18 2 way Plows

[Anonymous-0]

How much HP should it take to pull an 18" 3 bottom plow. I bought a 2-way oliver at an auction and put it on my CIH 585. It had to really hustle to pull it in 2nd gear. So i moved up to my dad's Farmall 706. It pulled it better, but wouldnt pull it in 3rd gear. For comparison, the 706 pulls a 4 bottom 14inch plow in 3 or 4 gear, depending on soil and depth. Also, any advice on using a 2 way plow?

 

[evielboweviel]

4-14 56" wide plowing at most 7" deep
3-18 54" wide plowing about 9-11" deep maybe deeper

Ron

 

[Allan in NE]

Takes a strong 25 horse per bottom.

Have you got good sharp shares on it? Makes a difference.

Allan

 

[Allan in NE]

Should have said: Drawbar horsepower.

Allan

 

[IaGary]

Eviel who says you can't plow more than 7" deep with a 14" plow bottoms?

I have heard this before from others on here and I know I used to plow more than 7" deep with a 4-14s.

Is there some rule of thumb about this? I never heard about it in this area?

Gary

 

[Allan in NE]

I've always wondered that too. Who started that silly rumor? :>)

Allan

 

[Lee in Iowa]

The case 3 bottom rollover plow I used to use pulled a lot harder than a 4-16 IH one way plow. That 3 bottom rollover was all my 856 wanted, I don't know why they pull harder. Lee

 

[thurlow]

Never heard it, except on YT; don't know why, but 14 inch bottoms were pretty much standard around 'here'; we usually plowed 10-12 inches deep.

 

[Leroy]

The rule of thumb from all plow makers was 1/2 of the with of cut for depth of cut, 6" on 12", 7" on 14", 8" on 16" and it was in some operators manuals. If you run deeper as most did you wore out the moldboards faster and took more power to pull than what they were rating the plow to take.

 

[Allan in NE]

Hmmmm,

I'll be darned. :>)

Allan

 

[Anonymous-0]

I hitched a 4 x 18, AC 2000 monobeam, 392 bottoms to my 4020. It pulled it in third gear though in low damp ground, the front wheels tended to lift. When the tractor fronts rose 6 feet, I quit plowing and dropped off a bottom. I added all the weights I had to the front of the tractor, and while moving the hitch over, I moved it down so it held the tractor front on the ground better. Then I pulled it at 5.5 mph in fifth gear. Plowed more ground per hour and the higher speed crumbled the dirt and most of the field leveled without disking.

The 4020 is rated at 93 hp. Maybe a bit less for an early gas.

What it takes to pull a plow depends a great deal on the dirt to say nothing about depth and speed. Even varies according to the moisture in that dirt and comparisons are only valid if the shares and moldboards are well polished.

Different plow bottoms pull differently too, some designs slip through the soil easier, some toss the dirt over quickly, almost hammering the soil. Some contact the soil for 3' some for 16", surely the contact area is going to affect how hard the plow pulls.

Gerald J.

 

[sd pete]

I see the lit. says as deep as 14" but it would take a horse and half to pull that 3 x 28" plow. Some rumors are hard to kill.

 

[Allan in NE]

For sure,

"Here", 10" is just about standard on any farm.

Well, 'cept for some of those wheat farmers who think 5" is plumb good enough. :>)

Allan

 

[sd pete]

I always liked the 10" furrow myself. Kind of hard to get in the Gumbo sometimes. That stuff doesn't like to be turned over. 5 x 16s behind 150 hp and it was a tussle.

 

[Rootsy]

I generally sink my #70 3-16 as deep as it'll go without dragging the hitch or hitting the coulter axles. I can yank it around in 3rd high with the 560 without issue, sometimes 4th fi ti is dry enough. It'll make a 10 - 12" dead furrow. I get into any hard pulling ground and I generally have to toss some weight on or dual up on the land side or I'll get a lot of slippage and lose momentum.

 

[Alex.C]

Its not horse power, it torque. I read some old moline sales literature on a 8-18 rigid plow and it said that a G1000(which is 112 in drawbar HP) could pull it at full depth about 12-15 inches is about what it said. Any way what I'm gettin to is that a tractor can have 150HP and can't pull a 18" bottom plow unless it has a good amount of torque which is the holy grail of the tractor world(I have to brag: Minneapolis Moline found the holy Grail in big cubic inch, low rpm & high torque engines) . The reason a G1000 can pull a plow that big is cause of the big torquey 504CI engine at 1,800RPM(loaded) made as much torque as a good 150HP tractor that runs a smaller cubic inch and higher rpm. With out a good amount of torque nothing can be done.