Single bottom plow, breaking shear pins like it's my job

KB7722 · Mar 11, 2018

The OP had a plow that was useless to him either because it wasn't designed for the OPs task or the shear bolt was not designed correctly. The OP did what many farmers would have done. He took it back to the shop and used what he had so he could go to work. The plow is fine. If he had broken the plow what was he really out? It couldn't perform the task anyway. So he bends something; he has a welder. He can fix it. This talk of damaging the tractor is nonsense. As others have already said most of us have caught something that stahled or spun the wheels.

Props to the OP for getting the job done.

Overtaxed · Mar 11, 2018

KB7722 said:
The OP had a plow that was useless to him either because it wasn't designed for the OPs task or the shear bolt was not designed correctly. The OP did what many farmers would have done. He took it back to the shop and used what he had so he could go to work. The plow is fine. If he had broken the plow what was he really out? It couldn't perform the task anyway. So he bends something; he has a welder. He can fix it. This talk of damaging the tractor is nonsense. As others have already said most of us have caught something that stahled or spun the wheels.

Props to the OP for getting the job done.

Well, I went out in the rain for the last bit of plowing, crossing my fingers that the plow would take it (clay in the rain is a mess) and it did, like a champ.

Very happy with the results. It does look like the beam slipped a tiny bit on the 3pt (not sure how to explain it, I'll post it up here with pictures and some pictures of my "repair" when it stops raining) which I assume is because I'm putting more force on the plow and it moved a little bit. Might have to weld that too if the bolts are as tight as they can be.

That was where I was, if I broke it, so be it, I need a new plow. If I didn't break it, I was going to buy a new plow. So, as long as it doesn't break the tractor, or cause the tractor to flip and kill me, I'm not risking a whole lot here.

I guess my question really; yes, I'm running a single bottom on a big tractor. But, when I look at the EA 2 bottom plow, it looks like it has the same shear pin setup, so, I can't see any reason I'd have more luck with that, just break twice as many pins per hr on the tractor. So, who does this kind of setup work for? Sure, I guess if your running in an established field, no rocks, no roots, yeah, it would work fine, but, how many people are running single bottom plows in farm fields? I'd think that a huge percentage on these are sold for people breaking ground for a garden or something like that in virgin soil. And virgin soil is tough, has rocks/roots and is hard to break. So, then I started thinking, maybe it's made for a smaller tractor; which, of course, it is. But, honestly, the pin let go so fast on my tractor, I'd think that even a tractor 1/2 the weight and HP, you'd have to be really careful; it would break it pretty fast too (or at least, I'd think so).

IMHO, this is a case of lawyers getting in the way of sensible design, sure, the plow shouldn't flip your tractor over, but it also shouldn't break a pin when you let it get a sniff of the soil either. But, if you ran this on a small tractor (as it's designed for), and if it was a solid shank, yeah, you probably could really flip the tractor over if you hit something good. And to prevent that, I think EA puts a shear pin that's breaking at "10HP of pull" which someone calculated is the flip force for a subcompact tractor; nothing at all to do with "what will the steel take before it lets go". Anyway, that's my theory, and I'm sticking to it.

jeff9366 · Mar 11, 2018

Moldboard Plows are designed to be operated with the right front and right rear tires in a plow furrow. A furrow 8" deep produced by a 16" plow.

If you are scratching just one row I believe all four wheels must be on level ground.

Four wheels on level ground will stress the plow and plow shear bolt in ways for which it was not designed.

You are using a Category I plow. A Cat I plow is designed around 12" of tractor ground clearance. Your tractor has 15.7" of ground clearance.

Plows are very sensitive to "geometry".

LouNY · Mar 11, 2018

Overtaxed said:
Well, I went out in the rain for the last bit of plowing, crossing my fingers that the plow would take it (clay in the rain is a mess) and it did, like a champ. Very happy with the results. It does look like the beam slipped a tiny bit on the 3pt (not sure how to explain it, I'll post it up here with pictures and some pictures of my "repair" when it stops raining) which I assume is because I'm putting more force on the plow and it moved a little bit. Might have to weld that too if the bolts are as tight as they can be.

That was where I was, if I broke it, so be it, I need a new plow. If I didn't break it, I was going to buy a new plow. So, as long as it doesn't break the tractor, or cause the tractor to flip and kill me, I'm not risking a whole lot here.

I guess my question really; yes, I'm running a single bottom on a big tractor. But, when I look at the EA 2 bottom plow, it looks like it has the same shear pin setup, so, I can't see any reason I'd have more luck with that, just break twice as many pins per hr on the tractor. So, who does this kind of setup work for? Sure, I guess if your running in an established field, no rocks, no roots, yeah, it would work fine, but, how many people are running single bottom plows in farm fields? I'd think that a huge percentage on these are sold for people breaking ground for a garden or something like that in virgin soil. And virgin soil is tough, has rocks/roots and is hard to break. So, then I started thinking, maybe it's made for a smaller tractor; which, of course, it is. But, honestly, the pin let go so fast on my tractor, I'd think that even a tractor 1/2 the weight and HP, you'd have to be really careful; it would break it pretty fast too (or at least, I'd think so).

IMHO, this is a case of lawyers getting in the way of sensible design, sure, the plow shouldn't flip your tractor over, but it also shouldn't break a pin when you let it get a sniff of the soil either. But, if you ran this on a small tractor (as it's designed for), and if it was a solid shank, yeah, you probably could really flip the tractor over if you hit something good. And to prevent that, I think EA puts a shear pin that's breaking at "10HP of pull" which someone calculated is the flip force for a subcompact tractor; nothing at all to do with "what will the steel take before it lets go". Anyway, that's my theory, and I'm sticking to it.

You got your work done, that's good.
Your were not going to hurt your tractor.
A 3 point mounted tillage implement is not going to flip a tractor over unless you manage to fold up the toplink.
The only time I have had plows lighten and start to lift the front has been with semi mounted plows when they got hungup on ledges or in hard plowing,
full mounted sometimes will get a front end light when transporting.

EverythingAttachments · Mar 12, 2018

I saw this over the weekend and discussed it with Ted this morning.

When the plow is properly set up, with the exception of an underground rock or obstruction, the plow should work great with no issues.
The only time we've had reports of pins snapping, as in your case, is when the customer is trying to pull it too fast through the ground.
Virgin, difficult soil amplifies the need to take it slow.
Travis

bspeedy · Mar 12, 2018

I live in the same area of the country as the OP. My soil looks just like his. I had the same issue with a 30hp tractor and a 2-12 plow. Shear pin after shear pin. Dad suggested a hard bolt. I was hesitant due to risks to the plow and tractor. It was comical because every time we discussed it, his only input was 'hard bolt'. Nothing else to say. I finally listened and put a grade 8 bolt in for both shear pins. Like the OP, it made all the difference. Nothing was damaged and the plowing went 10x faster. Maybe it's a red clay thing, but there is NO WAY a soft bolt would last in this stuff.

Overtaxed · Mar 12, 2018

First off, hats off EA, not only did they post here, but they also followed up by e-mail! I'll be posting pictures of the tractor/plow setup in a bit, it finally stopped raining so I can get out there and see if my plow geometry is way off (which is very well may be).

Kind of laughing at the "hard bolt" response. I can picture asking my neighbor and him providing that as his only input, put exactly that way. No explanation of torque/possible breakage/HP to tine length. Nope, none of that, just "here's what'll work, using the least number of words possible". "Hard bolt". Or, in my case, "weld it".

Yeah, the red clay is rough/nasty stuff to plow. But EA is in this area, and I've seen them plowing red clay with this plow, so, I think it should have taken that. In my case, I think it was a combo of virgin soil (rocks, tree roots, etc), red clay (high load to begin with) and a big tractor that wasn't gonna even slow down if a plow that size hits something underground. To give an idea of how overpowered I was on this plow, the shear pin blew out with less of a "nudge" than I feel in the tractor when backing into an implement to hook up. Now, I'm sure I was hitting harder and the pin just relieved the stress, but it was a "bump" for my tractor, not at all a "stopping short" event, more like "my bush hog just jumped a stump" (another way to describe the butt in seat feel when I broke a pin).