I bought a disc plow without even knowing what it was.

[Piston]

I bought a bought a Brown rotary cutter from a friend of mine as I was looking for a heavy duty cutter for my tractor. Well, he said he also had a disc plow that he'd sell me for cheap money. I didn't know what it was for, and he just wanted to get rid of it, so I figured why not :laughing:

I don't have any fields to plow or food plots to plant or anything that I typically think of a plow being used for. Mostly what I do is woods work. Is there anything that I can use this plow for in the woods? Would it be useful for loosening soil that I'm trying to level or grade? Can it break up small roots and sapling stumps that I've mowed over with my mower?

I don't really know what to do with this thing but hoping I can use it for something, if nothing else it should make good ballast


(Pics in next post)

 

[Piston]

Here are some pics. Dow anyone have something like this or used one before?

Any idea who makes this? Ive never even heard of this, let alone seen one, before buying this.

 

[Turbys_1700]

We used to use them back in the day...
They work best if you have trashy or high weed areas to plow...

 

[jeff9366]

This link may help:

Agriculture TDP Disc Plows - Monroe Tufline

According to the Tufline brochure I picked up at the Sunbelt Ag Expo in October, their smallest disc plow, with 2 X 22" blades and a weight of 665 pounds, requires a minimum of 40 tractor horsepower.

According to the Tufline rep at the Ag Expo, disc plows are better than moldboard plows where the soil is full of roots and vines. Turning discs are less prone to hang up on underground obstructions than a moldboard plow design.

 

[gwdixon]

Ken Sweet, an advertiser here from Sweet Tractors, used to have a plow like that for his avatar. He has responded to inquiries about it so your questions may be answered by using a search here on TBN.

If you want to PM him about the plow his screen name is "sweettractors" (without the quote marks).

To me, those plows look like huge dirt anchors that would require a lot of HP to run as they cut trenches in the soil. But since I've never used one my opinion has to be considered with that knowledge.

 

[bullbreaker]

Heres thread on a round disc plow : http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/150259-disc-plow.html

Boone

 

[Gary Fowler]

We used to pull on just like that with an 8N Ford and later with an 861 Ford. They arent that hard to pull and I think easier than a 2 bottom plow. They are used mainly for rough ground with stumps, roots etc as they will just roll over them rather than tripping or shearing bolts and they do a good job of turning the soil over even at slow speed. They work really well in turning over winter cover crops like vetch as it doesnt hang up on the pans like it does on a plow.

 

[Farmerford]

I had the same experience as Turbys 1700 and Gary Fowler in south Georgia in the 1950's. We pulled a two disk plow with a John Deere 420 (25 -30 hp?) in red clay. We thought they took a bit less horsepower than the equivalent bottom (moldboard) plow and that they scoured better in sticky soil. But we ultimately replaced them with common bottom plows (I am not sure why; I was a teenager at the time and not paying much attention).

 

[Piston]

Thanks for the links and additional information. I have 45hp tractor but I'm concerned with my traction. My rears have seen better days I have a good amount of weight though so maybe I'll be okay. There are some areas that I want to loosen up to sift out some rocks and level off better, I'll give this a shot to see how it works. There isn't a whole lot of info on these so I assume they aren't too popular.

I also will have a lot of smaller stumps so it's good to know that it won't catch on those the way a standard plow may. Maybe one of these days I'll have enough land cleared to actually have a field to plow

 

[leveled]

how much did you pay for that it looks great.

 

[wcampbell47]

Your tractor should have plenty of traction especially if you use 4 wd. I used to pull two discs mounted on wheels attached to the drawbar with a lot lighter 2 wd tractor. I would think the 3 point model would roll over a stump pretty easily. That would be my choice for a breaking plow. Never thought much about a mouldboard.

 

[kneedeep]

That is a garden making plow there! :thumbsup:
It will flip the soil over and bury whatever is growing under neath a layer of dirt. Old timer that lived near me years ago had one for his 8N and made a huge garden every year, started off turning everything under. He made terraces to hold runoff on hills by plowing in both directions throwing up a 'levee' and with practice it will invert the soil completly.
Plows like that are hard to come by and someone would probably pay a fair price for it to turn soil. :moneybag:

 

[Piston]

how much did you pay for that it looks great.

I don't really know because it was all part of a 'deal' that a friend of mine worked out. I posted more about the price in this thread:
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/258488-brown-472-brush-cutter-max.html
Post #29

 

[Piston]

Your tractor should have plenty of traction especially if you use 4 wd. I used to pull two discs mounted on wheels attached to the drawbar with a lot lighter 2 wd tractor. I would think the 3 point model would roll over a stump pretty easily. That would be my choice for a breaking plow. Never thought much about a mouldboard.

Thanks for the info! That's good to know that I should have enough power/traction. I won't be able to try it out for at least a week or so, and after that, depends on what I'll be doing for Thanksgiving, but I'll find an area I can tear up and give it a test :thumbsup:

 

[crazyal]

I would love to hear how well it works for you. My soil is pretty rocky so I'm worried a tiller would be just a waste of time and a moldboard plow may have issues with the rocks, roots, and ledge around me. If you decide you don't need it let me know, I would be interested.

 

[Piston]

I would love to hear how well it works for you. My soil is pretty rocky so I'm worried a tiller would be just a waste of time and a moldboard plow may have issues with the rocks, roots, and ledge around me. If you decide you don't need it let me know, I would be interested.

Crazyal,
I can't imagine a disc plow would work any better than your Case 580 backhoe and 450 Dozer!
I could sure use a dozer on my land!

 

[Piston]

I would love to hear how well it works for you. My soil is pretty rocky so I'm worried a tiller would be just a waste of time and a moldboard plow may have issues with the rocks, roots, and ledge around me. If you decide you don't need it let me know, I would be interested.

Crazyal,
I can't imagine a disc plow would work any better than your Case 580 backhoe and 450 Dozer!
I could sure use a dozer on my land!

 

[crazyal]

I thought about just digging a foot down with the BH but thought it would be slow getting on and off to remove rocks and the dozer has a couple of leaks that may not help the garden grow. But most of all I have a 3 pt hitch and ag tires just begging to play in the dirt.

 

[duwem]

I built a smaller scale one from scratch for my garden tractor:

Works great in the right soil conditions. Hard soil it does not work.

 

[Piston]

Wow that is pretty impressive!

What did you use for paint? I'd like to have this sandblasted and prime and paint it, but I really have no idea what type of paint to use. I assume some sort of heavy duty epoxy paint or something?