Case Plow Pull Easy?

[Joel Sanderson]

I've been told that a Case plow pulls easier than other makes. Is that true? I would like to hear your experience with this.

Also, does the Case plow turn the soil over as well as, say, an IHC #60 or #70?

I have my eye on two plows, a #60 IHC and a Case (model unknown), each in 4-14" and would like to hear your input.

Thank you.

Joel

 

[Case Nutty 1660]

Not so much different in later plows but Case plows always pulled easier than the 50's and 60's vintage JD plows,, wait someone will Scream I am fibbing here but I am not at all,, but I did hundreds if not thousands of demo's against all brands in the 60's and 70's to know it is true,, then it was a bottom different,, Oliver/IH and Ford plows all were close in how hard they pulled,, we sold a Lot of new Case plows and not just to people with Case tractors,, I have a couple IH pull-types from the 40's-50's era,, they seem to turn the dirt over fine and pull decent for sure,, the JD ones I thought turned the dirt over fine just had faster wear on the moldboards/shins and did pull harder,, the above pic I was plowing a old alfalfa field

 

[Mike Fitz]

My general opinion is for trailing plows of the 40's and 50;s the Case plows pulled easier, they used their tail wheel to take the pressure off of the landslides of the plow when properly adjusted, lowering the drag in the ground, they were also a very rigidly built plow so when adjusted they stayed where they were supposed to. By the time the IH model 60 or 70 came out IH may have adopted this too,I don't know. In my observations at plowing matches and plow days, and general farm plowing in the past, all plows will do a good job, BUT proper tractor and plow set up, as well as understanding by the operator will make the critical difference. There is a difference between stirring dirt and plowing. The IH plow will be easier to find parts for though.This is just my opinion, and I really do like Case plows.
Mike

 

[Brian Dan]

I have a Case model CH 4-14 , I pull it with my John Deere 3010 Diesel. The plow does a beautiful job. The soil looks like it has been disked .
You will not go wrong with either brand.
Brian

 

[flying belgian]

Around here in this black gumbo ground it was a known that Oliver plows pulled easiest. If you think about it though, any plow that pulls easier cannot turn the ground as complete. Hence, easy pull, less coverage. Hard pull, more coverage. That's because there has to be more friction to turn the dirt more. Now this is assuming both plows are at same depth. Think of it this way. 4-14 plow is 56 inches wide. Now lets say you take a 56" wide chisel plow. 3 shanks running the same 7" deep. That would pull very very easy but you would have almost no coverage.

 

[504]

I grew up pulling JD plows,Case and IH would be the ones I would buy now to pull.

 

[Farmallb]

We, and later I had a MM plow which dad thought pulled the best against JDs

 

[SVcummins]

International makes a good plow but after pulling a 3x14 oh and a 3/14 John Deere I can?t tell any difference in the way they pull and no way a gear faster that some ?claim?

 

[Jim Phelps]

Never owned a set, but I have always heard that oliver plows were the best????

 

[Farmallb]

I forgot that I had had a 3 bottom Case Centeninal 3 14, that we had used in NE Kansas with my grandads CC Case, but I couldnt pull it down herwe on flat land in NE Okla. I took one bottom off and was OK. But I didnt see much of a difference between it and an IHC 2 14 I later bought. I think it pulled easier, but thats just me. We used the Case as a 3 bottom in the Missouri River foothills, but I couldnt use it here on flat sandy OKLA land. Go figger

 

[Joel Sanderson]

Thank you all very much. I appreciate everything you said.

 

[Leroy]

No Case dealers around after at SC-DC era and very few before that.

 

[Leroy]

I prefered John Deere over Oliver. Best plow I had was a David Bradly from probably 46 to perhaps 53 as no longer in 54 catalog.

 

[Leroy]

Both JD and IHC were made same way in the 40's as the Case was, Also MH and MM. Never had IH but did not like Oliver, MH or MM. The JD with wider axle setting would penetrate hard ground better than the others with narrower setting of wheels and were based on adding a third bottom to a 2 bottom to get three bottom where Deere was designed as strictlt 3 bottom with no way to reduce to a 2 bottom.

 

[Joel Sanderson]

I'm not sure what you mean. I thought case bought out International Harvester in the mid 80's.

 

[GreenEnvy]

Tenneco bought out IH who owned Case and merged the two together.

 

[Billy12]

I have an old case 4 bottom trailer plow with four 16's I believe, and I think it is a fantastic plow. Plenty of clearance and does a great job digging into hard ground. I cant say that I think it pulls easy but I have only really used one other plow in my life and that was an IH fast hitch three bottom plow, which I did not care for at all.

 

[Joel Sanderson]

Thank you. It seems like the later Case plows were about the most robust plow made: the hitch connects to all three frames on the front; the bottoms' arms seem to be much beefier; and the arms the wheels are on seem larger in diameter. (Not sure my terms are right.) Looks like a more solid plow to me.

 

[Leroy]

And IH dealers did not know anything about Case. Woman that bought Dads house bought a Case 300 square nose and in trying to help her asked at IHC dealer and their question was is it a garden tractor?

 

[Joel Sanderson]

Oh sheesh. I better make sure I can get wear parts before I buy one then.

 

[DR. EVIL]

Wow, tough call, buy an IH #60 or #70 or a Case trailer plow. My Brother-in-Law's Dad convinced my Dad to buy a nice Case 4-14 trailing plow in spring 1967. Plow narrows were the hot thing that year, but putting one on a fully mounted IH Fast Hitch 4-14 plow wasn't an option. But the Case plow had more trash clearance, plugged less, and with the Midwest plow harrow did a beautiful job of plowing. I forget who it was that said it, but Case wear parts are available, think Shoups has them. The IH 4-14 is probably a #70, but they did make #60's. IH didn't make them very long, the semi-mounted plows took over.
I really can't say which would be the better plow. Buy the cheapest one with the best wear parts, paint, and tires. Dad had a nice Deere 4-14 he bought with the Deere R diesel. It was too much plow in alfalfa sod, ran 2nd gear and 1st gear on some hills. Went with our better IH #8 3-14 on old corn ground, but the R got sold. Plowed the last 16 acres with the Deere 4-14 behind the Super M-TA. That Deere plow just pulled hard.
Dad traded the 4-14 Case for a slightly older 5-14 Case trailer plow spring of '69 when he got the 4010 Deere. Unfortunately with the plow harrow that was too much plow and it took two years to get that problem solved. We should have kept the first Case 4-14 plow. We dropped the back bottom off the 5-14 and the plow with the back bottom in a pile behind it and the plow harrow beside it sold on Dad's 1st auction. With the 5-14 and harrow we were down in 2nd & 3rd gear plowing. We were maybe plowing a little deeper than we had before. The greater trash clearance of the Case plow made plugging in corn stalks a 1 maybe 2 times a day thing, not a 2,3, maybe 4 times across the field thing like with the IH #8 plows.
I'd like to find a Case or IH #60/#70 2-14 or 3-14 plow for use at plow days. Trying to use the same plow behind a Farmall Super H or M with 4" M&W pistons.

 

[Joel Sanderson]

Hey thanks. That's some good information. I'm hoping to pull the 4-14 behind my '47 D, and I'll be plowing old alfalfa fields mostly. I don't know what your soil is like where you are, but if you were having troubles pulling 4 14's with an R, I'd say it'd be too much for a D too.

I have measurements of an IH #60 4-14 and a Case A 4-14. The #60 has 25" between its bottoms, and the Case has 27". So the Case has 2" more clearance front to back than the IH. Not sure about frame clearance, but the Case does have the wheel's arms above the frame, like IH did later with their model 70. Your account of the Case plugging less is good to hear. Thank you.

joel

 

[DR. EVIL]

Our ground was kinda a mixed clay & loam, but mostly clay on hillsides, hense the creeping up hills in low gear with the R, salesman evidently made sure Dad knew the R only had TWO main bearings, so don't lug it down.
I think 3-14's would be a better match for your D, it has lots and lots of displacement but doesn't turn any rpm. 3, 4, & 5 mph gears, good tillage speeds.
Township road commissioner bought the R, wanted it to pull a big land plane type road drag and to run a heavy-duty rototiller over scarified and graded windrows of oiled dirt roads, creep along straddling the windrows in 1st gear. We never hooked a thing to the PTO shaft, just ran the PTO to get live hydraulics. They knocked the PTO out three times in three years. Commissioner got mad and traded the R for a 770 Oliver diesel that I ran two summers 9 & 10 yrs later. The Oliver wasn't a fast tractor in road gear by any means, but was faster than the R. That R just seemed to be stuck in S-L-O-W motion all the time. The first two days I plowed with it, Dad on the Super M-TA Farmall, 3-14's, running 5 mph plowing around a 40 acre sod field, Me plodding along 3 mph with 4-14's, Dad rounded the corners off every 2-3 rounds, he'd catch me, round the corners and then he'd set sail about the time I was going to pass him. A round was 1-1/2 miles, I made 2 rounds an hour, Dad made over 3. He hits a tough spot he pulls the TA back, clears the tough spot and shifts back up to full speed. The SM-TA and R both rated 48 pto HP, but we plowed 5 mph with SM-TA and 4 mph with R with the exact same 3-14 IH plow because if I tried to run in 4th gear with R, 5.3 mph I'd be stopping and shifting into 3rd several times each round, and stopping to shift back into 4th again. Everybody makes fun of the Torque-Amplifier but it was a TREMENDOUS productivity booster! When I needed to shift up or down on a hill, I raised the plow, turned out of the furrow, went back where I had plowed, pulled onto the plowed ground, stopped, shifted, started off without a load and dropped the plow back in the ground. Starting out with the plow in the ground from a dead stop takes all the adjustment out of a clutch in about a day!

 

[Joel Sanderson]

That is a really interesting story. Thank you for sharing. When my dad was a kid, his dad's best friend (my grandpa's) bought an R. It was the biggest tractor around. He pulled four bottoms with it, and I'm guessing it was a 14" plow. Around here the rocks are so thick we don't even try to plow fast. 2nd gear is all we go. When my dad bought his farm in 1968 he bought an 80 a year later, which he still has. The manual calls for 4 bottoms, but he pulls 5-16's with it, but again, that's in 2nd gear. A couple years ago I plowed for him in July, and I had to shift down into first gear for some of it.

My '44 A struggles and snorts and claws its way along pulling 2-16's. That's 29 hp. The D is half again that, so it should pull half again as much. That means 3-16's or 4-14's, I would suppose. I want to switch to 14" bottoms so that I don't plow up so many rocks. When the 4020 and its 5-16 semi-mounted plow crests a rise it digs so deep it yanks up rocks like crazy. That's an awful rig. Doesn't follow the ground at all. You spend as much time picking rocks as plowing in some fields. Let them sleep down there in peace, I say.

I guess I'll get a 3-14 or a 4-14, whichever comes along. I can always get rid of it for another plow. It seems like I'd find one before this.

 

[Joel Sanderson]

I have one rental field that I've been working for only a couple of years. There's a spot in it where the soil is very different, and the A can hardly pull the plow through it. Even when I disced that spot, the tractor made more noise and slowed down. Weird stuff. It's kinda bluish and darker, so I think it's probably clay of some kind. It's only about 50 yards long and about that wide, thank goodness, but it sure is an eye-opener for how different soils work harder than others. I sure wouldn't want to pull a 4-14 through a field of that with a D--or a 5-16 with the 80! We have a lot of variety around here, but there's nothing like that on the family place, that I know of.

 

[IowaJohn]

I got good laff over your bluish colored soil. Around here we call it blue clay. It was on a farm we'd just bought.The first time I tried to plow it was 40 years ago using a 4020 and a case 4-16 plow. I couldn't put enough weight on the front. Pretty much steered with the brakes. We couldn't raise our voice on it. It was just a small patch so we seeded it back down the next year. Still seeded down. As far as easy pulling plows both case and Oliver plows were the favorites around here followed by IH and the concensus hardest pulling plow was a Deere. I'm not prejudiced against green all my tractors and my combine are Deere.

 

[Joel Sanderson]

Wow! If a 4020 had that much trouble pulling a 4-16, that was some ornery ground!

Thank you very much for telling me which plows your area found to pull the easiest. I have my heart set on a Case model A in 4-14. Seems like the most solid plow ever built by what I can see. I've found one, but it's several hours and two states away. I should just bight the bullet and go get it and be done with it. Most of the older plows around here are 2 bottom with an occasional 3. Ugh.

Thanks again.

Joel