Good luck.

 

[2manyrocks]

My Mother used to raise a large garden and she always said not to work the garden when it was wet because it made hard clumps in the soil.

 

[milkman]

Jim,
I think it would plow better if you can get the bottom back to the line where the front bottom used to be. And I think you can do it fairly easily by swapping the main beam and the 'Z' bar, side for side, as it sits now. First remove the main beam with coulter, bottom, and tail wheel attached. Then remove the heavy Z-shaped support. Now attach the main beam the to right side of the frame where the support was (next to your angle iron). And flip the Z support so it attaches to the left side of the frame and comes across to the right to connect to the rear of the beam. You'll end up with the bottom on the right side, but not have the front of the beam in the way of the 3ph. It sure looks like you could do that by removing 4 or 5 bolts. That would eliminate the side force on the tractor I think. Good luck.

I just went and looked at the pic of the plow and I have to agree with you, the framework looks to me like it is on the wrong side of the beam, but hard to tell without seeing it from behind hooked to the tractor. Another thing, looks way too wet to plow, but it sure is hard to resist once the plow is hooked up.

 

[greenmule]

One things for sure,when he said he dropped the plow,that looks like what happened[over and over and over],couldn't resist.

 

[BobG_in_VA]

The others are correct....you need to be plowing with the front bottom, not the rear for a one bottom plow to be right....You can take off the 3rd bottom on a Dearborn/Ford plow to make a 2 bottom, but not sure about a 2 to one..you need whatever bottoms you have to be no more than 12" from the inside of the the right rear tire where it sets in the previous furrow... you might be able to "cut" off the rear beam behind the the bolt up to be able to keep the front bottom only, but I'd rather see you re do the 2 bottom, sell it as such and search for a 10-12" one bottom. BobG in VA

 

[yeagisyeag]

Jim,
I think it would plow better if you can get the bottom back to the line where the front bottom used to be. And I think you can do it fairly easily by swapping the main beam and the 'Z' bar, side for side, as it sits now. First remove the main beam with coulter, bottom, and tail wheel attached. Then remove the heavy Z-shaped support. Now attach the main beam the to right side of the frame where the support was (next to your angle iron). And flip the Z support so it attaches to the left side of the frame and comes across to the right to connect to the rear of the beam. You'll end up with the bottom on the right side, but not have the front of the beam in the way of the 3ph. It sure looks like you could do that by removing 4 or 5 bolts. That would eliminate the side force on the tractor I think. Good luck.

That's cool! I really didn't think of that! I've been trying to figure out how to use the front bottom, there'd really be no way to do it without cutting things up, which I don't want to do.

From what I've read here before, I want the rear point of my share to be close to even with the inside of my right tire. I'll have to recheck to make sure, but I think that's what it looks like now.

Those bolts are huge and rusty, but they actually didn't give me too much of a problem when I unbolted the front bottom. Guess I'm less worried about the bolts, and more worried about how I'll hold everything up when it's loose. That stuff is HEAVY and really unbalanced.

Lemme get back out there, hook things up, and take a few pictures.

Thanks,
Jim

 

[yeagisyeag]

One things for sure,when he said he dropped the plow,that looks like what happened[over and over and over],couldn't resist.

LOL that's no joke! When I lost traction I would lift the plow and then re-drop once I got moving again. Like milkman said, it was hard to resist trying it out!

You should have seen all the ripped up sod chunks laying around from when the plow hit while turning around!

Good news is there has been 4 dry days, 1 day with a little rain, now things look good and dry until Wednesday.

Jim

 

[greenmule]

Yeah,its rained every day here for past 9 days,[sun is shining today though].

If you had right plow for your machine you would be set,they make different sized plows,and if you had a new small single bottom plow that adjusts from side to side,you could plow with that machine.

 

[yeagisyeag]

Yeah,its rained every day here for past 9 days,[sun is shining today though].

So you feel my pain, then.....

Aside from the weather, the other limiting factor to my progress is the 1 hour drive to our property where the garden is. I trailer the tractor there and back every time, so I like to make my trips count, that is I go when I can spend the most time possible out there.

If you had right plow for your machine you would be set,they make different sized plows,and if you had a new small single bottom plow that adjusts from side to side,you could plow with that machine.

I do agree. I may wind up reassembling this 2 bottom and selling it w/most parts repaired, then save up a little more for a new 1 bottom.

Thanks,
Jim

 

[greenmule]

Well it rained today too,10 out of 11 days,told my wife and little girl to get ready cause we was going to plant tomatos and peppers[we bought going on two weeks ago],this weds,in the mud or not.
Supposed to rain thurs and friday.