Chisel Plows

[Gearhead210]

What are the biggest advantages/disadvantages between a mounted chisel plow that has no straight coulters, and a chisel plow (usually these are pull type not mounted) that has the gang of straight coulters? It seems like other than the tendency to plug the one without the blades they would do about the same job, and the ones without the blades are significantly cheaper. Why so much cheaper on the mounted ones?
 

[IaGary]

You cannot go into a field of corn stalks and chisel without the coulters. Constant plugging will drive you nuts. You will have to disc the stalks first without the coulters. The coulters eliminate the need for discing first.

So if your just going to chisel plow sod or bean stibble you may get by without the coulters.

Or if you want to make two passes the noncoulter machine will work.

More equipment on the disc chisel compared to the straight chisel plow is the cost difference. Also the disc chisels are more in demand than the straight chisels so cost is higher.

Gary
 

[Lazy WP]

I pulled an old 14 foot chisel, 3 point, with an Allis D-21, that was cranked. Found out the chisel will loosen every bolt holding the 3 point on. Worked the snot out of the tractor, but I did raise some great alfalfa in the following years. That is the only time we ever chiseled ground.
 

[dboll]

If you are going to chop your stalks or have a chopping head a good high clearance pull type chisel will work ok without cutting disks. I have a 5500 IH Hi-clear probably not the best chisel out there but does a pretty decent job. Mounted chisels are hard on tractors.
 

[Bob Bancroft]

I used to have an eleven shank Glencoe "soil saver". It had three gangs of discs in front. They were a constant hassle. Bearings going bad, discs breaking. I mowed my corn stalks, and yet with the advent of Bt corn, I could still wad up a ball of stalks occasionally. So I shopped for a newer style disc/chisel with three rows of teeth instead of two. I found a nine shank Unverferth "penetrator". It has five little disc gangs mounted on swivels, spring loaded, and on a bar so they can be controlled hydraulically from the tractor seat. Very nice. BUT! Here's the interesting part. I got a newer combine. It has "knife rolls". It obliterates anything that goes down through the rolls! I still mow the remaining stubble. But what I finally realized was the old four row combine was running down the outer two rows, so no matter what I did, I had plenty of full length stalks laying out there flat on the ground. Now the six row head, as I said, destroys all the stalks. I'm sure I could go back to the Glencoe, with all the chisels mounted on two rows. And I can raise the disc gang on the Unverferth and it makes no difference!
So- it all depends- on lots of variables!
 

[Leroy]

The disk chisel will usually have more ground clearanse than a mounted, longer ahanks and they will be set 15" apart instead of the 12" on mounted units so the extra clearance on the disk chisel is required as you need to go a couple of inches deeper with them due to the wider spacing making them pull harder. I would guess that a disk chisel of half the width of the mounted would take about the same horsepower. Had a mounted for a few years when I was renting a farm that was consitered highly eroadable and only used it on that one farm and I hated it. When no longer had that farm the chisel went by by, do not like the work any of them will do. Remaing farm is now rented but if still farming it would be a moldboard over any chisel except in soybean stubble in fall for spring oats sowing.
 

[Bob Bancroft]

In light of Leroys comments- MORE variables.
I don't know what experience you have with different forms of tillage, on different types of ground- but everything depends on everything else!
For my soil, climate, topography, etc., the best thing I ever did was go to chiseling prior to spring.
As you can see, Leroys experience is just the opposite. The only thing that counts is what works where you are.
 

[Gearhead210]

I may just stick with moldboard plowing, first because it is cheaper to buy one, but also because the tiles are only 14-15" deep in spots (still some old clay tiles) and I don't want to create more work on replacing those. Another oddball question though- was there ever such a thing as a 5 bottom plow with an onland hitch? That would probably be pushing too narrow to run an onland hitch is my thoughts. And I don't think if my MF1130 would pull 6 in our ground.
 

[Leroy]

There probably was a hitch made for the trailer plows as the Deere parts books list them for even the 3 bottom plows but they were made for the crawler type tractors that had to run on land. So they would be very hard to find, a semi mount that you are thinking about I do not know. Neighbor pulled a 7 bottom with his 1100 MF.
 

[430]

I have a john deere 3200 that you can adjust for in land or in furrow. You can't run duals when it's set up for on land anyway so I just run it in the furrow. It's 5 18' and it's all my 115 hp 4320 wants. Also pull a 7 shank glenco chisel plow with it with duals. Handles about the same. I think your massey is about the same hp. Just giving some comparisons.
 

[504]

MF 880 was an on land hitch, it could be set for furrow too. Using the correct three point set up(the plow must have a true three point hitch, not just the lower arms)you should pull 8x16.
 

[paul]

I hope that's not a big problem, just probed out my old concrete tile on a 40 to add more this spring, and found some was only 18-20 inches deep.

Other places I get to 15 inches too, replaced 35 feet that was all cracked in.

Also got a soil saver for this fall.....

We will see, if it ever rains I guess.

Pretty happy with the soil saver, the chisel plow didnt do much, this thing did something.

The plow seems more dangerous to the tile, drving in the furrow you are 8 inches closer to the tile, with a lot of pull and weight.

I suppose that's why you are interested in an on land hitch.

The soil saver is pretty good, need to chop or disk stalks still, but it was worlds better than the old little chisel, that plugged up easy in chopped stalks....

Paul