How much weight can be added to disc

[paulsharvey]

Only made it about half way through posts; but; why not an older, larger disc; remove outside most disc, and pay less money, have a heavier duty frame, and the option to add the outsides back on?

 

[paulsharvey]

For smoothing; attach a heavy chain, mattress springs, log, or rail road rail behind on the last pass. Not trying to talk you out of spending money, but there are a Lot of old 8-9 ft discs around from back when people farmed 40 acres with a MF165, and the impliments outlived the owner.

 

[paulsharvey]

Another good option is a chisel plow, will break up some of the hard pan, and allow drainage; and can be followed with discs. Once again, we are dealing with a fairly low power machine, but you can remove some of the chisels, if your really bogging down.

 

[Lineman North Florida]

Whatever you decide on try to buy a set of disc's that are adjustable and are heavy built not the angle iron type, IMO they will serve you much better in the long run, I prefer to harrow a piece of dirt first with an offset disc with 26" disc blades and then give it a week or two and go back over it with a leveling disc with 22" disc with a 90+hp tractor, but I spent plenty of years with a 6' bush hog harrow that was heavy duty for it's size paired with a 35 hp tractor and going over the same piece of dirt a dozen times to get it into shape by cutting it one way then cross cutting across to help bust up the turf and it takes a lot of time. Turn plows can be had fairly cheap and are a really good option for flipping the turf and giving it several weeks to decompose and then harrow with your disc dragging a piece of railroad iron behind for a nice finish, we all have to start somewhere, good luck with whatever you choose.

 

[Jstpssng]

I read this entire thread and found it helpful as I am thinking about rebuilding my old Dearborn.

I wonder though, how many posters realize that the first 28 are two years old. Hopefully the OP has gotten his garden harrowed by now.

 

[jeff9366]

Amazon can be your friend with free shipping and all. Added 360 pounds to an angle iron disc harrow with 8ea. 45lb weight and two free weight wall hangers bolted to flat surface, center harrow (only 180 pound shown in pic). With free shipping, the cost was drastically reduced and weight can be adjusted as needed.

Harrow 560lbs as shipped, 360lbs weight added equals 46lbs per disc. Not optimal, but better than originally designed by KingKutter. Could probably add an another 90lbs to the stack(s) for 450lbs, but will see how this configuration works first.

Your angle iron Disk Harrow will never survive 300 hours with a 360 pound supplementary load.

Why did you not buy a 1,000+ pound box frame disk harrow to begin with? There are always used disk harrows for sale at farm auctions and online.


If I add 203 pounds of weight I'd have 47 pounds per disc equivalent to a much heavier DH2572.
I've seen the DH2572 on youtube and liked how much it rips into the ground. So with less disc adding weight with sandbags I'd have the same thing.

Without doing any research I can confidently say the DH2572 is a Box Frame disk harrow made with thicker steel and welded, rather than bolted together. A box frame is two triangles united with welds.
Angle iron frames are an open 'L' with much less stress / load bearing capacity.

Disc Harrow Selection For 18-45 Horsepower Tractors (Revision 2b)

Disc Harrows come in numerous types. However, for 18-45 horsepower tractors the three point hitch mounted, Tandem Disc Harrow, secondary tillage implement, is ubiquitous. Tandem Disc Harrows are manufactured in two structural types: Angle Iron Frame and Box Frame. Box Frame Disc Harrows are...

www.tractorbynet.com

 

[Streetcar]

Looking to purchase a L3901 with a DH1060 disc that's 548 pounds. According to the spec sheet that's 34 pounds per disc, 16 disc. If I add 203 pounds of weight I'd have 47 pounds per disc equivalent to a much heavier DH2572.
I've seen the DH2572 on youtube and liked how much it rips into the ground. So with less disc adding weight with sandbags I'd have the same thing.
So my question is can I add 200 pounds with sand bags on this without tearing anything up on the tractor 3 point or disc harrow?
My dealer told me I could go to a heavier disc that weighs 100 pounds more for $500 more, I'm not paying $500 for 100 pounds if I can add weight.
Am I thinking correctly? Thank you.
Looking to disc fallow field that was cow pasture to enhance native forbs and disc maintain switchgrass.

Do not use sand bags for weight, he movements of the disc will quickly destroy them

 

[Egon]

For virgin ground, it will take a bunch of passes with a compact tractor and a disc harrow. BUT, that is crazy to do when all you need it a single or double bottom plow to open that virgin land plot up. Then it makes sense to hit the area with the disc harrow about 2X, one in length of the bottom plow and the other perpendicular. This will make it super nice.

Compact tractors do get the job done, just not as fast. I love seeing those old 8N's going at it on the YT vids disc harrowing back in the day when NOTHING else was available to do it but a team of horses!

Just some examples making nice garden plots.
So first comes the bottom plow (shown with 8N)

After bottom plow comes the disc harrow 8N - would have been better done if in a lower gear. Not sure if the 3PT was lowered all the way. It tends too glide to high over the soil on the first pass. Top-link issue being too shortened maybe? Overall, it does turn out really nice.

AFTER the bottom plow, then comes the disc harrow. (shown with 2N) Yes, a 2N !
The tractor needs weight up front! and just a tad weight on the back would have made this much nicer.

Perfect example of a small tractor pulling a disc With little to no good results.

To use a disc properly takes HP. The two bottom rated tractors like shown were basically a waste of time when used for disking.

 

[Lineman North Florida]

I read this entire thread and found it helpful as I am thinking about rebuilding my old Dearborn.

I wonder though, how many posters realize that the first 28 are two years old. Hopefully the OP has gotten his garden harrowed by now.

I sure didn't, guess some of us should pay closer attention to the post dates, but by the replies maybe some good information can still be had.

 

[scootr]

Read this thread. I have an old Towner 7x8 wheeled smooth disc. This is a drawbar attachment. The iron wheels were originally manually adjustable. I put a hydraulic cylinder on the machine so I can control depth from the tractor. I can also raise the whole thing off the ground for moving over roads or very tight turning.
Last year I put a 55 gallon barrel on it so I can add water weight. The barrel has the potential weight of 500 pounds but it is infinitely variable by volume.
This cut the near virgin field with 5ft tall mustard stalks quite well with the barrel 2/3 full (333#) and made the M5200 really work when fully engaged.
I put a water barrel on my land plane too which was not engaging to my liking. adding weight improved both of these attachments.