MF 345 Plough

[Lanark Davy]

Bought a MF 345 plough at an auction. Problem is it won't plough. It keeps kicking up the shares against the hydraulic rams. There is a little air tank on top and the hyd hose connects to it. The gauge on this sits at zero.

Can't find much info about this plough. The tractor hydraulics are fine, and I am using a 75hp Kubota so lots of power.

 

[chuck41]

This little tank is an accumulator. Normal oper.
pressure should be 1500-2100 depending on your
soil conditions. There is a "gas" nitrogen bag in
the accumulator. You pump oil in to build up pressure to the guage point. Hopefully, the bag is not ruptured. I have forgotten much but I do
have a used manual that will explain how to do it. The manual advises that low gas pressure can cause accumulator damage. Nitrogen gas press.
should be 200 lbs less than oil pressure. Dealer
should have a kit to do the pumping. Chuck

 

[Lanark Davy]

Thanks for the info Chuck, appreciate it. Would that tank be causing my problems with the ploughshares not staying in the ground, or would it be another problem?

 

[chuck41]

Yes, the plow bottoms(moldboards)will simply fold
back unless there is pressure. They are designed
to fold back if you hit a large rock etc for the
protection of the plow and the more pressure the
more it will take to fold them back. Chuck

 

[Farmer Alf]

Sounds simular to my Allis 2000 plow. Hook a hydraulic line to the accumulator. Open the valve on the accumulator. Then open the tractor hydraulic valve until the gauge reads the recomended pressure. Close the tractor valve and the accumulator valve then move the tractor valve the other way to drop line pressure to remove hose. (On mine the hose to charge the accumulator is also used to run the tail wheel) Depending on where your gauge is it may read zero even when the accumulator is charged, but unless there is pressure in the accumulator the plows will fold up on contact with the ground as you describe.

Alf

 

[Lanark Davy]

Thanks for the help, that seems to be the solution for sure. Will have to now find the hydraulic valve on the tractor, haven't needed it before, as the other stuff I have I just hook the line into the take-offs at the back.

 

[Lanark Davy]

Any one got recommended reading like a book or articles on ploughing. (different methods, best way to work etc.) I've done it in the far distant past, but this is a bigger project (30 acres) and I would like it to look good.

Did a couple of searches on the net, and all I came up with was a report about planting corn in India.

 

[IHCPloughman]

(quoted from post at 03:30:30 08/06/09) Any one got recommended reading like a book or articles on ploughing. (different methods, best way to work etc.) I've done it in the far distant past, but this is a bigger project (30 acres) and I would like it to look good.

Did a couple of searches on the net, and all I came up with was a report about planting corn in India.

They also have videos available:

http://cgi.ebay.com/BOOK-The-Tractor-Ploughing-Manual-By-Brian-Bell_W0QQitemZ310135904059QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_2?hash=item48358a573b&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

Looks like somone copied a neat book from Ransomes:

http://issuu.com/amberlady/docs/good_ploughing_hi-q

And another from England:

http://chla.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=chla;cc=chla;rgn=full%20text;idno=3130197;didno=3130197;view=image;seq=0001;node=3130197%3A1

I haven't read these online books yet, but they look very interesting. There are also different editions of a generic book about good plowing from IH floating around, but you have to pay a chunk of money for them.