Help with Faulty Furrow Diagnosis

[Erik Graham]

Greetings;

I tried my hand at ploughing for the first time yesterday with decidedly mixed results. The first 2 furrows were okay (not the straightest) but on every pass after that, the sod from the second furrow would not completely flip over. The coulter slit the sod and I could see that the plough was actually lifting the sod and almost getting to flip, but not quite, and then it would fall back into the furrow a couple of feet back of the plough.

I did a lot of reading and watching of You Tube videos and did build a set of small ramps to raise the left side of the tractor but I cut too steep an angle on the ramps and the tractor just pushed them along the field. I tried to align the plough by eye without using the ramps, but I really couldn't tell how much adjustment was too much or too little. This is a pretty small field and I basically ran out of space with out figuring out what was out of adjustment on the plough.

I also wondered if my ground speed was too slow. After I finishing murdering the field I realized that I didn't have the 3pt in draft position, it was in position control for most of the exercise. Soil here is fairly light and was moist from a couple of days rain.

The plough is a 2-12 International and doesn't have a furrow wheel or guage wheel.

Any help/criticism gratefully appreciated. I have one other small field to plough and not a lot of room for more experiments.

Cheers, Erik

 

[aczlan]

Take a bigger bite. You aren't far enough over for the strip of sod to get tall enough to turn all of the way over.
This may require adjusting the offset of the plow and/or the stays on your 3 point hitch to move the plow to the left (in relation to your right rear tire as seen standing behind the tractor).
I ran into the same issue with our 3 bottom trailer plow the first time I used it.

Aaron Z

 

[gwdixon]

Check out the video on setting up an using a 2-bottom plow on Everything Attachments.

If the plow frame is running on the same plane as the ground (both front to rear and side to side) then you should be OK.

After the first pass the plow will have to be adjusted as the right wheels run in the furrow. The tractor will be tilted but the plow should run on the ground plane. The right lift arm has to be shortened to achieve this.

 

[nspec]

Yes, and the way to do that properly, is not with the stays or turnbuckles. On that plow, the drawbar that is connected to your two lift arms, will be offset. That is, one pin will be bent down, and the other bent up. If you loosen some bolts, that drawbar will rotate. You won't need to rotate it much - maybe 1/8 - 1/4 turn to start. This is what 'steers' the plow. Turning the drawbar angles the plow a little. You want to get the plow to steer left some and take that bigger bite. You don't want to force it into position with the turnbuckles or check chains on the lift arms. The plow should track straight all on its own. Forgive me - off the top of my head I can't remember which way to turn it to get it to steer left or right. Hopefully someone else chimes in. Generally, a good rule of thumb to follow is that the point on the front bottom should point towards the front left wheel of your tractor.

 

[nspec]

Looking from the back of the plow forward, the pin on the right should be angled down, and the one on the left is just the opposite - angled up. Rotating that drawbar towards the front of the tractor steers the plow to the left so it takes a bigger cut. 1/8 of a turn is about 1 inch more cut. That information is from the kind folks who worked for Mr. Ferguson.

 

[SandburRanch]

To plow the first furrow straight you pick out an object (not a grazing cow) to go to and never remove your eyes from it. If you look back at your plow or the girl next door your furrow will surely be crooked.

Your plow is dirty and hasn't scoured. Clean it with a sander and some 80 grit and then adjust it. The dirt is a little too wet but I wish I had some that color.:thumbsup:

 

[Egon]

You have my back sore just looking at the ploughed field.

 

[kthompson]

Hard to tell but did you lift you plow after the first run, (the first furrow looks deeper than the last picture) did you plow as deep? If not you may not be deep enough to have sufficient dirt to roll. As thick as the grass roots are will affect some and yes slow does not help, then you don't have plows with shear bolts or trips so go slow.

The angle of the plow and not knowing it may be way off here,but are you sure there is nothing missing from the plow such as shear for the bottom of the wing?

 

[tmajor]

I might agree with all ..?

It looks to me, like every other row didn't flip, however the first looked the best.

My conclusion: After the first row, when the right tire was in the furrow, your depth adjustment was based on the right plow, allowing the left furrow to be shallow. You should have brought the right side up, by the box leveler, and then dropped the whole plow deeper into the ground.

Usually, without re-setting the plow, on your first pass, the right furrow will be shallow. Then following that, when the tire is in the previous furrow, the plow will be more near level.

Also, are you familiar with "back furrow" and "dead furrow"?

 

[nspec]

Take a good look at those pics again. It's not the left (rear) share that's shallow. The right (forward) share is the shallow one. It really looks to me like it's just not taking a wide enough bite.

Don't get discouraged. Playing around with the adjustments on the plow is half the fun! I get off the tractor many times in the first few passes to tweak things. It really is an art - practice makes perfect.