Another plow setup question
- Thread starter Mearntain
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idaho2
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Mearntain,
I do believe you have found your issue. You have come a long way understanding your plow since your first post. Good job. Now is it correctable, think it thru. Newer share on the rear vs a worn one up front. Or is it a tweaked frame (hope not).
TomNOh,
Thanks for the book link, read this a long time ago and it still applies. This booklet should be a first read for all first timers at plowing. Also a refresher for us old tarts.
idaho2
I do believe you have found your issue. You have come a long way understanding your plow since your first post. Good job. Now is it correctable, think it thru. Newer share on the rear vs a worn one up front. Or is it a tweaked frame (hope not).
TomNOh,
Thanks for the book link, read this a long time ago and it still applies. This booklet should be a first read for all first timers at plowing. Also a refresher for us old tarts.
idaho2
I couldn't have gotten to where I'm at so far without your help along with others in the thread. Once again, I do appreciate it.
As of now, I'm still at a loss and am not 100% sure where to go from here. I talked to a guy at EverythingAttachments today who used to work at Leinbach, and he gave me a couple pointers of where to look. Those locations seem to be good. He told me to check the 2 shear bolts, and to also check that 3 bolts were holding each of the bottoms on. All 3 bolts are present on each and the shear bolts appear to be in good shape and don't look bent (I didn't remove them though).
When looking closer at the plow, it almost appeared that the front share point was at a slightly different angle than the rear. I pulled out the tape again and tried to get a good measurement from the points to the beams, and it's almost looking like the front has a dimension measuring about 3/8" more than the rear. This is a hard measurement to get exact though since the beams are not directly above the points.
Logic wants to tell me that it it should have been the rear having a larger measurement, which would cause the rear to suck more, making it pull to the left. But it seems to actually be the front plow.
If the front plows share point is sitting slightly lower than the rear, would this cause it to pull to the left? It seems to me that would make it want to go to the right.
Something else I noticed - the drawbar is attached to a piece of angle iron on each side, with the ubolts attached to this angle iron. There is a long bolt that goes from one beam to the other on the opposite side. These angle iron brackets are held in place via a hole through the bracket that this long bolt passes through, and held in a pinch type manner by a pipe going around the long bolt and the beams. It seems that some rust has occurred in the left side bolt hole on the angle iron bracket, and allows for about 1/8" - 1/4" play in the draw bar on the left side. Not sure if this would be significant enough to have a negative effect on the tracking of the plow?
MF283
Platinum Member
Do you have an old farmer living nearby, that you could offer a few $$ to set the plow up for you?
Ronnie
Ronnie
Most of the old farmers around me laugh when I've asked them about some stuff in the past with these smaller attachments (not laughing in a disrespectful way though). They're all "old school argonomic guys who don't mess with the small stuff" as they've told me before.
Now if it comes down to units per acre with fertilizers or when to plant what and how to plant that, they're more than willing to help me on that, but I guess they've never messed with anything less than 12 row plows etc.
Now if it comes down to units per acre with fertilizers or when to plant what and how to plant that, they're more than willing to help me on that, but I guess they've never messed with anything less than 12 row plows etc.
Last time I tried getting things setup a couple days ago, I did try to run it on virgin ground. As far as I know, it's never been plowed before ever in history.
I started plowing the opposite direction on a piece of uncut ground, as I wanted to widen the tract by about 50 ft or so. I set everything up on blocks with the right draw pin flange at 12 inches from the mast. I dropped it in on the new ground, and it slammed all the way to the left after just a few feet. I then loosened the ubolts and slid the draw bar all the way to the left to try to counteract the pull. It helped some, but it still goes all the way to the left (I even tried that second attempt on new ground again next to the previous attempt with the other draw bar location).
I started plowing the opposite direction on a piece of uncut ground, as I wanted to widen the tract by about 50 ft or so. I set everything up on blocks with the right draw pin flange at 12 inches from the mast. I dropped it in on the new ground, and it slammed all the way to the left after just a few feet. I then loosened the ubolts and slid the draw bar all the way to the left to try to counteract the pull. It helped some, but it still goes all the way to the left (I even tried that second attempt on new ground again next to the previous attempt with the other draw bar location).
ovrszd
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Bummer.
Only other thing I can add is I've never used a plow that didn't have a furrow tail wheel and/or cutters. Those with more experience than I would know if that matters.
Only other thing I can add is I've never used a plow that didn't have a furrow tail wheel and/or cutters. Those with more experience than I would know if that matters.
When it's pulling all the way to the left, how wide is the first moldboard cutting? Once it pulls left and settles in, stop the tractor while leaving the plow in the ground. Measure the width of the first strip of soil it is cutting.
I'll give it a go on in a day or 2 if it doesn't rain again, and see how wide the front is cutting vs the rear, itso just way to wet to get out there to do it now.
When you say cutters, if you're talking about coulters, I do have a pair on my sprung plow that I have that I could more than likely throw on this plow. I thought those were mainly for cutting vines, thick sod, etc. that the plow is having trouble getting through? I could see how they could possibly give the the share points a "guide" to want to follow.
If you look a few pages back at the picture I took sitting on the tractor and looking backwards, does it look like I'm plowing too deep? That was just another idea that I had that may be making it want to pull to the left. I haven't figured out draft control yet so I've just been using position control with the lever all the way down.I figured with the plow setup properly, it should bottom out at where it was set up to, and not suck any further. I may be wrong with that though
When you say cutters, if you're talking about coulters, I do have a pair on my sprung plow that I have that I could more than likely throw on this plow. I thought those were mainly for cutting vines, thick sod, etc. that the plow is having trouble getting through? I could see how they could possibly give the the share points a "guide" to want to follow.
If you look a few pages back at the picture I took sitting on the tractor and looking backwards, does it look like I'm plowing too deep? That was just another idea that I had that may be making it want to pull to the left. I haven't figured out draft control yet so I've just been using position control with the lever all the way down.I figured with the plow setup properly, it should bottom out at where it was set up to, and not suck any further. I may be wrong with that though
It's a Ford, it doesnt even know anythings behind it :drink:
Does it look like it's too deep in that picture I posted earlier in the thread?
My position control doesn't seem to be super responsive and is slightly loose, that's why I just put it all the way down. It's loose enough to where if i don't have the lock washer stop moved to hold it in the up position or manually holding it by hand, hitting a big bump with a heavy implement is enough to make the lever/implement drop some.
They usually say your depth should be half the moldboard width, so 7" in your case. I don't plow that deep though, unless I have to. many times I'm only turning 5" and it works great without turning under my valuable topsoil. There's no need to turn soil too deep, when all you want to do is get the top side down.
And you definitely have to keep your position control set to hold it at that desired depth.
And you definitely have to keep your position control set to hold it at that desired depth.
With the draft control - when I set up the plow on blocks and have it in the proper spot, do I move the draft control lever down until it just begins to lift the plow? And then when I'm moving around, can it lift back up with position control or do I have to take draft control off to lift it up and then have to reset the draft control everytime I loop back around to plow another strip of ground?
I didn't measure it at the time, but this is a picture I took the other week of how deep the rear was cutting. Id guess it was around 6 inch or so range from what I recall.
I didn't measure it at the time, but this is a picture I took the other week of how deep the rear was cutting. Id guess it was around 6 inch or so range from what I recall.
ovrszd
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So, besides drifting left, your plow does not want to go deeper. Properly set your plow should bury itself until your 3pt has reached it's set lowered position. Since you aren't using Draft Control and you are lowering the Position Control lever to the bottom setting your plow should bury itself until your 3pt arms have reached their lowest possible setting. And when that happens your Ford will either spin out or kill the engine.
I don't be seeming to have an issue with it not wanting to go deeper. If I shorten the top link, it will go down deeper. I'd say I'm perfectly satisfied with the depth I'm getting, just not with the tracking that I'm getting that's causing me to miss some ground.
ovrszd
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I'm struggling to understand how the plow remains at a desirable height when you are not utilizing Draft Control and you are placing the Position Control lever in the lowest position?? The plow should bury itself immediately stalling the tractor.
I do have the lift links attached to the furthest out hole on the lift arms, so that is limiting how far the 3 pt will drop to some point. I also may be coming close to hitting the hard clay base below the top soil preventing it from going more. I never really payed attention to see if they were bottomed out or not. Are you suggesting that there is something wrong with my shares preventing it from sucking properly? Which may be what is making it pull to the left.
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