Disc Harrow Disc Harrow - Too MUCH hp?

[Gary Fowler]

I wouldn't worry a bit about a 3/4" hole in the frame as it would do little if any weakening of the material. I have seen crane booms that have major holes cut in the boom to lighten the load without weakening it that much.

I would get the Howse since it is cheaper, blades are in much better shape too and it looks like the frame material size is typical for both disks.

I don't think I have ever seen a disk with turnbuckle adjustment of the 3 PH to put more pressure on the back. You can do that with your top link on the tractor so that disk link is not needed.

 

[HAPPYNC]

Gary - That's what I'm leaning towards. I would much rather spend my funds on something else but I need this so if I stick within my budget then the Howse is about the best I've seen for the money in the month's time that I've been looking. I looked at it in person and it's in good shape. All the bearings are good and the disks are like new. Just some light surface rust here and there on the frame from being left outside. The ONLY bad thing I saw was that the first owner welded the 3 pt pins in place. Supposedly because they kept coming loose. But instead of a couple tacks or some locktite, he did a full on chewed up, dropped in the dirt, bubble gum weld.:confused2:

I guess I could cut them off and clean it up but I don't really see a need right now. I'd probably just scuff the whole thing up a little and put a fresh coat of primer and paint on it and call it done.

 

[HAPPYNC]

it has not been said.... hooking a cat 1 equipment up to a cat 2 tractor requires some sort of bushings / pin adjustments. pending on the cat 1 hook up on the equipment. (cat 2 has bigger holes / larger diameter pins) some cat 1 equipment are setup so they can be interchanged between cat 1/2 (for example cat 1 inside, cat 2 outside of the Triangleish frame mounts)

when getting up into cat 2 tractors. sometimes they give different holes on rear end of tractor, for lower lift arms and top link. to adjust between cat 2 and cat 1 setups as well.

Mine has the dual hole setup for Cat 1 or 2 on the lift arms. The top link is the same for either one.

 

[sixdogs]

Mine has the dual hole setup for Cat 1 or 2 on the lift arms. The top link is the same for either one.

View attachment 438085

I'll bet that comes in handy. What a great feature.

 

[oosik]

That is a great feature. Mine is Cat 2 all the way around. So its bushing for all Cat 1 implements. I lose bushings all the time & some have to be wider than others - duh, duh, duh etc.

 

[kneedeep]

I have a Howse disk and bent one of the crossmembers at old hunting club when it hung on a big pine. I took it off and bought a thick wall tube, had it cut to length amd drilled the bolt holes. Replaced all of the arms and added 100 lbs to the disk. Pull it with a 5500 4WD and it works good enough. I would like to find a wider and heavier disk.



It will still break!! But the arms will hold up to a lot of force!! LOL

 

[bindian]

I'll bet that comes in handy. What a great feature.

6dogs,
It does look neat, but I bet they wear out a lot faster!
hugs, Brandi

 

[bindian]

I have a Howse disk and bent one of the crossmembers at old hunting club when it hung on a big pine. I took it off and bought a thick wall tube, had it cut to length amd drilled the bolt holes. Replaced all of the arms and added 100 lbs to the disk. Pull it with a 5500 4WD and it works good enough. I would like to find a wider and heavier disk.

View attachment 438168

It will still break!! But the arms will hold up to a lot of force!! LOL

Kneedeep,
How many hours are on your 5500 now?
hugs, Brandi

 

[HAPPYNC]

I have a Howse disk and bent one of the crossmembers at old hunting club when it hung on a big pine. I took it off and bought a thick wall tube, had it cut to length amd drilled the bolt holes. Replaced all of the arms and added 100 lbs to the disk. Pull it with a 5500 4WD and it works good enough. I would like to find a wider and heavier disk.

View attachment 438168

It will still break!! But the arms will hold up to a lot of force!! LOL

Ouch! I bet you felt that! Luckily for me, I have no trees to get hung on. Just a couple of power poles so if I run into those out in the wide open then I probably need to park the tractor for a day or two. :laughing:

I ended up buying the Howse. Everything looked pretty solid on it. The bearings were in good shape and the disks almost looked new. It's twenty-two 20" disks with 9" spacing. It's 7-1/2' across the front and 8' across the back. I put an abrasive wheel on my cordless drill and took off the little bit of surface rust that was on it and hit it with some primer. I'll paint it when I get a chance as the Howse red is darker and dull. I'll see if I can make it a nice shiny Mahindra red.....or close to it.

Howse doesn't make this exact setup any more to compare. They have a 7' with twenty-four 18" disks for $1840 and a 7-1/2' with twenty 20" disks for $2612. So, $800 doesn't seem so bad after all.:dance1:

 

[HAPPYNC]

I'll bet that comes in handy. What a great feature.

I'm usually not one to read the manual first so it took me a minute to figure that one out but when I did I was quite proud of myself. I don't know that it's even in the manual. It might be one of those common sense things that they assumed I have!:laughing: