Plow day

[drglinski]

My brother and I have been trying to attend local plow days as often as we can. (Disclaimer- this is posted here because it's in reference to the big tractors and not garden tractors.) As of late, people either have not been hosting them, or something has come up and we can't attend.

About 8-10 years ago, he bought a little genius #8 trip plow out of a fence row that needed work. The PO said that it would no longer stay in the ground hence why it was sitting in the fence row. My brother had to put new wheels on it- the original cut off steel pneumatic wheels were rusted through, and obviously all new rubber. Paint was in order as well. It needed a bunch of small pieces too, but he obtained those and got it back in shape. The clutch mechanism was a bad spring, so that was replaced.

Fast forward to 2010. Dad has an H and a very similar little genius plow (but dad's always worked good and was on rubber from the factory) that we took- Dad, my brother and I, to a plow day. Due to the fact that there were so many people there, we did about 3 passes each and we were out of ground to plow. Ever since then, we've had the itch to get out and do it again. Excuse the blabbering on, I'm getting to my point. During the time between then and now, my brother got HIS plow painted up (as previously stated) and bought an H of his own, and we've been trying to find a place to use it again. Dad's family has land, but it's 40 miles away from where he lives, and since Dad no longer farms, it he leases it and we can't do much with it. Not to mention that we would have to trailer it somehow to the land, etc etc.

My brother found someone local that was willing to let us try out his plow/tractor on his approx. 4 acres that he needed plowed up before next spring. He basically gave us the go ahead to screw around and plow after he mowed down the growth that was there before. This was our best option because it was only a 1/2 mile or so away from my brothers/Dad's house. So, last saturday 4 of us set out to see how well we could play farmer for the day (my brother, Dad, my wife and me.) My brother told me it could be my early birthday present. On to the pics!



Here I'm trying to get him set up on the initial pass.


We had established quickly that my brother had no idea what he was doing and wasn't the best at plowing a straight line. We did have someone telling us the proper way to plow.





Eventually I got into the furrow and straightened it out.



It worked well once the moldboards were shined up, the coulters were adjusted so they were cutting, and the plow was level, even though this pic doesn't show it very well.





Here I am starting another furrow and concentrating on getting it as straight as I can.



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[jimbob200521]

Favorite picture so far!

Seriously though, awesome pics, and thank you for sharing

[drglinski]

----continued----




It only tripped twice all day. Rocks were bad in places.



Our middle brother even came out on his Honda Trail 90 to check it out. Didn't care to plow though.







My wife even got in on the action. This was her second time ever driving a tractor. She's from a suburb of Detroit so this wasn't something she grew up with. I showed her how to operate the clutch and where to steer and we'd run the governor lever/throttle/shift/rope trip for her. She seemed to enjoy it.



Sad thing is is she plowed straighter than both of us.



--continued---

[drglinski]

---continued--


Here I am plowing (screwing up) the headlands.



We only got maybe half a dozen clogs the whole day.



My wife set her camera to b&W for a few







I tried my hand at video recording.

http://vid10.photobucket.com/albums/...pshemcdvr3.mp4

I had an absolute blast. For it being my second time plowing I (think) we did a decent job on a field that was not square and tapered towards one end width wise. Had a few clogs, un hitched it twice on some rocks- never had to pull it out in reverse even though we did bring a chain- and only broke it once. Busted a bolt that goes through the furrow wheel adjusting lever when it was going into the ground. That was an easy fix. Busted a cotter pin on the hitch and had to get another one of those but that was easy. Only used maybe 2/3 of a tank of fuel in the 6 hours we were working the ground. I enjoyed this more than a plow day because we didn't have someone running us down right behind us, didn't have to stop for someone in front of us, had a lot of ground to cover and knew that it was going to be there when we turned around again for us to plow and not someone else, and the furrows were all at a consistent depth. There were times when the sod was thick enough it made the H grunt and I understand why the T.A. was invented. We had enough ground to cover it never felt like work.



Say what you will Jonathan about me needing to get on a bigger tractor but I really like this set up. The biggest I'd go is a W-9 and a 70. I'd really like to have an M and a 3 bottom (60?) or genius (can't make up my mind) for myself to screw around with.



Thanks

[Stratmoore Farms]

Looks like a great day all the way around. Cool pics too!!!

[olds45512]

Looks like a good time.

[kostendorf]

Very nice pics and awesome video.

[ACecil]

Great pics and vid. Thanks for sharing, Dan.

[red56turbo]

Dan,
Awesome pics and story. I agree with you on the plowing without anyone else around to run up on ya and telling what to do. Every fall, we plow roughly 50-100 acres depending on what we get done. My grandma's ground and only family. We make a day of it with a wiener roast and chili for lunch, etc. I really look forward to it every fall. And I'm here to tell you, I enjoy plowing with an M or H any day with the trip plows. I really like using Dad's Ford 961 with a mounted plow. But my all time favorite is the 1456 with an IH 710 6-16 bottom plow. Nothing like sitting on the seat, low 4, wide open throttle, turbo whining, dirt flying.................. Won't get to use it this fall. Down with a hydraulic leak and needs split. Thanks for the pics. Can't wait to plow now.

[Steve149]

Main thing is you have fun doing it by the looks of things!