Subsoiler/Ripper Sizing for 30HP

[Tom_H]

I agree with kthompson; it depends on what kind of soil you have and how deep you want to go. Sandy loam that's been plowed within the last couple of years will be easy. A true hardpan that's never been touched will be difficult. For your clay, depends upon the current moisture content; dry and packed into fragipan or supersaturated into soup are the worst conditions. Several days after a medium rain or irrigation that leaves the stuff with a light touch of moisture inside it is ideal.

Other things that help are ballast on the rear axle, separate ballast on the plow itself, the correct angle of the ripper, diameter of rear tires (preferably ag tires), and gear ratio. Higher hp can be neutralized if trannie is HST and low range is not that low. Somewhat less hp can potentially be better if trannie is direct gear drive with a super low ratio pulling gear. Forward speed is sacrificed for the mechanical advantage of high torque. The tractor creeps forward slowly, but the ripping force is greatly magnified.

 

[Highbeam]

I use a 30HP HST tractor to pull a KK brand subsoiler through tight clay in the south puget sound area. Wow, I almost bought a 3130 too.

Just pulling the subsoiler through the ground will use almost all 30HP that I have and I run in low range. It is slow going and gets boring but the subsoiler does a fantastic job of drying out the tight clay and allowing drainage.

Trying to pull stumps with a middle buster is going to be hard on your equipment but pulling stumps is about the hardest thing you can do with your equipment nomatter what you do.

 

[AKfish]

How many stumps are you planning on digging up? How big are they?

I have a heavy-duty, single ripper subsoiler (24" depth) using a shank from a CAT 12 road grader. It will pivot (swing back/up) about 5" after breaking a single shear bolt.

I sharpend the leading edge of the shank to ease root cutting.. Nonetheless, pulling it thru stumps with my 33hp JD970 gear drive tractor - I snapped the top link and broke the "H" bracket on the 3pt top mount of the subsoiler --- Ouch!

Low range - 1st gear.

If you've got a bunch of stumps or they're pretty fair-sized; rent an excavator. Or a TLB.

The subsoiler on a 30hp tractor is great for most (not all) roots and hard clay-pan soil. But alot of stumps will lead you to some serious abuse of your tractor - IMO.

I've also got a LandPride scarifier (78") with about 9, 12"-16" shanks. That's what I now use for ripping most roots and packed soil.

Good luck.

AKfish

 

[DraftHorse]

When I had my L3130, I used a Gearmore single shank subsoiler on it. The unit is extremely well built. It has 2 depth settings, 15" and 19". It also has a shear bolt on it.

I needed to rip up a old pasture that was like rock and it worked great. My neighbor said there were 2 old posts that were in concrete. He removed the posts earlier and showed me were they were.

What he didn't know was the 10 other concrete blobs buried under the dirt.

Let it be said that 9 of the blobs poped right out of the ground with out an issue. The 10th poped the shear bolt. Upon digging around it with a shovel, we found that it was actually 3 blobs cemented together.

All I can say is I am definatly impressed with the Gearmore unit.

Peter

 

[botakix]

i have a fred cain subsoiler, single shank, i pull behind a L3130 and its a beast. my tractor pulls it pretty good and the subsoiler is really super well made. i got it last year for about 200 bucks.

 

[hondo964]

Da Bear was promoting King Kutter over Howse in terms of durability/heaviness and I have had the same experience thus far (which isn't very far)! That being said, King Kutter is planning on coming out with a combo subsoiler/middle buster. The estimate last summer was that it would be out later this year....fyi.

 

[schmism]

i have a 2 shank adjustable. I have used it as a single shank ripper to pull wire.

It brought me to a stop more than once fully buried (not pulling wire) but thats at 10" or so of depth. i figure i could pull both if it was only half as deep.

there is no way a 30 hp tractor is going to generate enough hp or traction to pull more than one at full 10" depth.

 

[macmiss]

I had a similar bad experience with a Howse middlebuster/subsoiler. I caught a root and bent the bracing on the frame badly with my L3400. I reinforced the bracing by welding in 2" thick wall steel tubing behind the backer plate. That solved the bending problem. The bending problem is not due to foreign steel, but to the poor frame design. You should never brace the vertical shank with a flat steel backer plate that provides almost no bending resistance. I also live close to the Laurel facility and had the same bad result with contacting them.