Plowing new ground.

[Farmwithjunk]

Final installment for today.

You know what the coulter is and what it does. Now here's where it travels.

Hopefully pic #11 shows that it runs 3/8" to 5/8" to the left of the front edge of the shin. (To the right as viewed, we're looking back at the coulter) With coverboards like this plow has, the should set even further iin, maybe 3/4".

pic 12 and 13 show the landing crank that rotates the offset drawbar as needed. That's a big help when plowing hilly ground.

 

[Cliff_Johns]

That's a terrific explaination. Thanks you so much for taking the time to do it.

I love the pointer.

Cliff

 

[Farmwithjunk]

I love the pointer

Poor ol' county boys version of photoshop

 

[GreenMtns]

Glad your back with us. Flu can do an real job on you.

Great job identifying the various parts of a plow. Easy to see where the landing lever makes adjusting the draw bar much easier. I guess if you have one of the older Dearborn or Ferguson plows you just went with the setup that worked on flat land.

Al

 

[Farmwithjunk]

Glad your back with us. Flu can do an real job on you.

Great job identifying the various parts of a plow. Easy to see where the landing lever makes adjusting the draw bar much easier. I guess if you have one of the older Dearborn or Ferguson plows you just went with the setup that worked on flat land.

Al

I started coming down with symtoms a couple weeks back. Tried the "ignore it and it'll go away" aproach at first. $.05 worth of free advice......That doesn't work near as well as I thought. Ended up getting dehydrated. I can't do anything the easy way. Wife and kids grounded me for a week to add insult to injury. Oh well....

In an upcoming installment, I'll go into how and where to start adjusting the drawbar for your tractor and your plowing needs. Most plows have an adjustment that is moved via a bolt where mine uses the crank.

 

[Farmwithjunk]

OK, let's go a bit further into landslides, landing, and tailwheels. pic #1 will show the direction that the plow encounters its resistance.....the dirt it's about to roll over. pic #2 shows the line that the just recently non-moving dirt is being moved and deflected. That puts pressure against the moldbord, pushing to the "land" side. (unplowed ground) To counter that force, the plow has a flat side that runs against the furrow wall. That's pic #3.

A flat plate sliding against dirt isn't the most efficient way to reduce power required. A wheel with a roller bearing is a big help. pic #4, that tailwheel again.

Next we'll get in to making the plow follow on it's intended path, moving it right or left to get it there.

 

[Farmwithjunk]

Pic #1 will show the landing adjuster and the drawbar. As the crank is turned one way, the tail of the plow shifts to the left. The landslide is then pushed out against the furrow wall. That will drive the plow to the right, or towards the last furrow. Crank it the opposite direction, pressure is lessened on the landslide, and the plow digs in to the left, cutting a wider swath with the lead bottom. In some manuals, (Deere comes too mind) the landing adjustment is called "width of cut" adjustment. As a starting point, adjust the offset drawbar to where the furrow side is straight down.

Every brand of plow has their method for locating the drawbar in its proper location port or starboard. Pic #2 shows how Massey Ferguson suggests. The measurement is 6-3/4 for 12" bottoms, 5-3/4 for 14" (like we have here) and 4-3/4 for 16" bottoms. Measure from plow frame to inner-most point on 3-point lower link attach pin. (see pic #3)

With the plow on the tractors hitch, the inner edge of the front share should line up very close to in line with the inner sidewall of the furrow wheel of the tractor. pic #4

Massey gives a guideline value of 56" to 58" center to center of rear wheel track width. With common sized tires on most tractors, that SHOULD give you about 42" to 44" between rear wheels. That's not carved in stone, but needs to be reasonably close (pic #5)

 

[Farmwithjunk]

An add on thought to the last post. The tire width measurements reflect spacing for typical R-1 tire/wheel combos most often found on tractors. R-4 tire and wheel width change that thinking. In theory, the rear tire shouldn't be any wider than the plow bottom.

 

[RobS]

Very interesting. I'm still trying to mentally understand the offset drawbar thing. You said the crank swings the rear left and right, which I can see but wouldn't it also pivot the whole plow around the centerline (axis of tractor travel)? I thought that's how you compensated for that first furrrow?

Great pics, can't wait to see some shine on those surfaces!

 

[Farmwithjunk]

The change in the drawbar is a very minute thing. Maybe 2 or 3 degrees of rotation will make the tail end of the plow move quite a bit. The process of leveling the plow side to side is done with the "tilt" adjuster crank on the 3-point hitch itself. At some point, when winter starts to go away, we'll take the plow out in the field and make "hands on" adjustments. That will show the effects of changing adjustments.