ID John Deere harrow

[JohnRowehl]

We had a harrow like this back on the farm In my younger days. Dad bought it around 1975. Was called a spring tooth harrow but the angle of penetration was different than the older drag types. Left pretty deep ridges. He didn’t get the tine attachment on the back end as shown in the first photo. Seems to me you really would have to have that tine attachment if you wanted a properly prepared seedbed for drilling.

Doesn’t seem to be as rugged as what I perceive as a field cultivator. (never used one)

The frame was just like the one in the first photo but it folded forward like the one in the second photo, which has a slight variation in the tong design.

I think we had slightly bigger bends in the outrigger pipes than the one in the third photo!

Can anyone ID the model number and what it was “officially“ called.
Thanks.

 

[Tx Jim]

I think that's a model 1740 Drawn Spring Tooth Harrow or possibly 1850 Field Conditioner

 

[JohnRowehl]

That's it. The 1740
Thank you.

 

[Tx Jim]

You're welcome. I couldn't determine if either model had wings that folded forward not vertical.

 

[JohnRowehl]

Thing that puzzled me was the way they designed the position of the hydraulic cylinder. The piston shaft was extended in the foldedup/transport/storage position.
Now I know most tillage equipment gets stored inside (he said, tongue in cheek). And if you didn’t, I know the conscientiousness operator would cover exposed cylinder pistons with grease or rust would form.
(We must have not been that conscientious all the time)

 

[Tx Jim]

Hyd cylinder pistons aren't exposed but the chrome plated cylinder rods are exposed whenever the rod is extended.

 

[JohnRowehl]

 

[casecollectorsc]

Have had a 30' cultivator like that for over 30 years. Mine has the harrow on the back. Mine has shovels on the spring tines. Have had to replace them a few times. Have had some shanks break...never checked to see if available, just replaced with Glencoe shanks. Made a good seed bed to plant corn in. I have never seen another till now.

 

[JohnRowehl]

I remember having the shovels bolted onto the spring tines after they started wearing down. Like wide cultivator teeth, reversible. Seem to recall they had a tendency to crack in half. Left a wider groove between ridges.

 

[caterpillar guy]

They will work fine if there is no trash on the ground if you have trash look at field cultivators the shanks are spaced father apart and let the trash through better. I can remember the old spring tooth plugging with what looked like not much trash on the surface.

 

[JohnRowehl]

I remember one of the reasons my father bought it was because he was “swapping“ fields with neighboring potato farmers to grow wheat. This was an area with a lot of continuous potato production. So they got their field “rested” and Dad got free fertilizer. There were occasional mounds of soil and chopped up vines that a disk harrow would roll over so he wanted something to pull through it and level them out. Worked ok until they started using potato harvesters with de-viners on them which eliminated the need to roto-beat the vines but resulted in piles of tangled vines left in the field that the harrow wasn’t made to handle.