What to look for in a disk harrow?

[georgia jeff]

I don't eat the liver anyways, nasty! I disked a 1/4 acre today with my father in laws 42 inch disc harrow. It tore up the ground just fine. keep in mind however, I had planted an early season plot in this same spot about 2 months ago. I think that a 5 foot would be about perfect. My brother has one that I can hook up to the tractor. I just need to borrow a trailer and haul the tractor down there some time soon.
What difference does the diameter of the discs make? Why does the front blades on all disc shoot the soil out to the edges and the rear disc pull the dirt back in. This seems to be backwards to me.

Focus guys. Any info on the disc diameter or direction mentioned above?

 

[georgia jeff]

It sounds to me like a tiller would be a better tool for your application, especially because you have turf tires. A tiller does not require a great deal of traction to get the job done. In my opinion the 3-point disc is the most over-rated piece of food-plot equipment there is. Almost anyone working smaller acreage such as yourself would be better served by a tiller, while anyone with larger acreage is better served by a pull-type disc. The pull-types require less weigt per disc to cut better because all sections maintain better ground contact. The tiller or pull-type disc will often get the job done using half or less fuel than would be required if using a 3-point disc. Because any tractor can pull a wider pull-type than 3 point, and because the soil will be worked better on each pass with the pull type which has equal weight per disc, less passes are required. That is where the fuel is saved. The narrower 3-point requires more fuel because some sections work the soil much deeper than necessary, while other sections are completely out of contact with the ground due to the disc's ridgid frame. Many folks who have none or limited experience with pull-type discs are completely unaware of this fact. I dont see fuel getting much cheaper in the future so this is something folks should consider while shopping for tillage equipment.

how fast can you drive while using a tiller? Could I use it to till up an area with grass about 12-18 inches tall or would I need to mow it first? If I could use a tiller instead of having to mow 5 weeks in advance and then weed kill the area a month in advance then a tiller would look more attractive.

 

[peter_vii]

how fast can you drive while using a tiller? Could I use it to till up an area with grass about 12-18 inches tall or would I need to mow it first? If I could use a tiller instead of having to mow 5 weeks in advance and then weed kill the area a month in advance then a tiller would look more attractive.

The slower the better. 1-2mph is what I usually use.

I would cut the grass first. Better yet, plow it, disc it then till it. But you can get away with tilling only. Just don't expect miracles. The tiller will work your soil to 4 inches, maybe 5. Not really good for root vegetables: carrots, garlic, beats or potatoes.

For garden, food lots work, I'd recommend you get at least a tiller and a bottom plow.

Peter

 

[clemsonfor]

Focus guys. Any info on the disc diameter or direction mentioned above?

Bigger disks will go deeper as well as be heavier. My 16" disks will only go 6-7 inches at most probably. Take have the diameter so your at 8inches and then there is the axle and bearings that are atleas another 1-1.5 inches down from the center. So basically at about 6 inches in the ground my axle of the disk harrow is dragging through the top of the dirt creating a lot of drag. On my 2nd or 3rd pass (depending on moisture) i have to lift up a little to control the depth of it as the axles will start pulling dirt along with them and causing my tires to spin out or stall the engine at lower rpm. So the larger the disks the deeper you can work, but usually on 5ft disks you will not find bigger than an 18" disk and then the larger ones cause more resistance so 16 16" disks would pull easier than 16 18" disks. Make sense.

I would not use a tiller for something you will shoot deer over. Its overkill and its no fun running a tiller as its slow. The good thing though about a tiller is if you go slow enough you dont have to wait for rain as it turns GA clay to powder, bad thing is you wont touch a decent used tiller for $600, what you can buy a new disk for.

 

[clemsonfor]

Here is my tractor and my disk that i bought. It is a 12 disk harrow with 16" disks LMC brand. The ground in the fore ground is not really gone over more than oce, it is at the edge of my food plot and not really where i wanted to disk so it is the point which i raised the disk. The point behind the tractor the dirt is turned over better. I am disking in seed now, which is why there is nothing but those flat stoc pieces on the top, they only weigh about 20lbs a piece, the other weights lighten the front to much to hold the disk up for light passes. The blue/white thing is a bucket type container i put my turnip seed in to throw out.

 

[georgia jeff]

Bigger disks will go deeper as well as be heavier. My 16" disks will only go 6-7 inches at most probably. Take have the diameter so your at 8inches and then there is the axle and bearings that are atleas another 1-1.5 inches down from the center. So basically at about 6 inches in the ground my axle of the disk harrow is dragging through the top of the dirt creating a lot of drag. On my 2nd or 3rd pass (depending on moisture) i have to lift up a little to control the depth of it as the axles will start pulling dirt along with them and causing my tires to spin out or stall the engine at lower rpm. So the larger the disks the deeper you can work, but usually on 5ft disks you will not find bigger than an 18" disk and then the larger ones cause more resistance so 16 16" disks would pull easier than 16 18" disks. Make sense.

I would not use a tiller for something you will shoot deer over. Its overkill and its no fun running a tiller as its slow. The good thing though about a tiller is if you go slow enough you dont have to wait for rain as it turns GA clay to powder, bad thing is you wont touch a decent used tiller for $600, what you can buy a new disk for.

Thanks clemsonfor, thats a good explanation and you seem to understand my situation better than most people. The tiller would come in handy planting the little garden that I plant. I would also like its ability to till right up to the edge of the woods. However, going only 1-2 mph would really suck and would take longer. There are a few auctions coming up soon, I will have to try to check them out.