OT: Draft control and the death of the trailer plow

And...wonder of all wonders...it still works for me nowadays.

On the high ground I can pull 5/18's 6MPH and in the low ground she han't hardly pull it at 8" depth, so that's an example of what my farm is like.

When I have the V ripper on I usually have the draft adjustment pretty much all the way ahead, but not all the way, and let the gauge wheels do the majority of the depth control. This lets the draft control pull up a little for traction in the tough stuff but not enough to affect depth, though it can still be a little frustrating saometimes. Jim

Same thing .. I would hit a hard packed spot of ground and the points would ride up on top only scratching the surface. Even with good points I had the same result.

I got good enough where I could grab the far right lift lever from the seat and throw it all the way up. Trust me the plow will drop but it grabs deep.

With a little practice and knowing where the hard spots were, I could play the depth wheel to hold the plow into the ground pretty good.

I wouldn't recommend doing this by any stretch because it's a bit risky to lean back that far to release and pull this lever while still moving.

I was 12 at the time and still remember the service guy setting the plow telling dad that.

Gary

I had about 250 acres to plow that fall, I got to plow 5 acres, need I say more, and those old boys would tell you, "Never a trailer plow built that would match that semi-mount on quality plowing and depth control."

Good draft control doesn't lift the plow. I actually did more plowing with that plow behind my 656 with 16.9x38 tires, no chloride, no wheel weights and 10 lbs air in tires. No it doesn't lift the plow, but on that light tractor (light in relation to that plow) you would swear the seat was going out from under you when that draft control activated. One didn't feel that sensation quite as much on 1066, but you could notice it. Quite sophisticated hydraulics, probably that hitch and hydraulics represent 15% of the cost of the new tractor.

Some competitors hitches did as you describe, in fact IH were the first to nail that and get it right. I was at a farm show not long after I bought my plow, got into a discussion with an ag engineer. He said, "IH has made the first real break through on draft control."

Have you ever in your life walked a furrow?

Allan

I would swear that when mine activates in the tuff spots that I can see those arms come up.

Gary

It's very noticable when the tractor is just a bit on the light side for the plow. I hardly noticed it when plowing with 1066 on that same 5x16 plow, but then the 1066 probably needed very little extra weight.

I remember my neighbor having a 200 with a 2x14 plow, be in the late 50s, chloride and one set of wheel weights. He plowed successfully with it for a few years. One day the Massey dealer drove into field with 135 and 3x12 plow, no weight. He told the farmer he could put his MF plow in ground, tow 200 and it's plow plowing behind, esentially he was going to pull 5 bottoms with 135. He soon gathered a bit of audience. He pulled the 5 bottoms, but not more than 4-5" deep. One of the farmers in the audience suggested he come and hitch 135 onto his 5 bottom Cockshutt trailer plow. It didn't happen, however Massey did have a device for use with a trailer plow. Much like a 3 point boom pole, hinged for turning and a chain to front of plow. Massey could use their draft control on a trailer plow. I don't know how well it worked.

Allan

After that drainage improved greatly and by the end of the 50s we were plowing with Farmall 130 and 2x12 fast hitch plow, or Farmall 300 pulling 3x16, No 60 trailer plow. In the mid 60 we moved to a 4x16, No.60 behind a 560. In 1975, I purchased a 5x16, No.510 semi mount to use behind 1066. The very next year I dualed the 1066 and had other heavy work for 1066. I looked at reducing that 5 bottom plow to 4 for use behind 656, we had it backed into shop ready to make the change. I said to Mike (guy who worked for me, "I don't want to loosen all those bolts, go up on that big hill behind the barn and if you can plow 8" deep on that hill we can pull that plow anywhere on the farm." He did, and 3-4 hours later he had the whole hill plowed. We never did reduce the plow, and never plowed with 1066 again. 656 lugged it along at 4 mph, and remember a 5x16 plow at 4mph will plow more land per day than a 4x16 plow at 5mph, less time spent on the headlands. I might add 1066 once snapped a trip bottom even though it tripped, never had that happen with plow behind 656. Through the 70s and 80s most of my neighbors were pulling 5x16 plows with 60-80 hp, that's all it took in that country. I even had one neighbor pull a 5x16 trailer plow with a Cockshutt 570.

Just to give reasoning why folks should plow away from home. I've had the opportunity to plow in heavy clays of SW Ontario with my Farmall 130 and 2x12 plow. there are spots in this clay very hard, a much harder sub soil that ocasionally comes into plow depth. If I'm plowing in 2nd gear with 130, about 4 mph with 12.4x24 tires, and I strike some of this real heavy clay, it will kill the 130 before I can hit the clutch. Guys who have plowed this soil for years, tell me 4x14 plow was the limit with a 656, and your happy to have TA, and kept your left hand very close to that TA lever. I've also plowed some very light sandy loam with 130, figured this stuff would be close to back home, learned something new again, one spin of a wheel and your axle deep. Now don't jump to conclusions about my opinion on soil quality, some of those heavy soils may be hard to plow, but they hang onto moisture great in a dry year.

Gary may have a bit of overkill with his 200 hp on 6 bottoms, he also may not have overkill. We all know he is in the state of Iowa, some of the most productive land in North America regardless of the weather or the season as in dry or wet.

My hired man had a 5020 with a 5-16 and it was all that tractor wanted.

"Here" 3-14s on a 656 will just work the snot out of the tractor in 2nd.

Allan

We were small farmers back then, just overcoming a drainage problem due to high water table. That first plowing on old meadow sod was hard. Most farmers plowed 20-30 acres with Farmall H, Cockshutt 30, Oliver 66, etc. and 2x14 trailer plow. Most folks just laughed at the MF guy, wouldn't even let him unload the 35. The ocasional guy with a SC or Cockshutt 20 let him in. He did plow 3 bottoms with that 35 and folks soon got a lot of respect for 3 point hitch and draft control. It wasn't hard for us to take every advantage of the 3 point hitch on a 656 or a Oliver 1650. We ran em light with big rubber, and let weight transfer do it's job.

Fields that my dad excerised care where he went with team and mower in 1940, we crossed with semi's by 1960. It plowed easy, sandy loam about 8' deep, then the purest kind of gravel, with a perminant water table at gravel level. It was hungry land, but man would it turn out dry matter yields of alfalfa. Unless it was fixed N one may as well have had a seive.

When that “suck” first takes a bite, it does tend to “compress” the tires just a bit. I would imagine this was the level you were at in your plowing, etc. and this is how you read it.

However, “here” after the suck is struck that implement is pulling down so darned hard on the tractor, wheel weights are hardly even needed. Keeping in mind that I use fully mounted plows, can tell you that I have never, ever seen a wheel slip while plowing unless it was from just plain old mud; it’ll bog/kill the tractor first.

Have spent many a year watching that draft physically lift the implement out of the ground. ‘Course like I say, an 8” furrow would be a “skip” to me.

Hooked on to the tumble plow one time with both a 2010JD and also with an H. Think those old plows were what? 2-12s? Anyway, neither tractor would pull the plow past the suck. When the 2-bottom plow hit running depth ('bout 3 feet), it just flat stopped both of those little guys.

Guess that’s why I’m always so skeptical when I hear of someone “plowing with an H”. :>)

Allan

Hugh the tires do not flex on this tractor, the hitch comes up.

As much as you want to believe it doesn't it does and I can film it if you want.

Did you ever notice in those tuff spots the front would tend to come up as the draft control was working but as the plow loses the suction and comes up the front would come back down.

That is one of the reasons for the draft control is to keep the front on the ground.

Even with a full rack on the front 1086 the front would come up till the plow came out of the ground.

The first picture is 19,000 lbs and 175 hp on 6-16's and the hitch will come up.

Gary

You're totally wrong in this respect.

I really think you need to get out more and see the rest of the world. Not everything is as it appears in Iowa ya know.

Allan

It will do that if ya skim along the top at 7 or 8" deep like a disc.

Allan