disc/harrow

[Hippie]

I use this disc, to groom A outdoor arena. Should rear disc angel be changed? Its all clay, here. Ill try to post pics

 

[Hippie]

Think it worked this time

 

[JMOR]

(quoted from post at 18:50:11 05/08/11) I use this disc, to groom A outdoor arena. Should rear disc angel be changed? Its all clay, here. Ill try to post pics

hy? Does it leave the earth looking different than you desire?

 

[Hobo,NC]

Just wondering... how deep dose that thang cut while grom'n,,, If it does scratch the ground good do you have a problem with it hill'n the dirt... I know nuttin about grom'n a arena just curious...

 

[Bill Crowell]

hippie, if you put weight like that on your disc harrow, you"ll eventually break the bearing caps on those ribbed spool bearings. Disc harrows are not constructed to handle any additional weight. Only you won't realize the bearing caps have broken right away, and by the time you discover it they will have loosened up and stripped all the threads off their hardened mounting bolts. This is a very difficult repair because you don"t have enough room to get in there with an angle grinder to cut the bolts off in order to replace them. You have to muscle the nuts off the mounting bolts with a breaker bar and a long lever while somebody else holds the head of the bolt. Remember, those bolts are hardened steel. In other words, you don't want this to happen. Just use your disc with no additional weight. If it won't cut into the soil, you need to break the soil up some other way (box scraper with teeth installed?), dampen the soil somehow or wait until after a rain. Once a season at least, clean up the mounting bolts and nuts, squirt some penetrating oil on them and make sure they are very tight.

 

[DRCA]

clay only??? mix some-- as in semi truckloads of sand in your arena. You'll need about 4inches of good loose material on top. Your animals will love it.

 

[Pooh Bear]

If you want the disks to cut deeper then shorten the top link.
To plow my garden I put the rear disks about 3inches higher
than the front disks. All the weight goes to the front.
The front disks plow and the rear disks smooth it out (a little).

Pooh Bear

 

[jackinok]

I was wondering about that also,leaving ridges maybe?needing it to dig in less?or more?normally angling gangs more makes them dig in deeper,angling them less makes them dig in less, if that helps any.level front to back generally leaves ground smoothest.down in front should make that one leave a ridge in middle as would down in back i would think.weight should be in center across all all discs evenly instead of in just front.if, like someone else said ,it could stand the extra weight.

 

[Hippie]

Thanks for advice. the wieght, is there for winter. I use the disc as counter wieght, for moving bales. The disc leaves a winrow in the center. thought if I took the angle out of the rear, it may cut clmps better and not leave the row

 

[jackinok]

Try running it slower,and if needs be double disc to take the ridge out.Set it level front to back and side to side.Taking the angle out of the rear gang should make it throw less dirt to middle if thats where its ridging,also IF front gangs are worn out,and you have to set front down to make them cut,you naturally would be trying to cut like a ditch with rear gang and throw more dirt to center.I dont really know how to explain it,but cut a "v" out of card board,lay it flat on a table and then lower or raise the front and back and you can see how changing settings makes it throw more or less to center.Front set of discs wear more,over time.Once they get worn enough you simply cant run disc level and make front do anything,the only option then is to replace front discs.Yours really dont look too bad in the pictures though,but one thing i did notice,if that disc is setting on level ground,the left rear end of back gang is off the ground.If so check and see if the frame of your disc is warped.For sure (if its on the level of course)that will make it throw dirt to center simply because center discs are deeper.

 

[R Geiger]

It doesn't look like you have much for adjustment on the rear gang, but i would adjust it , if you are concerned about the center ridge. We always drug a tooth harror behind the disc to smooth out the ground, but then we only used the disc on soft ground after plowing. a good old spring tooth harror might work better on an arena.

 

[steve_fay]

I think you could reduce the ridges also by either overlapping passes or using a criss-cross pattern -- which an old ag book I have recommends for preparing a seed bed.

If your just want to break yo the crust, not dig it down much or move much dirt around, dragging a tooth harrow might be better. Or you could pull a rottary how.

As for weight on a disk harrow. I've seen a few old ones with racks on the top made for concrete blocks, but your newer model doesn't have that.