Matching Impletments to tractor

[nckennedy]

Hi Guys,
I am looking for a mounted JD plow to be pulled by a JD 5425 4X4 which is about 80 HP or 65 PTO HP. Looking at a JD 416 14" four bottom. Is that about the right size?. I will be plowing uphill also.
Any suggestions?
nckennedy

 

[cowski]

soil type and depth of plow has a lot to do with it.for my soil 3 bottom is what i would use. get it and try it in your soil it may work.you can always take a bottom off.spare parts.

 

[nckennedy]

Oh really!. Never though about taking off a plow. So you could remove the last plow?
I was orginally thinking of a 3 bottom 16". Our soil has a good bit of clay in it.
nckennedy

 

[cowski]

yes last plow. you also need a guage wheel.

 

[nckennedy]

Ok great. Thanks
nckennedy

 

[Verticaltrx]

We pull a JD model 1600 moldboard plow (3-16" bottoms) with a 2wd 2550 JD, which is 65PTO hp. It's the row crop variation and fully ballasted weighs about 10,000lbs, so it might be a little bit bigger than your tractor. It handles the plow well in most any condition, but breaking virgin ground, especially clay, really gives the tractor a workout. If you have proper ballast and 4wd I think a 3-16 would work fine for you.

One thing about JD plows, look for a plow with the new metric bottoms, which started sometime in the early 80's IIRC. They pull a lot easier than the early JD plows.

 

[Barry Bowen]

General rule for plow bottom size. You plow half as deep as the plow is wide. That is a 14" plow is only ment to plow 7" deep, 16" goes 8" deep.

Yes you can take a 4 bottom and make a 3 out of it no problem.

To do a 4 bottom though, maybe consider looking at a semi-mount plow. Once you learn how to run it, they do a much nicer job IMO.

 

[nckennedy]

Wow thats helpful. Does your 1600 plow have the metric bottoms?
We do not have ballast yet in the tires. I guess most folks use weights now. have to work on that.

Thanks so much,
nckennedy

 

[nckennedy]

Wow, never knew that about depth
so we will probably just go with 3 16 plow.
Thanks so much,
nckennedy

 

[Farmwithjunk]

The rule of thumb (1/2 the depth of plow width) is a starting point. Certain soil conditions will dictate actual depth. You can figure + or - 1" from that starting point in most cases. Some "newer" plows (ie , plows designed and built late 60's on) can be "deep draft" plows. I'm more familiar with Deere plows of that era. As an example, Deere "NU" 16" bottoms typically will do their best at depths of 9" to 10" in most soils.

IMHO. any plow with 4 or more bottoms and you're way ahead by using a semi-mounted plow. Fully mounted plows of 4 bottoms and larger are hard to keep consistent depth front to rear. As well, they require a BUNCH of extra front end weights. With what you're using as a tractor, based on what we use behind a 65hp tractor here, I'd stay with 3X16"'s. 4 bottoms would be a bit much in most cases. (I'm "old school" and speak mostly in terms of PTO hp....)

Deere 416A is what Deere referred to as a "light draft" plow. They were built for lighter tractors and NORMALLY were limited to 3 bottoms or less. You might find one where someone added a 4th bottom, but the truss frame of a 416A would be a bit light for a 4th bottom. I used a 415A (in 3 bottom config) for year to do the bulk of my plowing. A common complaint with that series of Deere plow is they don't have a lot of throat clearance. They do NOT like plowing in heavy crop residue (is corn stalks, weeds and grass sod, ect) I used my 415A, 3X14" plow behind a 61HP JD2440. It would cruise along at 5 to 5-1/2mph in all but the toughest of conditions.

 

[nckennedy]

Thanks so much. I have heard that complaint before about trash build up.
One guy is selling what he calles a "telphon" coated moldboard JD. Have you ever heard of that?
Is the JD1600 moldboard plow a newer version of the old 416A?
Thanks
nckennedy

 

[5030]

Thanks so much. I have heard that complaint before about trash build up.
One guy is selling what he calles a "telphon" coated moldboard JD. Have you ever heard of that?
Is the JD1600 moldboard plow a newer version of the old 416A?
Thanks
nckennedy

'teflon should last about one trip down a field...or less. I did, candidly, buy some 1/4" thick PTFE extruded sheet and lined the skid shoes on my hay mower and it's held up quite well and was much cheaper than the JD offered plastic.

It's not yellow however, it's white.......

 

[Verticaltrx]

Thanks so much. I have heard that complaint before about trash build up.
One guy is selling what he calles a "telphon" coated moldboard JD. Have you ever heard of that?
Is the JD1600 moldboard plow a newer version of the old 416A?
Thanks
nckennedy

The 1600 is completely different from any of the older JD plows, AFAIK it shares nothing in common with the 416. I don't recall exactly when they started making the 1600, but ours is an '85 model. It has spring reset bottoms (not just trip, they reset by themselves), and huge trash clearance. It'll plow 10-12" deep in moderate trash. It's a very heavy plow as well, it takes a full 1100lb set of suitcase weights to keep the front of the 2550 on the ground. We used to use it a lot for breaking land that had grown up in saplings and thickets, after bush hogging of course. I think the 1600 line was one of the last standard moldboard plows JD made. Sometime in the early 90's they went to a switch plow design.

 

[nckennedy]

Yea thats what I expected.
Thanks for the tip.
nckennedy

 

[Farmwithjunk]

Thanks so much. I have heard that complaint before about trash build up.
One guy is selling what he calles a "telphon" coated moldboard JD. Have you ever heard of that?
Is the JD1600 moldboard plow a newer version of the old 416A?
Thanks
nckennedy

416A had "HSS" bottoms. 1600 will have "NU" style. Different contour on the moldboards for starters...Quite a bit different. Biggest improvement was adding a LOT of trash clearance.

There is an all plastic moldboard available. Never used 'em around here...too many rocks.

 

[Verticaltrx]

Yea thats what I expected.
Thanks for the tip.
nckennedy

Another model to look for the the 1000. It is an economy version of the 1600, and uses a standard trip mechanism instead of the spring reset bottoms. Just looked and the 1600 and 1000 came out in '83, so neither is going to be very easy to find as the popularity of moldboard plowing was quickly decreasing around that time. Most moldboard plows you'll find will be from the 50's-70's.

 

[nckennedy]

Ok good know that,
thanks

 

[nckennedy]

Ok sounds like the 1000 would be a good fit for us, if we can find one.
Thanks

 

[nckennedy]

Oh I was just looking at my notes here. I guess i did see a 1000 online but it didn't have a guage wheel on the back. Is the guage wheel essential? can that be added later?

 

[downslope]

Wow thats helpful. Does your 1600 plow have the metric bottoms?
We do not have ballast yet in the tires. I guess most folks use weights now. have to work on that.

Thanks so much,
nckennedy

I would say you must use liquid ballast in the rears unless you have radials, otherwise the front end will be be stressed doing too much of the pulling. With radials on the rear you still might want to add a few bolt-on rear wheel weights. Just try pullling the plow with the FWD disengaged and no rear ballast and you'll see what I mean.

Besides traction in FWD another reason for weighting the front is that you don't want it bouncing while plowing. A 3-point plow will never work correctly and keep an even depth if the front end bounces.

You haven't said how many acres you will be plowing each year. There's no need to max out the tractor if you can get the job done in a reasonable time frame with a 3x16 of either JD, Oliver/Ford or IH.