JD 950 Mulcher

[hoosier43fan]

Looking at this cult-mucher online and a bit confused on the description. Says hydraulic teeth adjust. Does this mean it requires two remotes? One to raise/lower and one to adjust depth of sweeps? Also says single wheel transport but I'm seeing two.
Will my JD 5510 pull a 15" unit easily? 89 hp, MFWD, pulls 8 shank chisel just fine, but I've never had a mulcher. Has a roller on front and rear with two rows of sweeps between. Wondering if this will improve seedbed prep and incorporate urea in my black very fluffy soil. (Muck, no, this part does not get chiseled). Currently using a field cultivator which is great for incorporating, but only fluffs soil even more. Leaving a few stalks on surface so it would need to feed through. The mulcher looks to be in great shape for age but inexperience has me wondering it it will work for me. Thanks!

 

[jwal10]

Don't now if they made a newer one than I had but mine just had a lever that set the 2 rows of teeth. Mine had the V shaped rollers, some had a more flat roller with a thin rib in the middle of each roller. We ran one in front of a grain drill planting wheat. We also used it to pack and cover peppermint roots when we planted. Left a very smooth surface. We also ran it before planting, to make a seed bed, does 2 jobs in one pass, loosen soil, bring up moisture and pack it back down. They will plug up with much loose material on top much like a spring tooth. Some cultipackers have dual wheels, JD just used 1 570x15 on each side. On real loose soil I have had rollers (usually the front one) stop turning and drag dirt until I had to lift the whole machine because it dug in. I thought JD was the best built as far as weight to ability do do what it was supposed to do. Had enough flex corner to corner without cracking the frame. I have pulled a 12' with a Farmall M on harder ground not very deep but I pulled the cultimulcher, grain drill, roller and flex harrow with a 4240 JD, 110 engine hp. We also drug a 2"x4" box tube with a 2" piece of angle welded to it in the center of the 4" side in a V shape as a drag to smooth and fill behind it with a chain hooked close at both ends. The rollers are not like a sprocket roller, they are each about 5" wide and make a solid roller that each one can spin somewhat freely if need be. They have scrapers on both sets of roller so they don't build up in wet conditions....James

 

[hoosier43fan]

Great info, thanks James. Your point about the front packer has me thinking this could be a problem. This unit has the narrow rib packer and appears to be fairly small in diameter. The soil in question was a lake bottom when the glaciers left. Organic matter 20-40%! Good mint ground, but a challenge for corn production. Super fluffy. Maybe stay with the FC and just find a single roller to pack. Thanks again, very helpful.

 

[8850dave]

You could use a hydraulic cylinder to adjust the teeth or use a mechanical hand crank to adjust them manually

 

[caterpillar guy]

A cultimulcher is a pretty heavy item. Neighbor used to pull about a 12 foot one with a 530 Popper back in the 80's. e teeht can be manual or hydraulic adjusted. Then it lifts hydraulically also. As for the single wheel I would think that would mean it has 1or 2 wheels on each side. As heavy as they can be I would think one would want the double wheels for them. I'm looking at the 6.70-15 tire on my 30 foot packer and wondering why they didn't use a bigger tire for them. Only used for transport but would be a problem if something happened to 1or 2 on a side.

 

[jwal10]

Both of my JD 950 models only had a handle that adjusted both rows of teeth like an old lever harrow. We ran one in front of the grain drill planting winter wheat in the fall. Never really had a lot of problems with it sinking from weight until it was so wet we shouldn't have been in the field. We had an old one that we removed the rollers and added 2 rows of teeth like was on our heavy rigid Dixon harrows to use when it got wet enough to build up on the rollers. We also plowed right in front of the planting, round for round, so the ground didn't get greasy. Then went back and plowed out the corners and planted them when it got too wet, otherwise and we needed to get the wheat in. The 950 was about the lightest cultipacker made, the V type wheels were pretty light with the 4 spokes inside each wheel. If the ground is too fluffy maybe a S-tine cultivator with a rolling basket on the back would work better. We seldom had a problem and you can run the machine up on the tires a little to overcome that....James

 

[hoosier43fan]

Thanks to all, great posts. Plenty to digest here.