2 bottom plow: 3-pt or pull

[mediocrates67]

I'm looking for a two bottom plow for my food plots. I have a 45 hp 4wd tractor, and my disc just isn't enough to get through some old pasture sod. Looking for a two-bottom plow (I'm told that's probably as much as my tractor will handle). Should i get a 3-pt plow or a pull behind type plow? My dad is worried that we will hit a rock with the 3-pt one and ruin something, and thinks we should get a pull behind one that has springs and a reset of some sort. Any opinions? The 3-point would be great to have, but will I bust something without a spring/reset?

Thanks in advance!

 

[vtsnowedin]

Get the three point two bottom. That's the right size for your tractor and is much handier then a pull behind unless you have a lot of room at the ends of your fields. In rocky ground just go slow and be ready to push in the clutch if you fetch up on a rock. I have some ground where you spend as much time backing up off rocks as you do plowing forward.

 

[wolftree]

Consider looking for a spring trip 3PT plow. They are out there.

 

[jeff9366]

My dad is worried that we will hit a rock with the 3-pt one and ruin something, and thinks we should get a pull behind one that has springs and a reset of some sort. Any opinions? The 3-point would be great to have, but will I bust something without a spring/reset?

Does your tractor have Position Control and Draft Control? Usually these are two levers, side-by-side, which control lifting the Three Point Hitch.

Draft Control is part of the original Harry Ferguson design of the Three Point Hitch developed in the 1920's, when plowing was a tractor's most important job. Draft Control's specific function is to automatically lift the plow if an obstruction is encountered underground.

Older Three Point Hitch mounted plows had either shear bolt protection or spring trip protection. With either plow protection, plus Draft Control, you should be good to go plowing food plots, although plowing on slopes is an advanced skill. On slopes, ideally, you would use a plow with Landing Lever adjustment too.

I think new plows sold today have shear bolt protection if they have any plow protection at all.

If you do not use a Three Point mounted plow you will loose a lot of your tractor's traction. The whole point of Harry Ferguson's Three Point Hitch is to make the tractor and implement one unit, transferring implement weight to the rear wheels to improve traction. Ferguson's Three Point Hitch is what created the modern, relatively light weight, tractor. (Pre-Ferguson tractors were six tons and up.)

Draft Control is often an option on new compact tractors today, because few owners plow and most want less control complication, rather than more. Draft Control remains standard equipment on Big Ag tractors.

If you shop for a plow, look for a 2-12", with which you can plow 5-7" deep. You do not need a 2-14" which will leave the land rougher.

To educate everyone here, what is the disc diameter on the Disc Harrow you have tried? Disc Harrows are considered secondary tillage implements but they usually work fine for scratching in food plots if heavy enough and if the ground is moist. For your tractor I would think you would need a Disc Harrow with 20" diameter discs over loam, minimum, better 22" diameter. If you have any rocks, 22" diameter discs minimum.

I have a Ford Series 101, 2-12 trip plow, with a Landing Lever. I have $500 optional Draft Control on my L3560. While I only plow around twenty hours per year, plowing is interesting "sport" and teaching myself optimal plow adjustment is what I call fun.

 

[Baby Grand]

As part of your plow research, make sure you've poured over Jeff's post that condenses some of TBN member FWJ's thoughts on plows:
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/308006-moldboard-plow-wisdom-farmwithjunk.html
Lots & lots of good reading!

 

[Egon]

You will not have enough tractor to properly break sod with a disc. It will do a good job of working up the ploughed sod.

Go for whichever plough you find at the proper price. There are drawbar trips for the pulled plough.

 

[mediocrates67]

where are the shear bolts on the 3 point plow?

 

[jeff9366]

I do not have experience with shear bolt protected plows but there are a lot of posts on this topic in the T-B-N archive.

Here are the threads:

https://www.google.com/#q=shear+bolts+plow+site:tractorbynet.com

 

[art]

Jeff gave you a wealth of information of plowing but I can't help add my two cents! Draft control on many tractors isn't used as the amount of change that it takes to make it work is in excess of twenty percent. At that point you notice things aren't right so you will adjust. Many older plows didn't have any more of a breakaway then the tractor stops when you loose traction.
Old IH plows did have a type of a spring that held the vertical beam in position until overloaded. These plows are still bringing good money and in good condition will still exceed 1,000. even 30 and 40 years old. The age comes into play as well here as some plows wearing parts such as the points and shin are NOT available at this time or are very expensive to say the least if you can find them.
The width of cut varies with the application and 12-14-16" width are great for sod and the larger 18,20" bottoms are for non sod plowing.
Plow set-up is critical and I'd think depending on your tractor set-up you might even be able to pull a three bottom plow depending on conditions. I used to have a 35 horsepower two wheel drive that I pulled 3-16" bottoms with no problems in sod in central NY soil.
I'd say if it was a trailer plow definitely stick with a two bottom plow only. The further the load is away from the tractor the harder it is to pull.

 

[oosik]

I have a 2 x 14 three point bottom plow. My tractor has both position and draft control. I've tried adjusting the draft but about the time I think its adjusted I hit an "anchor on the earth" and I have to back off and restart. I also have an offset disk harrow. My disk harrow with a 400lb cement weight on it has trouble cutting thru the sod in my meadows. So I hit them first with the bottom plow and then dazzle the entire situation with the disk harrow. The final action is to smooth out & bust clods with my homemade drag spike harrow. Here where I'm at, this entire scenario works pretty well if I wait a while and let the ground dry out a little. Any plowing is done mid-May to early June.