Buying and sizing a disc

[RobJ]

I've seen a few of these posts and here are a couple fresh pics from this past weekend. The tractor is a L2500 and the disc is a light duty 5' that I picked up for $200 used. I'm preping a food plot here in some nice sandy loam. This is probably the 3rd pass on this spot. A few weeks ago I use my cultivator to sort of rake the coastal off the top, so most of the grass was gone. I have to feather is disc to keep from burying the tractor. Just before I stopped to take the pic I lowered the 3pt all the way down. You can see that the soil is up to the axles and would have shortly started to build up in front before the tractor would have started to spin. A 4wd tractor would probably not have gotted me much further. With this same disk in clay I add a 200+# flywheel to the back and get into that soil maybe 3". No problem pulling in that stuff.

I usually try and pull the disc in 3rd gear high range. I like to get up some speed if I can to get the flip action going more. But with a small tractor is is a pain to pull a disc in lose soil.

In the 3rd pic you can see the clay river bottom and the extra weight. In the last pic with no tractor in it you can see the clay results. This is probably 10-12 passes!! That's all she will do, just a few inches.


Rob

 

[art]

Thats why it's so critical to know the conditions the machines are to be used in before making recommendations of size of machinery to purchase. At two hundred dollars though you couldn't go wrong!

 

[RobJ]

Right, I can't be sure it'd pull a 4' disc any better in that loam. But I might be able to pull a light duty 6' disc in the clay because it's not cutting very deep.

Rob

 

[Greyfields]

The rule I have heard is 4 HP per foot of width on the discs.

 

[kossetx]

Rob, I have that same disk, probably a howse, on my 25hp tractor and I pull it with my turf tires on a sandy loam top on a clay sub. I was surprized when I could do it and I wish I had a bigger one now, but I still use it. MP

 

[BTDT]

If your wanting to go deeper in the wooded/clay area, maybe a middlebuster to loosen things up first, then the disc to break it up.

 

[RobJ]

Good idea, this black gumbo is pretty thick. I made this sort of subsoiler thing from some old tractor parts my uncle had, it works ok but it'll easiely stop the tractor if I get to deep. Little tractors have their limitations.

To give you another idea about this clay, we used a post hole digger to put in some poles for a camp cover, the auger would pull up quarter to half dollar size round balls of waste as it dug. Took about 15 minutes to drill about 3' with a couple men hanging on the thing. I can't wash it off my ATV's, I just wait until it dries, it'll shrink and fall off by the time I get but up to my place or fall off when I hit the first bump after it dries.

 

[scott_vt]

Mornin Rob,
Well it looks like your disc is doing what its supposed to do ! I cant get over the fact that I cant find any rocks in your pictures ! Looks like you did good for that price !

 

[RobJ]

Hey Scott,

According to my geology friends in the oil business, you can find solid rock about 1500-2000 feet down. About the only quasia rock we have is what we call iron-ore. Not sure if it's really iron though. Here is a big one we found that I think was dug up when someone built a pond years and years ago. I'm using it as a driveway marker. BTW, the little iron rocks plays havic when building ponds, you need to get it all our or the pond will leak around the rocks.

Rob

 

[jbrumberg]

I agree with Scotty. Where are the rocks ? Jay

 

[RobJ]

Here is a closeup of some of the smaller stuff, pea size. I took this picture when the temp dipped into the low 20's one morning this year. The stuff was heaving under the ice crystals. In some areas, if you dig up a shovel full of dirt (clay), shake out the fine clay, this is what you are left with. It does make wonderful road material!

Rob

 

[scott_vt]

I agree with Scotty. Where are the rocks ? Jay

Mornin Jay,
I think we should team together and send Rob some real rocks ! How much is shipping these days ?

 

[jbrumberg]

Scotty & RobJ

A picture of my latest garden tilling and lawn improvement rock products ! My garden utility cart is not road legal however .

 

[GDITheman]

Florida sand is like having a beach in the back yard. In Northern MI I have a finer sand mixed with some course sand mixed with field stone from 1/2" to 500 lb. It is not good for trying to grow anything, but I want to do the same thing next spring in hopes of making an area for a garden. I will need to bring in top soil to get anything to grow. The rocks will make it very difficult to get the weeds out of my area. You are lucky to not have rocks.

 

[RobJ]

Scotty & RobJ

A picture of my latest garden tilling and lawn improvement rock products ! My garden utility cart is not road legal however .

Do you find the rocks are always moving to the surface, or can you ever clean out a spot. It seems some of the fist size pieces of ore(rock, hard clay, whatever) are always showing up from nowhere.

 

[jbrumberg]

RobJ:

The picture of my rocks in the utility cart is what my tiller running shallow "discovered" when I worked approximately 700 square feet of lawn area around my garden area. It appears that I get a new crop of rocks with every spring thaw. I will add that after 22 years of tilling my garden I am still getting rocks, but to a lesser degree and usually small enough to leave in the garden. My tiller will still occasionally discover some pretty good sized rocks. Jay