can you turn sharp with a disc harrow?

[forester7]

I just bought an old International 37 disc. I have never used one before. Is it safe to turn sharp on plowed sod? I am wondering if it is hard on the bearings?

 

[paul]

my Brain forgets what model is what.

If it has a hyd cylinder and wheels, it is generally hard on it to turn sharp when down.

Paul

 

[rustred]

standard procedure is to lift any implement when turning. don't have to be right out of the ground still can be scratching to cover footprints. its hard on disc blades more than brg's, and cultivator shanks. plus the tractor wont turn pulling a load. plus I never use brakes either turning. plus in plowed sod you will soon find out what do do, even slow down when turning helps turn. and the old disc's did not have hyd's and you worked the field in strips and was no reason to turn sharp at the head lands.

 

[Farmallb]

Turn too sharp you could be wearing it. Never did that with a disc, but did with a harrow. It was harrowing lol

 

[Dopp Creek]

If you have a swinging drawbar, be sure to pull the pins so it can move from side to side. That makes turning much easier. I have an IH 37 disc as well, a 10 footer

 

[Brendon-KS]

To expand on what Paul said if the disk has transport wheels it is generally designed to be raised when turning. Otherwise the blades will gouge into the ground creating ridges and holes and it will also pull very hard. The old "drag-type" disks without wheels have linkages which de-angle the gangs when turning to minimize the problems above.

 

[55 50 Ron]

"De-angle the gangs when turning" Never heard of such a thing - what kind of disc? Post a make and model or a picture.

Also I disagree with most everything these posts say. You can turn sharp with a disc !!

 

[Leroy]

But it does not work good or leave a good finnish. The wheel carried KBA JD did OK turning in ground, The IHC NO 37 and Kewanee did not.

 

[Brendon-KS]

This is a Deere drag disk our club owns but I'm not sure of the model. When going around a turn the two gangs to the inside get de-angled to be essentially parallel to each other. As soon as it does this the load on the tractor lightens up and you can turn easily. Next time I use it I'll have to grab a picture when halfway through a turn.

 

[DoubleR]

I have a 37 disk and I usually lift it some when turning or it will leave a deep ridges.

 

[WNYBill]

If you have an off set disk you can leave it down and turn one direction. Anything else, lift it or break something. Worked with the Forest Service, they had an operator that never learned to lift a mounted disk, she broke $10K worth of parts that I know of. She was used to an off set and never did learn!

 

[rustred]

the disc width has a lot to do with turning . a 10 ft. or 12 ft. it is pretty hard to turn sharp as the tractor wont even turn sharp. I been discing with a 10 ft kba john deere disc since 10 years old. pull a 18 or 20 ft and ya no problem. and yes the gangs go out of wack on a sharp turn!!

 

[forester7]

My tractor has lots of power to turn while pulling it, but I am mostly concerned about the bearings. Also, what is meant by turning only one direction? Which direction, and why does it matter? One other thing, I noticed the outer discs on my front gangs are smaller diameter. What is the reason for that?

 

[showcrop]

I have used a 37 quite a lot. It was a transport model so assuming yours is too, when you get to the end, lift it, turn as tight as your tires will let you then drop it back in the ground. There is no advantage to allowing the drawbar to swing with one of these.

 

[Leroy]

Wear and that means you need all new blades. That for only turning one way is with an offset disk that only has 2 gangs, one front and second back and blades will be nothing less than 22" diameter and 10" apart. Very heavy outfit, use instead of moldboard plow. Blades breaking turning in ground more of problem than bearings and then depending on disk possibly a 10"+ ditch every place you turn.

 

[Leroy]

A swinging drawbar can actually make big problems with a wheel carried disk. Drag disk yes, wheel disk no swinging drawbar.

 

[paul]

1. Because your tractor has lots of power, be sure to lift your disk when turning more then 45 degree turn! Generally the bearings take it, but the struts that’s hold the bearings or other parts of the frame can crack and break with the extreme stress of trying to turn the blades sideways instead of rolling as designed through the dirt. This is very hard on your type of disk. It can work ok in soft dirt, but it can bust up things very quickly in hard, dry, or compacted dirt, depends on how much weight, how deep you are going with the disk. If you get some experience you can decide for yourself on when you can or can’t keep the disk down, but at this point in time, pick the disk up or you are likely to bust something when turning! The front gang on the inside of the corner will receive a lot of stress, as well as the back gang on the outside of the curve. The other 2 diagonal gangs will actually roll real easy. So you end up concentrating a great deal of stress on the front gang that is on the inside of your turn if you leave the blades down. A great deal of stress they have to skid sideways and the cup of the blades makes them dig deeper and deeper they can’t get away from the stress of a tight turn.

2. Offset disks look like either the right half or left half of your disk. They only have a front and rear axle, not the 4 axles your disk has. The entire front throws to one side, the entire back throws the other direction. The geometry of this allows one to turn in one direction and the blades loose their bite on the ground, and the disk will roll through a turn doing less disking. However trying to turn the other direction the disk will bite in very hard and likely couldn’t even pull it, or for sure would bust up something, as the geometry is against this direction working, all the blades would scrape sideways in the dirt very hard. One way the blades will be dipped into the dirt, the other way they are cupped away from the dirt. So you either push the blades very deep into the dirt, or you allow them to slip up over the dirt as you turn.

3. A disk can throw a lot of dirt and create a ridge, especially if it is pulled on the faster side. To combat this some disks they put a slightly smaller blade on the outer edges of the disk so they are less aggressive and don’t throw as much dirt as far, creating less ridging. Or, perhaps, your blades are worn. But more likely someone tried to deal with the ridging issue by putting on smaller outer blades.

Paul

 

[forester7]

Paul, thank you so much for your very detailed, and extremely helpful reply! I have a much better understanding now! Very much appreciated!