Let’s Go Plowing—rolling Dirt!

[Achto 27,565]

A good way to set your plow.. On a hard level surface, park your tractor with a bout a 5 to 6" block under the left rear wheel. Lower your plow down and adjust it until the land slide sits flat on the ground. This adjustment will get you pretty close, from there you can make minor adjustments as needed.

[19richie66 17,500]

Keep giving out pointers guys.... I’m gettin’ schooled.   Not that I have anything to plow at the moment but hopefully soon I’ll have some dirt to play in.

[Pullstart 62,834]

I’ll reset it on blocks again, once I get the new fuel line run.  It’s undergoing some surgery for Improvements for the time being!

[Pullstart 62,834]

I’ll stick the coulter wheel on the plow too, maybe find some weight to strap to the back of the plow too!

[WHX?? 48,814]

2 hours ago, Achto said:

A good way to set your plow..is to just bring it to WHX plow daze and yer bros will do it for you!

 

1 hour ago, 19richie66 said:

hopefully soon I’ll have something other than a dirty mind to play in

1 hour ago, 19richie66 said:

I’m gettin’ schooled

 

Buy em books send em to school and all they wanna do is rip out the pages and eat the ..... I'll let Dan finish!

1 hour ago, pullstart said:

some weight to strap to the back of the plow

Weights will only screw up things worst and dig too deep and you WILL run out of traction. You shouldn't need any with the right setup. In fact the heavy hitters run what's called a land wheel to keep it from digging. In fact lighter is better when your lift lever goes by the name of Manuel. 

 

   Tom @Shynon or Mike @prondzy run adjustable land wheels for their type of soil over in MN. Generally not needed in my sandy soil but get over by Josh's place and they might come in handy in clay.  Got a picture for the  fellas?

Edited August 12, 2019 by WHX24

[Achto 27,565]

17 minutes ago, WHX24 said:

1 hour ago, 19richie66 said:

 

Buy em books send em to school and all they wanna do is rip out the pages and eat the ..

 

Teacher. Would be the correct ending to that statement. 😀

[Stormin 9,981]

4 hours ago, Achto said:

A good way to set your plow.. On a hard level surface, park your tractor with a bout a 5 to 6" block under the left rear wheel. Lower your plow down and adjust it until the land slide sits flat on the ground. This adjustment will get you pretty close, from there you can make minor adjustments as needed.

 

  Another way if you have a lift, put the tractor on that with the plough/plow attached. Get a nice straight plank, lie it on the lift under the tractor and along side the plough/plow.  Lower the plough/plow and measure from bottom of plank to bottom of land slide. 5" - 6". Make sure the land slide is horizontal to the plank.

[Shynon 7,459]

5 hours ago, Achto said:

On a hard level surface, park your tractor

Set the plow on the ground and set it with about 1" space under the tail end of the landslide. This will get you started. Make minor adjustments from there. That's how I do it, I think the Brinly manual also states it that way.

[Stormin 9,981]

As the saying goes..... There's more than one way to skin a cat.

[Pullstart 62,834]

So...  assuming 100-200 lbs of wheel weights added, which tire would be more desirable for plowing?  Your cheap Deestone v-bars, or some worn McReary otr style?  The only reason I’d think the old tires might be able to bite more is the greater distance between treads... but that’s why I ask.

 

 

[Stormin 9,981]

100-200lb of weights! I've only 106 on the Black Horse. 53 each side. Pulls fine. Tyres? I'd use the Deestones.

 

[Achto 27,565]

On ‎9‎/‎8‎/‎2019 at 5:23 PM, pullstart said:

 Your cheap Deestone v-bars, or some worn McReary otr style?  The only reason I’d think the old tires might be able to bite more is the greater distance between treads... but that’s why I ask.

 

I like Carlisle True Powers for plowing. I have not heard of any complaints about the Deestones other than the fact that they run under size, (a 10.50 being more of a 9.50 in width). I've been told that the ultimate plow tire is the Firestone's with the 23 degree pitch on the lugs, these tires are a bit spendy though.

 

Your older tires would be good for competition pulling as the rubber compound has had a chance to harden, a trait that is sought after in pulling tires. I think that they may also work well for plowing.

 

Any ag tire will still be better than a turf tire when it comes to pulling ground engaging tools. 

[Pullstart 62,834]

What is ideal for air pressure, or is that not so important as weight?  Is a flat contact patch like tires in the sand a good idea, or more air for more pounds per square inch of contact?

 

Here is Putt Putt for example.  The tires appear to have about 1/3 of the tread on the hard ground.

 

 

[PeacemakerJack 10,738]

I finally made it back from the other side of the world!  Loved visiting Kiev but I’m very thankful to be home in my little town.  5 million people is a little crowded for me...

 

Kevin—I would say that you’ll have to play with the air pressure a little.  I usually have my rear tires at about 8lbs.  Depending on how much weight you run, average air pressure is sufficient.  I welcome competing ideas but unlike drag racing and serious GT pulling, I don’t think that it is as important in plowing.  Remember—you aren’t sitting flat like Putt-Putt is in the above pic when you are in the furrows.  If you place the left front and back tires on 5” blocks, it will give you a more accurate contact patch.

see the “moisture ring” on the right half of dad’s right tire.  Kinda gives you that concept...

[PeacemakerJack 10,738]

We haven’t talked much about night plowing in this thread because there is rarely a case where you can or could do it.  However, if you get the opportunity to try it, it is really fun and a unique experience. It traces it roots back to the farming days with the full size tractors and plows. Often farmers are “under the gun” to get the crops in and turn the earth before the weather gets really bad—here in the north anyway. So, often plowing got/ gets done at night.  Unless you are plowing in a line of guys that have lights or it is a really bright moonlit night, you will want to have headlights and it is a good idea to have a rear light to keep an eye on what is going on with your plow. 

I really like this small LED light that I have on GhostRider.  It does a good job but doesn’t take much energy to operate and is small, so it fits in a tight space.

Your other senses tend to be stronger in night plowing because you can’t see as well.  I have always felt personally that plowing after sunset is an even more visceral experience.  If you get an opportunity to give it a try, I say that you should go for it!

[PeacemakerJack 10,738]

“Take out the papers and the trash or you don’t get no spending cash...yakety yak...”

 

Lets take a few moments to talk about dealing with trash in a field or garden as it pertains to plowing.  We ran into a pretty severe case of field trash at Jim’s last weekend and I feel it is important to discuss here the pros and cons to dealing with it.  

 

First, if you are plowing your average 20’x40’ garden, this really is a non factor. At the end of the season, I recommend taking your lawn mower and making a full height pass over the stalks and debris, maybe a couple of passes if it is pretty bad and then plow it under-no problem. 

 

However, if you are attending a plow day that you don’t have control over field conditions, excess trash is something that you need to be prepared for and have a plan to deal with it.  

 

WHAT IS TRASH? For this purpose, it is the residue left in the field after the crop has been harvested or in Jim’s case, the field has been left for awhile and it has overgrown with weeds, grasses, etc.  I’m very thankful that Jim and Dan cut down that mess the week before or we really would’ve had a problem. When a field is combined, the trash is kicked out the back and the corn, beans, wheat, etc is retained in the hopper of the machine.  Grain trash, typically called straw is harvested for livestock bedding.  Corn and soybean trash poses more of a problem.  I have heard of some uses for it but most of the time it needs to be dealt with.  The worst trash I’ve personally dealt with was a plow day I attended in Iowa back in 2015.  They had bean trash that wasn’t chopped and it was so stringy that it caught on everything and balled up.  It would catch up the tractor, collecting until it was such a large mound that it was lifting tractors off the ground! Talk about traction issues!!!

 

How to deal with trash: I have a land wheel on my Punisher plow.  My dad has a land wheel on his PP-10HD.  Both have traditionally worked excellent in a variety of conditions. But we both found them to be problematic at Jim’s with the heavy trash in the field.  In those conditions, the most streamlined plow with the highest clearance seemed to do the best. I run a serrated Coulter on the Punisher which not only slices the soil but also chops and pitches the trash and does a great job at it. However, I was catching so much trash with my L-shaped land wheel bracket and the Coulter was then stuffing more into it that for the first time I took the Coulter out of commission...

 

This pics were taken coming of the north headland or the lowest, wettest spot of the field.  It was a heavier grass based trash with mucky soil and it made for an interesting mess.

the Punisher weighs about 150# raw and with all that probably another 50#! Glad the electric lift held up.  Since I couldn’t take off my land wheel (which was the real culprit) I removed the Coulter.  It helped but if I could’ve removed the land wheel and kept the serrated Coulter I think the results would’ve been even better. I really like the design that @wheelhorseman Lowell has for a land wheel. I hope he and @Shynon chime in here with pics and a description of his design.  It worked very well and they had far fewer stops to kick out the trash than Dad and I had.  

 

Another curious point to ponder about the coulter placement...on a properly set up full size tractor plow, it is generally recommended that the coulter run about 1” off the main beam of the moldboard towards the land side. This placement aids the cutting operation of the coulter, keeps it further from the moldboard, and in my experience gives much needed space to help keep trash from building up.  

 

Thankfully Jim’s soil is sandy and so the trash just was more of a nuisance than anything.  If that soil would have been sticky, I think it would have shut our whole operation down.  

 

Looking forward to complementing or competing thoughts regarding “taking out the trash”!

[C-101plowerpower 1,605]

the first few plowing matches i attended i was running it like this with instead of a coulter another little shear that often runs agains a coulter to throw the trash in the plowed soil. 

im also not running a convensional coulter as someone somewhere welded a blade on the shear that works pretty good as a coulter. 

i eventually removed the little shear since it gave me nothing but trouble with trash and stalks getting hung up on it, however, it did mean i didnt have any stalks sticking up in my plowed patch because all of em got dragged to the end of the field. which gave me some bonus points in the match because no visible stalks

 

[Jerry.Guzzi 6]

On 9/3/2018 at 2:19 PM, Daron1965 said:

Awesome post,  I'm going to grab a coffee and sit back and enjoy this. 

I'm starting to think I've bitten more then I can chew for my age, but I'll enjoy watching you. We don't have dirt in northern Arkansas like we had in northern Ohio. Thank you fellas for the show.

[WVHillbilly520H 10,373]

@PeacemakerJack @WHX24 @pullstart... This is rolling coal and sod ... 

Josh I know this ain't right by any bit... But us being CC ,diesel , and plowing fans it has to be seen (BTW my boy WV sent it to me is how I come by it) Enjoy.

Edited December 17, 2019 by WVHillbilly520H

[Pullstart 62,834]

50 minutes ago, WVHillbilly520H said:

@PeacemakerJack @WHX24 @pullstart... This is rolling coal and sod ... 

Josh I know this ain't right by any bit... But us being CC ,diesel , and plowing fans it has to be seen (BTW my boy WV sent it to me is how I come by it) Enjoy.

 

 

Just because it ain’t right, don’t mean we can’t be entertained a bit!

[19richie66 17,500]

Just because it ain’t right, doesn’t mean it ain’t fun either 

[Greentored 3,201]

Alright fellas, @PeacemakerJack sent me to this thread and said to post up, so here goes. Spent a lot of time on farms while growing up but never set up a plow in my life, let alone yanked one through the dirt, so to say Im a plow virgin would be more than accurate.

I recently bought a house on an acre of land, and the builder had a garden where he planted beans until his passing about 7 years ago.  First thing I needed was a tractor, so I grabbed up a 520H locally and went through it, then went on the hunt for attachments.

We are a couple months from needing to break ground but I had to see how this thing would pull the 10" Brinly I found. I read the manual online, hooked up and went for it. Did it pull? Oh hell yeah, I couldnt even make that big Onan grunt. I had no traction issues whatsoever with a pair of SunF G003 ATV tires, loaded with 7 gallons each washer fluid, and 2 gallons each in the fronts. (For now, this is my one 'do it all' tractor, so I went a bit conservative on tires for lawn mowing).

The job got done and actually doesnt look TOO bad, and will likely get plowed again, correctly, before putting the disc to it in another couple months- I made plenty of mistakes. 

 I need to adjust the plow so the furrows are 'tighter'...there were some gaps. Im told to leave the plow 'loose', no stabilizer bolts drawn up to it, correct? The plow appears to be for a 3/4" pin, yet the hitch and pin are 5/8". Theres plenty of 'flop' from the plow in all directions. Should I weld up or bush the holes so the pin fits correctly in all?

The hitch is a real PITA- in order to get enough depth, I had the share point about scraping the ground at full lift. Peacemaker Jack and I talked about this on another thread- I may bypass the rock shaft with a new direct cable and see what happens.

Ground speed needs to be higher to roll the sod better- I was attempting to slow the job down before I ended up turning the entire property, too much fun!

Id like to bury this thing further into the ground. Had it adjusted to where the landslide was at least 2" off the ground with the share point touching and still felt it should be digging deeper. If I am correct, the plow will stop digging deeper once the landslide is level, correct?

The plow almost appears to be pulling 'cockeyed' to the left and pulling a bit sideways- not getting a nice, vertical, clean cut. Is this even possible?

Ill have to get another practice run in with some good video footage next trip to the house. No doubt you all can get me straightened out.

Again, 100% plow virgin, so any advice would be great, including terminology ha!

If only there were plow days and WH meets closer to me here in NC........

[Coulter Caleb 532]

Thanks for posting here...when you have several hours to burn...take time to read back through this thread carefully and you will find many of the answers to the questions you have asked. I’ll check back in later when I’m not hanging off the side of the roof to see if you asked any questions that the Plow Dogs haven’t already covered... 

 

I will say that overall you did a good job for your first time in the furrows.  Stay in touch with @19richie66, I have no idea how far you are from his new location but methinks that he will have some plowing in his future too😉

[WVHillbilly520H 10,373]

2 hours ago, Greentored said:

 

We are a couple months from needing to break ground but I had to see how this thing would pull the 10" Brinly I found. I read the manual online, hooked up and went for it. Did it pull? Oh hell yeah, I couldnt even make that big Onan grunt. I had no traction issues whatsoever with a pair of SunF G003 ATV tires, loaded with 7 gallons each washer fluid, and 2 gallons each in the fronts. (For now, this is my one 'do it all' tractor, so I went a bit conservative on tires for lawn mowing).

 

 I need to adjust the plow so the furrows are 'tighter'...there were some gaps. Im told to leave the plow 'loose', no stabilizer bolts drawn up to it, correct? The plow appears to be for a 3/4" pin, yet the hitch and pin are 5/8". Theres plenty of 'flop' from the plow in all directions. Should I weld up or bush the holes so the pin fits correctly in all?

 

They only times I have the Onan up on the governor is 1) Mowing tall/heavy green grass or 2) Snowblowing 18-24" of heavy wet snow... Good luck getting it to load the governor while gardening... As far as your Brinly plow hitch you could order a new one direct http://shop.brinly.com/PP-51BH-Plow_c_26.html just about any part you need.

[19richie66 17,500]

@Greentored I hope to be moved up closer to you by the end of April/May if all goes well. I do plan on having a meet n greet one day. I’ll have about 5 acres of good plowable land to mess around on. We’ll get in touch. I’ll be about 2-3 hours east of you, south of Greenville.