Problems plowing

[red56turbo]

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

Here's how to measure the plow.

[red56turbo]

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.

[bocephus1991]

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!

[o---o]

Originally Posted by Vin122

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.

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

Originally Posted by red56turbo

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

Here's how to measure the plow.

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

Originally Posted by red56turbo

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

Originally Posted by bocephus1991

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!

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.


.

[finsruskw]

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!!

[drglinski]

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.

[Wild Bill]

Originally Posted by o---o

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?

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.

[o---o]

Originally Posted by Wild Bill

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.


.

[J-Mech]

Originally Posted by Wild Bill

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.

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.

[o---o]

Originally Posted by J-Mech

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.