Too much plow?

[mo1]

Well fellas I picked up a like brand new14" single button plow for my ground breaking . I'm pulling with my trusty ym226 . The problem is I am breaking virgin ground with a 5 inch sod and though the tractor will pull it about 2mph any little hickup such as a root will stall and rather than gut wrench the tractor I think a larger one is in order. The tractor does pretty well with it in worked ground. I am not wanting a large tractor to have to upsize implements. I'm thinking may be a 2600 ford are a more powerful compact with 4x4. Your thoughts please.

You shouldn't "gut wrench" the tractor if the plow is properly set up as this can damage the plow or your tractor. You should either cause the tractor's wheels to spin, the engine to die, or depending if your plow is a trip or shear pin plow, trip the trip or shear the pin.

If you want to be able to pull the plow faster, add fluid to your rear tires to get more traction. You are running out of traction if your wheels spin rather than killing the engine when the plow encounters more resistance. I also see you have no coulter on the plow, which makes it more difficult to plow up sod as the points and shins are being forced to do a lot more cutting of the soil than if you had a coulter. Howse does offer a coulter kit for their plows. A 26 HP tractor about the size of a Deere 2 series/Kubota B/LX series on ag tires should be fine to pull a single-bottom 14" plow. I wouldn't want to pull more than that with that tractor though.

 

[porkchop401]

Update , I fabricated a gage wheel so that all the tractor has to do is pull the plow in stead of floating the plow.
the difference is nothing short of amazing.

 

[Gee Ray]

Pictures would be nice.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

Sod and tillers are NOT a good combo, cause you cant get it mixed good enough. Gotta moldboard that stuff under for best results.

Jeeeze, I hope all the folks that hire me to break up and turn their sod down with my Howard tiller, don't read your post!! I'll go broke for sure!!

A couple of them sold their plows, because they say the Howard does such a great job.

SR

 

[bigtiller]

Jeeeze, I hope all the folks that hire me to break up and turn their sod down with my Howard tiller, don't read your post!! I'll go broke for sure!!

A couple of them sold their plows, because they say the Howard does such a great job.

SR

I'll be darned, some of my customers said the same thing.

 

[LD1]

Loading your tires is gonna be a big help.

Maybe post some better pics of your setup. You mention you rigged up a gauge wheel....that may be hurting you.

Plows mounted on the 3PH are designed to take some of the force of the plow suck and add downforce to the rear wheels. Back when ferguson designed the 3PH...he had this in mind. And its what allowed ~2500 pound tractors like the old N-series fords to pull 2-12's. AS the old literature went.....it said something to the effect of making the tractor pull with the traction of a much heavier tractor.

Setting up a plow is an art in itself. Alot easier with a single bottom though.

A 2000# tractor with AG tires shouldnt be struggling with a single 14 for the most part. If you are snagging roots and such that you cannot break through....thats expected. But in general the tractor shouldnt be struggling

 

[mo1]

Update , I fabricated a gage wheel so that all the tractor has to do is pull the plow in stead of floating the plow.
the difference is nothing short of amazing.

Please post pictures for what you did. There are a couple of ways to do wheels on a plow, one is to put wheels on it such as with a drawn plow and the other is to put a single tail wheel and turn it into a semi-mounted plow. It would be interesting to see what you did.