First time with Disc Harrow

tony123 · Sep 20, 2007

Borrowed my neighbors disc harrow this evening. It was a bit oversized for my tractor, but I managed to wrestle with it.

Owning a tractor continues to amaze me. I broke up the ground on about 500 ft x 10' along my driveway and did it in about a half hour.

Tomorrow we'll put our fescue seed out and borrow the neighbors chain harrow to drag over the seed. Then we're done.

I'll post some photos of the finished product.

What would I have paid for someone to come out and seed this same area? a few hundred bucks? This tractor will pay for itself in about 2 years the way I figure.

I know some of this is boring stuff for you old timers, but for a newbie, I'm amazed every time I get a project done.

scott_vt · Sep 20, 2007

Good Evenin Tony,
Very nice ! Looks like you got the hang of it allready !

Enjoy, its fun watchin someone else havin fun too !

tony123 · Sep 21, 2007

Scotty, Thanks man. I'm sure there are more technical uses for the harrow, but this wasn't too tough to get the hang of.

One neat thing that I played with for the first time was individual brakes. I'd lock one side to swing the tractor around sharper. It was out of necessity, as the front wheels weren't doing that great of a turning job with all the weight out back. I've got to add some weight on the front.

MrJimi · Sep 21, 2007

Whatever you do, DO NOT back up with it in the ground, lots of stuff will bend and break
I was told before I learned the hard way

scott_vt · Sep 21, 2007

tony123 said:
One neat thing that I played with for the first time was individual brakes. I'd lock one side to swing the tractor around sharper. It was out of necessity, as the front wheels weren't doing that great of a turning job with all the weight out back.

Mornin Tony,
Funny you mention the brakes ! When I restored my 1949 Farmall Super A the right brake was shot and the actual brake lever bore was completely worn out from making sharp right hand turns probablly while sickle mowing, I ended up rebushing the tight brake lever !

BTW nice place youve got down there !

tony123 · Sep 21, 2007

MrJimi said:
Whatever you do, DO NOT back up with it in the ground, lots of stuff will bend and break
I was told before I learned the hard way

Thanks for the tip. My neighbor gave me a quick crash course in how to use it, but didn't say a thing about backing up. It did cross my mind that it might be a problem, so I didn't do it.

Scott, This was the first time I used the brakes separately, and noticed the left brake pedal falls about 2" lower than the right. They both work well though. Maybe an adjustment? I don't even know, are these drums and pads? I don't see a drum. Is it internal?

MrJimi · Sep 21, 2007

I mounted mine on the front of my skid steer and I thought I could go both ways NO WAY
be careful and it will last a long time, I have a TSC six and a half foot with 20 discs and they are 18/20 in size, I love it and the price I paid for it used and not abused, it just needs painting and it will get painted real soon

scott_vt · Sep 21, 2007

tony123 said:
Scott, This was the first time I used the brakes separately, and noticed the left brake pedal falls about 2" lower than the right. They both work well though. Maybe an adjustment? I don't even know, are these drums and pads? I don't see a drum. Is it internal?

Mornin Tony,
Probablly just an adjustment although Im not familiar with your tractor. On my Super A the brakes are a major job to change, you need to remove the final drives, trust me its a pain !

flusher · Sep 21, 2007

scott_vt said:
Mornin Tony,
Probablly just an adjustment although Im not familiar with your tractor. On my Super A the brakes are a major job to change, you need to remove the final drives, trust me its a pain !

Your Super A is a neato machine. You really restored it nicely. Never noticed the rear portal axles before.

tony123 · Sep 21, 2007

Beautiful Scotty! Love the house too. Around here, everyones scared to go with red on a house, but it looks fantastic.

I hope the brakes are an adjusment. Will look closer this weekend.

RobT · Sep 21, 2007

Tony,

Looks good! Did you have add any weight to the disc? If so, how much?

RobT

Glowplug · Sep 21, 2007

That's some good disc work. Makes me want one more.
I love that Farmall SuperA. Makes me drool all over my keyboard.

tony123 · Sep 22, 2007

RobT said:
Tony,

Looks good! Did you have add any weight to the disc? If so, how much?

RobT

Thanks Rob and Glowplug. You can see from the wooden box on the harrow, that my neighbor usually has four concrete blocks on it for weight. It would have been too much for my tractor though, so we removed them. I was still impressed with the bite it was getting, and this was hard clay soil.

If anything, I needed weight in the front. It was comical at one point when going uphill, I had about 5% of my steering ability and had to use rear brakes to guide me.

I put out the seed this evening, and pulled the chain harrow. It went real well. I'll post some photos tomorrow. Now all I need is mother natures help.

tony123 · Sep 22, 2007

Here's a photo of the chain harrow. Neat tool.

And here's the finished product. Still some lumps to handpick out, but not bad considering the quality of the dirt.

Everyone do the rain dance!

Rowdius · Sep 22, 2007

Good Stuff! I love watching people get stuff done with their tractors, just not as much as I love to play... err... work myself!

Any special reason you have the tread reversed on your rear tires?

milkman · Sep 22, 2007

That'll look good once you get a shower and the grass gets started, I too was wondering why you have your rear tires on backward.

thunderworks · Sep 22, 2007

When we seed bare ground in Kansas I was taught to fertilize at the same time I seeded, and also to add a cover crop of annual rye or wheat to give the new grass some cover. You might check with "locals" so see if it's the same in your neck of the woods.

tony123 · Sep 22, 2007

ALRIGHT ALREADY! Every time I post a photo I get the tire comments. I just got back in from the garage and have swapped them.

I flipped them over for added width, but couldn't swap sides until I got my jack stands. Got it done now.

Really, thanks for pointing it out.

Thunderworks, it was recommended that I add about 25% winter rye, which I did.

Question: I have leftover seed. Will it be usable next year? or should I just find a place to put it down?

Rowdius · Sep 23, 2007

thunderworks said:
When we seed bare ground in Kansas I was taught to fertilize at the same time I seeded, and also to add a cover crop of annual rye or wheat to give the new grass some cover. You might check with "locals" so see if it's the same in your neck of the woods.

Personally, I fertilize and seed the same time, but make two passes, one to fertilize, then a second to seed. I found that the fertilizer(sp) and the seed together made me end up with uneven results, due to the different sizes of the two.

daTeacha · Sep 24, 2007

Oats are commonly used around here as a fast germinating seed to protect the soil while the slower stuff is busy thinking about growing. They'll die out in a year. Annual rye is used for the same thing if you don't want rye grass in the lawn when all is said and done. Be aware there is also perennial ryegrass out there, too. It all depends on what you want of the lawn in that area.