Looking at ford plow...thoughts?

[taylor6400]

Thus far I have used a 6ft KK tiller for all my food plots. Looking at a ford 3 bottom. He says the model is 10-341. What do I need to watch for on this? Also what's the average price range I should be expecting? No experience researching plows. Thanks.

 

[Foodplot]

There is a Ford 3-bottom plow on our local CL for $285 in decent shape, but without the shiny rattlecan paint job. $250-350 at auctions in my part of KY. Shares and shins should be reasonably sharp, coulters should turn without excess wobbling, trip mechanism should work, though you probably won't be able to try that. Make sure there aren't any cracks in the frame.

 

[taylor6400]

This guys asking $300. Going to go check it out. He says it's in good shape

 

[Phillip w]

I sold a massey ferguson 2 bottom plow a while back for 150 dollars. That plow looks relatively new and not very beefy. I literally pulled a newer 1 bottom plow into the other day. I have another older massey ferguson plow, maybe 50 years old. With that plow the only concern is what kind of tractor you going to pull it with, it is pretty beefy. Which brings me to the next question. How big is you tractor. I would not even attempt pulling that plow in the picture without at least a 50-60 hp tractor minimum. That looks like a pretty decent plow, just a lot lighter frame than they made 50 years ago.

 

[Steave]

Everything appears to be there on the plow. Check the stuff foodplot mentions especially about any cracked beams. You can usually space out the coulters if they're not too bad and for the trip this one has shear bolts for protection. Looks to be in pretty good shape and $300 sounds like a fair price. Your JD will have it's hands full if turning new ground after the first year of turning then it'll do fine, simular to tilling. I used my brothers tiller after turning and it sure made it easy on the tiller and me.

 

[taylor6400]

Tractor is part of the reason I'm looking at plows. Just went from 43 horse CUT With industrials to a 55 horse jd 5055e with ag tires.

 

[Kirk-NJ]

Appears to be a 14" Manual trip. If you have a hard time pulling in your soil you could also unbolt the frame and drop one of the bottoms off, making it a two bottom plow. The shares appear to have some rust scaling which has been knocked off and cleaned and oiled but the valleys will cause cause a drag in the soil. This maybe good to nego the price and shares are available at a reasonable price if you need them. If you are in rocky soil I would suggest you make sure the trip operates properly. Most have been locked/rusted in place. Or sometimes replaced the shear pins with grade 8 bolts. In my rocky soil I carry a pocket full of grade 2 bolts for my manual trip plow and usually empty my pockets before I'm done plowing. The spring plow trip is a better option cause you don't have to get off the tractor to reset the bottom just back up and springs into place.

Kirk

 

[joeu235]

That plow would take at least 75 HP in our soil type, I think it will be a hard pull for you.

 

[Ford850]

It's a Ford 101 plow by the looks. I bought a 3 bottom 101 similar to that, and converted it to a 2 bottom so I could pull it in my soil. You can easily convert the 101's by removing the 2nd beam (and angled extensions) and moving the 3rd beam over in its place. That gives you a 2 bottom plow with the rolling landside intact. It also gives you some spare parts if needed.
Do a search for "101" in the title, and it will give you lots of Ford 101 plow threads.

 

[Phillip w]

I've pulled a 3 bottom place with a 730 John Deere (50-60) hp. You are right about soil type. My soil breaks and works pretty easy. I can tell with much certainty that in rocky- clay type soilthat 730 John Deere would be struggling. Another old trick with plows is to take a tube of multi-purpose gun grease and grease the plow mow-boards real good
This will keep them from rusting when plow is in use.