3-Point Hitch 3 point hitch & swaybars & plowing

Houston · Mar 18, 2009

My question is when plowing with a 3pt hitch mulboard plow do you use swarbars or not. I am plowing with a MF283 4WD and a set MF345 4 bottoms.Thanks for any replys.

LAWALLSTRACTOR · Mar 18, 2009

Yes, I think you should use a sway bar and if you are using semi mounted plows they have their own pivot. When I was on the my fathers farm growing up, we always used the sway bar on the 3 bottom plows.

xlr82v2 · Mar 18, 2009

On my Dearborn 10-10 2 bottom plow, it is made so that you cannot hook up the sway bars when it's on the Ford 8N that it was designed for... and it works just fine without the swaybars also.

I think you need a little room to "wiggle" when your plow is in the ground... I wouldn't hook up the sway bars, or at least not set them tight. You want the plow to be able to move side to side a bit. If it's set right, it will draft correctly and the swaybars will not be needed when it's in the ground.

The only reason you should need swaybars with a plow is to keep it from swinging into the tires when you're turning around. If you're thinking that you'll need them to keep the plow going straight, then you need to get your plow set up correctly... it's not the swaybar's job to make the plow track correctly... that's in the adjustments.

LAWALLSTRACTOR · Mar 19, 2009

xlr82v2 said:
On my Dearborn 10-10 2 bottom plow, it is made so that you cannot hook up the sway bars when it's on the Ford 8N that it was designed for... and it works just fine without the swaybars also.

I think you need a little room to "wiggle" when your plow is in the ground... I wouldn't hook up the sway bars, or at least not set them tight. You want the plow to be able to move side to side a bit. If it's set right, it will draft correctly and the swaybars will not be needed when it's in the ground.

The only reason you should need swaybars with a plow is to keep it from swinging into the tires when you're turning around. If you're thinking that you'll need them to keep the plow going straight, then you need to get your plow set up correctly... it's not the swaybar's job to make the plow track correctly... that's in the adjustments.

I get to thinking back, I think Brian is right. We didn't use the sway bar on the plow. The cultivators, and mowing machine we did.