Problems plowing
 

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I tried to plow yesterday and it didn't go so well. I got stuck several times.

Am I expecting too much? My ground has some clay content, was still fairly moist, it has never been worked before, and the grass is very thick and well rooted. The yard was wet enough that the Ag tires would leave tracks just from driving.

When I got stuck the 3 point couldn't even lift the plow out of the dirt, and normally I can lift 300 pounds without a problem. It's like the grass roots are just too tough.

So, should the plow rip right trough this stuff? Or is thick grass, semi-clay, wet soil just hard to cut through?


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Sounds like unfavorable soil conditions.

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Whew good, I was hoping I didn't have a sissy tractor!

Here are some pics I just took, it was plowed yesterday so it's dried some. You can see the thickness of the grass in the background. I'm not very impressed with the results.


http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h1...423_103133.jpg


http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h1...423_103027.jpg


http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h1...423_103012.jpg

How about pictures of your Tractor and Plow setup..???

I went to my first plow day last Saturday and my tractor plowed great with no issue, Sunday I broke fresh ground and had the same troubles your having. The sod really seems to hinder the process and the left hand tire kept spinning out on the wet grass, try not plowing as deep and see how that works.

Another suggestion is if the mount bracket on you plow has three holes put the pin through the hole on the left as you are looking at it from the back of the tractor. That will narrow the cut the plow takes. :bigthink:

I've got them uploading



At least I know it isn't just me, thanks.



Both of my 10" plows have only 1 hole and my 8" plow has 3 holes. My Brinly 3 point-to-sleeve hitch adapter has many holes and I can shift attachments left or right with that.


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Looks like it was a little too wet.

You turned a grassy area in to dirt!:beerchug::beerchug::beerchug:

Here's my take on your plowing job.

1st - Plowing sod, grass, etc. Toughest plowing there is. Whether its with a 100hp tractor and a 4 bottom semi mounted plow or a Cub Cadet with a Brinly. I've seen worse plowing by farmers who had plowed every year - I've done worse too.

2nd - see #1

3rd - your set up looks maybe a bit more point on the plow, the landslide seems to be right on the ground, in a perfect world you should be able to put your fingers under it in a furrow. But you turned sod into a plowed area so you doing it right or really close.

4th - SHINE SHINE SHINE - a shiny plow works best, nothing beats a shiny plow. After your done plowing clean it, then oil it or grease it or something, preserve the shine for next time. Of course that next time is probably when you plow this same area, which will be easier due to it then not being sod.

Have fun, enjoy!

Next you get to disk this breaking up the clumps smoothening it off. best to wait a few days before you disk.

FYI - I don't think you tires worked very well. If you'd like I take them off your hands...lol

Another thing you may not have considered is weight on the wheels.


I've seen plowing done by farmers who plow a lot that makes yours look great. Plowing is an art and it takes practice IMO.

Yeah looks alittle wet to me too. Extra weight wouldn't hurt once it's dryer. I know from experience from plowing with full size tractors on sod it will pull hard and if you have any clay it's that much harder of a pull.

A quick question about the disc - I noticed the discs are adjustable for more angle. Should I use more angle or less angle? What are the effects of more or less angle?


And thanks to everyone for the comments and opinions, they've all been very helpful and appriciated.




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The cutter disk is only adjustable up and down. In sod you want it to run deep. Deep as it can. You weren't going deep enough, plus it was too wet and the plow isn't shined up. Let the ground dry more. I always have people calling me too early to come plow their garden. I'm already getting calls. Waaaaayyyyyy to wet here in south east Illinois to be breaking ground. Sod takes the longest to dry. You probably have a dull share too. Point looks decent, but the share may be a sled runner on bottom. A 12" plow is pretty large for a GT in my opinion. I think the 10 is better.

Can't speak to your setup, but I've plowed with its big brother, a Farmall Cub and a 193 plow. First time I did it was in the Fall of the year, with sod fighting me all the way. Looked a lot like yours. Over winter, the high clay content broke down and I pulled a Cub-23A two-gang disk harrow over it and was ready to plant seed. The following year was a snap plowing once the sod was turned.

Give yours some daylight and drying out time. Borrow a disk if you can and work through it several times. The fact that you've just turned the sod over and it's still green will make it more of a challenge.

I agree with all the posts so far with regards to plowing sod... If what you are plowing has been sod for a number of years it tends to be hard packed as well as some "hard-pan". The clay leaches down a little and causes a layer of very hard, heavy ground, difficult to break through. Having plowed with the large farm tractors for years we used a couple different methods to break up hard plowing ground. One was the use of a sub-soiler... these implements went down below what a plow does and really breaks up the ground. The other was a chisel plow. We used these in the fall and by spring the ground plowed really nice. This is more than what most of us need cause it's only a garden but there are ways to make it plow easier! Now if I could get a hold a category 0 sub-soiler! :bigthink: Next year, it will be easier! :beerchug:

Does this mean the rear of the plow should be up higher?

If the share is dull, do I just sharpen it with an angle grinder? I think the plow I was using is a 10" according to how google said to measure it, and my other plow is an 8". I was wanting to get the ground opened up, but sounds like I was impatient lol. Sorry for the confusion, see below for the "disc angle" I was asking about.

Here is the disc I have. I plan to add some weight to it yet. This is the one I was wondering if it's better to run the gangs with more angle or more parallel?

http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h1...410_102232.jpg

I think the plow is a 12" because it has a brace on the back from the moldboard to the tail. Pretty sure only the 12" plows had the brace.

I'm sorry, you switched to the disk in your conversation. On that, I'd reverse the gangs and set them to kick out instead of in. Put the gangs so that they are as close together in the center as possible with as much angle as possible. I really don't like single gang disks, they leave the dirt unlevel. If your going to till after you get it leveled out that will help. FWIW I have a Brinly disk (double gang) and they really don't do much. Just not heavy enough. From what I see the 3pt ones are a lot better in that they weigh more and can be better adjusted.

Oh, and that sod will be hard to disk. REALLY hard. Do you have a tiller for back of the cub?

In your pic above, the plow on the RH side looks like a 12" and the other looks like a 10" to me.

I wish I had a tiller for the Cub, but I don't. I have an old 5 hp front tine tiller on loan from my Dad, Simplicity brand if I remember correctly. It's slow, but easy to use if used properly and does a decent job. And I'll take your advice on disc and switch them to kick out instead. I've thought about buying another identical disc and bolt them together to have the out/in configuration.

Yes the rear should be just off the bottom of the furrow you've just plowed.

As others said turn the disk around. I'd keep it rather straight versus very angled to help cutup the sod clumps. Weight on the disk will help.

Have fun.

As the others have stated, virgin sod it tough to plow. That's a nice setup.

Here's how to measure the plow.

And since you have a Cat O setup, I'd watch for a Brinly Cat O disc. They are quite a bit heavier, but depending on conditions, sometimes you still have to add more weight to get 'em to bite.

I played with my brinly sleeve hitch disk today and yeah even with extra weight they could cut better, and I have 150 lbs of weight added!

Thanks for the advice, and I'm working on getting some weight added

That looks like how I measured them. I laid the plows on their sides and measured to the point marked 14" in your picture.

I'd love to have that disc, it'd be my favorite implement!

I'm making a concrete block for weight. I used 2 bags of 80 pound ready mix, and all of the steel for mounting it will be about 30 more pounds, so I'll have about 190 pounds of added weight. The way I'm making the block, it will be able to be used on my blade, box scraper, or disc.


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By the time you get enough weight on that disc to do any good, you will be unable to lift it even with a hydro lift setup. BTDT with a 300# buddy standing on it plus a few chunks of R/R rail it will do it's job.

With little to no weight, it's pretty much a play toy!!

I plowed a combination sod/ex wheat field last fall with a little genius 2 bottom and it really made the Farmall H talk, and I wasn't even cutting that deep.

You've got the base set up of the plow 'right on'.

As has been mentioned many times already, sod is tough to plow.....BUT-
On your first pass, loosen the coulter (cutter wheel) and slide it all the way up and retighten the nuts, and crank the adjuster to put a little more point into the plow...this will help it 'dig in'. On your second pass, take a little point out....you should now be cutting a decent furrow (the place your right side tires will be riding in on your 3rd pass) On the 3rd pass, loosen the nuts and slide the coulter almost all the way down and retighten (the coulter cuts a nice edge ahead of the plow shin, to keep from wearing the lead edge of the plow) then you should be able to adjust the plow so that the 'tail end' of the plow is darn near flat in the furrow. Since you have a 10" plow, you should be plowing at 5" deep.

Some wheel weights will help with traction.

Also, once you get the first 2 furrows cut, the speed at which you plow will help keep the furrow bottoms clean. Too fast and the dirt is shoved too far over, too slow and the dirt doesn't roll over/falls back into the furrow.

Turn your disk gangs around, and make them go almost straight (for now) Putting angle in them makes them 'dig', keeping them straight makes them cut 'down'...which is what you want to cut the sod in slices, so it will break down/apart faster.

In your picture, the plow on the Left is an 8", and the one on the Right is a 10" ('old' style' plow frame) I've plowed with a 12" Brinly for over 10 years, hooked to a 122 (12hp gear drive) a 1450 (14hp hydro) and a 1712 (17hp hydro) Your tractor should have no problem pulling a 10".

With my plow properly adjusted, I can walk the dog on guys with 10" plows. I've been at a plow day, and -had to wait- on a guy with a 22hp hydro-12" plow set up (he kept getting stuck/hung up), while I had the 1450 with 12" plow.

Thanks for the information. One problem may be that I was cutting much deeper than 5", I wasn't able to control the depth very well. Maybe it will come with experience and learning to do it right as this thread is teaching me.

I don't have wheel weights, but found a set of 55 pound weights locally for $100, seems high to me but I have no idea what they're worth. I did add 58 pounds of washer fluid to each rear tire today.


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I'm sorry Wild Bill, but I disagree with most of your advice....

I've pulled a plow longer than 10 years, and more than one bottom. From one to six bottoms. Spent a lot of time pulling a disk too. Your advice to keep the gangs straight is way off. It's not a cutter, it's a disk. It won't "slice" anything with straight gangs. They have to be angled. Matter of fact, the Brinly disks wont' angle enough to do a good job.

On the cutter..... it's job is too cut the sod so that it leaves a nice furrow edge. It has nothing to do with keeping the shin from wearing. No need to move it up on the first pass, then down on the third... I don't even know where you came up with that. In sod, the cutter needs to go deep enough to cut the rood wad. Maybe 2" deep. Only thing I don't like about most of the Brinly's is you can't adjust it left and right. I'm going to mod one so I can.

About the cutter, I have several questions about that also, but I need to snap a couple pics first.

Disagree all you want.

Brinly implements are not farm implements...they are way lighter, and don't pull themselves into the ground because of their weight.

Unless you weight the hell out of a Brinly disk (especially a single gang) it WILL NOT CUT, especially on freshly plowed sod! Even when a Brinly is 'straight', it is angled. If you hook 2 single Brinlys together, and angle both of them as much as you can, they pivot in the middle and will wiggle and walk all over top of the plowed sod....(and yes, I know what is the correct way the disks should be going for the front and the rear gangs) First hand experience showed me that..(tried setting it up like my big disk)..so like I said, disagree all you want.

My comments about the coulter wheel came from my IH plow manual.....but what did IH ever know about how to make a plow work....... You are supposed to adjust the coulter so it cuts just to the left side of the lead edge of the shin, to cut trash and to help keep from wearing out the shin (added benefit is the landside of the furrow is smooth). IH Super Chief plows have replaceable shins.

Tough ground/sod/ground that hasn't been plowed for YEARS, if ever...a Brinly plow either won't 'suck in', or will walk itself up/out of the ground. Seen that first hand at a Cub Cadet plow day. The ground was a rock hard hay field. The first tractor to make a pass was a 169 with a 10" Brinly...looked terrible he had a boat load of point cranked into the plow, it would go in...for a foot, then pop up and down like a sewing machine. I was the second tractor to make a pass, I had my 12" plow set up like I have described, and had NO PROBLEM. Guys were cutting in line, to plow behind me because of the nice/smooth furrow they could drive in. I was behind a guy with a JD 420 with Cat 0 12" Brinly on the back....I had my 1450 with a sleeve hitch 12" Brinly (everyone else there had an 8" or 10") Several times I had to stop and wait on him, because he jumped the previous furrow/got hung up, etc. I asked him if he wanted me to to push him through the field. The JD owner put somebody else on the tractor, and on the next pass he ran and jumped on my plow to try to bury it, and get me hung up...I just hit the hydro handle almost dumping him off, and finished the pass with him still on the plow. I was plowing so deep the guy behind me got hung up because the center of his transaxle was dragging. A couple of passes I was behind a guy with a 782 with a 10" Brinly....more than once had to come to a stop, and wait on him backing up and slamming forward/stuck. The JD is a 20+ hp tractor, and the 782 is 17hp... The 14hp -single cylinder- was tired,and the throttle shaft needed a bushing, and I didn't have a problem with a 12" plow, but hey, what do I know.............

I've been around the block a few times dude. When I plow a garden it is a piece of cake, and the end result is smooth/level. I've had a 10 year old kid plowing on that 1450, and even had my 78 year old Dad, 74 year old Mom, and my sister, and my wife, plow with the 1450 and my 1712, they all said it was fun and easy....and the results are always the same.

I would gladly post pictures to back up my statements, but they were lost when the computer died... either a virus. a hacker, or whatever. Happened right after all of my posts and threads got deleted on OCC.

Don't know why you're trying to bust my chops, but it ain't gonna fly with me.

Never had any issues setting up my plows either.

Yeah, I'm pretty aware Brinly's aren't farm implements.

I've pulled Brinly tandems, I'm aware of how the act in the dirt.

I've plowed sod with Brinly's. Hard to pull: Yes. My plow went in, left nice furrows.

I'm aware that bigger plows have replaceable shins.

Not "busting your chops". Made it clear I disagreed with you, apparently we hold differing views..... I just think you make it too complicated. Do whatever works for you, I'm not going to debate it anymore. Sounds like you know how to plow and what works for you. So do I, apparently we do it differently with the same result.

You guys crack me up - thanks for the humor!

o---o I think its about time you start your disking adventure! Go slow and have fun, after all its seat time on your Cub Cadet, disc it straight with the plow furrows, at an angle, at another angle, and in both directions. Tomorrow do the same, maybe the same for the next couple days too.

True story - a few years ago I plowed my sod for a garden patch, 1st gear with my 122 and I either could no keep the front end on the ground or I spun out - so I hooked another cub to the 122 via a chain and my son helped me. The neighbor saw me as asked if I'd plow a spot for him, same hard sod plowing issue. And my results looked like yours or worse for both mine and his. After disking mine a couple times I brought out the tiller and proceeded to have a beautiful garden spot. My neighbors was not so nice, the soil was not the same just a few hundred feet or yards away from mine. I was amazed at how hard his soil worked up - and mine was definitely not easy. The next year I did the same plus I plowed, disked and roto-tilled another neighbors, found many rocks at this new spot and it was another not so fun experience. At a 4th of July party she proceeded to tell me how crappy her garden was and it was my fault - I've never plowed a neighbors garden since...

Point of my story is what woks for one might not work so well for others.

FYI - your 10.5 AGs are really nice - I still have my money back guarantee for ya, lol Oh - and you have 4 more inches of flotation for disking with these 10.5s versus 8.5s

you guys go ahead and :Duel: I'll get the :popcorn: and :beerchug: :biggrin2:

Just stopping in, I have never seen a disk (set up correctly) that had the gangs straight on. Always angled, always. Doesn't do any good having them straight. This is what a lifetime growing up on a small farm and working on a 2000+acre farm has taught me. I've run single gang GT size disk's, 6-8ft 3pt disks, and 40'+ on big boy machines, none of which had the gangs "straight". Just saying.

Also just saying do what works for you, but that doesn't mean it'll work for the rest of the world. It also doesn't mean it's the accepted and practiced way to do things.

Ok, now back into the shadows I go. :beerchug:

Many years ago my neighbor comes over and asks me to plow his
"garden"
Now this is an old cantankerous polish fellow that would not take no for an answer.
I was young and obliging so over I go with my "little" JD 70 and 4-14" trailer plow.
He points to a "C" shaped plot maybe 20'x40' encased by hedge bushes on 3 sides.
I shut off the tractor and explain there is no way this piece of equipment can do that,and that he needs a little rototiller.
No!! he says,I want it plowed and just back it up into it and do it.
I say you need a fellow with a little ford 8N with a mounted 2 bottom 12 or14" plow.
Poor guy just didn't understand.
So I go to one of my other neighbors farther down the street, talk to him and he goes over and plows it with his little 8N and disks it too.
Till the day old guy died he didn't understand why I wouldn't plow his garden.

LOL

Like I said, even when a Brinly disk is set 'straight', it IS NOT truly straight. Obviously, the beams aren't wide enough to allow that much adjustment. It should also be obvious that a totally straight disk, won't do you any good.


ol' George: That's funny!

When I said straight straight I really meant disk following the furrow then zig zag etc. As you guys are saying the brinly will not allow the disks to be straight nor it should. :bash2:

Ol'george that is funny!

When I was a kid I worked at the farm up the road, and at the time they farmed around 3,500 acres, had 120 dairy cows, around 200 beef cows, and a couple thousand hogs. I pulled their disc, v ripper, and tilloll with an old Steiger and with the big Cummins and 20 speed transmission it was a real blast for a 14 year to drive lol. That's what I'm used to, and this mini-size equipment isn't any where the close to the same.

When my dad first bought his own farm I was about 5 or 6yrs old. We were out plowing up a hay field when my grandfather came over to visit. I could see my grandfather walking toward us, when he got there he told my dad to get off the tractor and began to tell him how he was doing it wrong. He made some adjustments to the plow, I was too little to know what. It was still fun to watch my dad get scolded like my dad did to me.