Farmwithjunk
Super Member
Building a plow from scratch might be the easiest thing you've ever done, or it might be an exersize in futility. Here's why.
There's a lot to settng up a plow to pull straight and easy. If you have a big heavy powerful tractor and a small plow, you can just "man-handle" it through most conditions. But if you have a plow that's sized to the tractor, and horsepower is minimal, they have to be set up just right, or you'll work yourself to death.
There's a thing called the DRAFT LINE. That's an imaginary line down the center of the tractor. You can only get so far from that with the center of pull exerted by the plow, or it will drag you side-ways. The plow has to be lined up on that draft line, then the rear tires moved in or out to run just clear of the inside bottom.
Now, LANDING a plow. SOme older 3-point plows had what is known as a landing lever. Some have a bolt adjuster to replace the lever. It adjusts what is refered to in most plow manuals as "width of cut". That's confusing at best. WHat it does is to adjust what direction (relative to the tractors centerline) the plow is pointed. Ever see a plow's drawbar? It has an offset in it from left to right. That serves a double purpose. One is to make the plow run level when the right wheel of the tractor is in the furrow from the previous pass. The other purpose is to make the plow move from side to side when the landing adjustment is made. Too much "width" and the point of the plow digs in too far, making it pull to the left. That pushes the front of the tractor to the right. Too much adjustment in the other direction, and the plow wants to run out of the ground to the furrow side. It also puts too much pressure on the landslides, making the plow pull like an anchor.
Then there's "up and down". The plow must run ALMOST dead level once in the ground. If not, it tends to climb out of the ground OR doesn't want to go IN the ground in the first place. That adjustment is made with the 3-point hitch top link. With proper 3-point hitch geometry, the plow will show a SLIGHT nose-down attitude just as it contacts the ground. That will help pull it in to the ground. As the plow drops to it's predetermined depth of cut, that hitch geometry SHOULD make the front to back attitude run almost dead level. There's where non-standard 3-point specs on some tractors will upset the balance of nature.
And when you adjust one axis, you alter the adjustment of the other somewhat. It takes a little tim to get everything in proper alignment.
Like anything, there's more to plowing than meets the eye.
With some plows, they need to be adjusted as the plow wears too. They'll startoff just fine, and in a few days of plowing, get to where they don't want to work right. The typical garden plow/food plot plow will never see enough use in a lifetime for this to come in to play though.
Finally, there's a good way to determine if a plow is set up correctly. You NEVER use sway bars or chains when plowing. It should be free to move from side to side as needed (When making slight turns...) A plow sould run cenetered on the tractor, with the three poin top link STRAIGHT BACK from the tractor. The plow should run almost effortlessly at a constant depth. And when the furrow wheel is in slight contact with the bank of thatfurrow, the leading plow bottom should be making a full width cut.
Do that and you'll have HAPPY PLOWING!
There's a lot to settng up a plow to pull straight and easy. If you have a big heavy powerful tractor and a small plow, you can just "man-handle" it through most conditions. But if you have a plow that's sized to the tractor, and horsepower is minimal, they have to be set up just right, or you'll work yourself to death.
There's a thing called the DRAFT LINE. That's an imaginary line down the center of the tractor. You can only get so far from that with the center of pull exerted by the plow, or it will drag you side-ways. The plow has to be lined up on that draft line, then the rear tires moved in or out to run just clear of the inside bottom.
Now, LANDING a plow. SOme older 3-point plows had what is known as a landing lever. Some have a bolt adjuster to replace the lever. It adjusts what is refered to in most plow manuals as "width of cut". That's confusing at best. WHat it does is to adjust what direction (relative to the tractors centerline) the plow is pointed. Ever see a plow's drawbar? It has an offset in it from left to right. That serves a double purpose. One is to make the plow run level when the right wheel of the tractor is in the furrow from the previous pass. The other purpose is to make the plow move from side to side when the landing adjustment is made. Too much "width" and the point of the plow digs in too far, making it pull to the left. That pushes the front of the tractor to the right. Too much adjustment in the other direction, and the plow wants to run out of the ground to the furrow side. It also puts too much pressure on the landslides, making the plow pull like an anchor.
Then there's "up and down". The plow must run ALMOST dead level once in the ground. If not, it tends to climb out of the ground OR doesn't want to go IN the ground in the first place. That adjustment is made with the 3-point hitch top link. With proper 3-point hitch geometry, the plow will show a SLIGHT nose-down attitude just as it contacts the ground. That will help pull it in to the ground. As the plow drops to it's predetermined depth of cut, that hitch geometry SHOULD make the front to back attitude run almost dead level. There's where non-standard 3-point specs on some tractors will upset the balance of nature.
And when you adjust one axis, you alter the adjustment of the other somewhat. It takes a little tim to get everything in proper alignment.
Like anything, there's more to plowing than meets the eye.
With some plows, they need to be adjusted as the plow wears too. They'll startoff just fine, and in a few days of plowing, get to where they don't want to work right. The typical garden plow/food plot plow will never see enough use in a lifetime for this to come in to play though.
Finally, there's a good way to determine if a plow is set up correctly. You NEVER use sway bars or chains when plowing. It should be free to move from side to side as needed (When making slight turns...) A plow sould run cenetered on the tractor, with the three poin top link STRAIGHT BACK from the tractor. The plow should run almost effortlessly at a constant depth. And when the furrow wheel is in slight contact with the bank of thatfurrow, the leading plow bottom should be making a full width cut.
Do that and you'll have HAPPY PLOWING!
