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Minimum Tractor for Five Bottom Moldboard Plow

Yesterday's Tractor Forums
L

lastcowboy32

Well-known Member
Fairly straightforward question.

There is a set of five-bottoms sitting idle on the land that we rent that belong to the landowner.

Previous years, our largest tractor was a Ford 4000, so for tillage, I borrowed a neighbor's New Holland 4030T and his seven foot tiller.

Now that we have the Mahindra 6075, I wonder if it's up to the task.

I think that traction would be OK, since it's 4WD and about 10,000 pounds with the loader on it.

But the engine is rated at 75HP with a PTO rating of 61HP.

My brother used to use a Farmall 706 gas on four bottoms regularly back in the 70's, before dad bought the IH 856.

I would put the new Mahindra in about the same engine category as the 706 with traction being much, much better.

But five bottoms?

It seems to be maybe a little bit of a reach to think that the Mahindra could pull them.
 

The reason that I bring this up is that I think that we would be better off, with the five or ten acres that we till for sweet corn and such, to spread manure heavy on it in the fall and plow it over.

Then finish tillage in the spring.

As opposed to previous years, where we did nothing in the fall and then two or three tiller passes in late May.
 
I have ploughed hundreds of acres and one thing I
can tell you is , it depends ! Is it sandy light soil, or
heavy clay. ? Is this sod ground, or corn stubble? I
need at least 100hp to pull a 5 furrow 18 inch
bottom plough on my farm. I used my 966 IH on the
plough for many years, but all too often I would be
riding on only two wheels. I now use my Kubota M6
141 four wheel drive with the loader on, and nothing
stops me.
I do agree with fall application of manure followed
by turning it under. I don?t know if you live where
real winter comes like I do, where the ground
freezes solid. If so, the frost will help mellow the
ground, busting it apart after being ploughed.
 
I'll second that. The potato growers around here talk about pulling 6 with the 930 Cases when they first came out,but that was on that clean sandy potato ground. I pull 4 18s with my 137 horse White 2-135. It's overkill to beat the band on clean level ground,but on these red clay hills in alfalfa sod,it'll still make it stand straight in the air.
Some folks will still recall pulling 3 14s with an Oliver Super 66 in some of that level northwest Ohio ground,but my uncle only pulled 2 16s up around here in the hills with his Oliver 88 from the day it was new.
 

The 706 needed a bunch weight on the front end when my brother used it on four bottoms in clay grass sod. I do remember that.
 

Size of bottom, mounted, pull or semi mount?

I'm pulling a 3x12 in clay sod here with similar size tractor, would likely handle a 5x12, but a 3x16 might be too much.
 

Good questions. I'll measure tomorrow. The plow is in a field that we are currently grazing as "afterfeed." I can measure the moldboards when I check the cows in the morning.
 
The brand and model would be very helpful. A picture would be better yet. The plow may
be easily reduced to a 4 bottom which would be much more suitable. I don't remember
the ground being particularly heavy when I was dealing with farmers up there, as long
as you could find some between the granite outcropings.
Loren
 
Depends alot on the soil. In our hard clay
I have stopped the 4840 with a deere 5-18.
Its dry and hard here that I cant pull a 5
shank in line ripper 18 inches with an
8300 mfwd. Now on the other side of the
river we can pull the 5-18 with the 4320
no problem.
 
In my heavy dirt a 60hp pto tractor is a 3-16 plow.

85-100hp is a 4 bottom.

I pulled a 4-18 with 145 hp and some years that was a full pull. Other years I could have pulled a 5 bottom.

I just got a 210 hp tractor and found a 6-16 on land plow for it.

If yours is front wheel assist it may be difficult to adjust both front and back wheels to line up in the furrow. Something to think about anyhow.

In no way shape or form would a 60hp tractor pull 5 bottoms in my dirt. I do have some of the most difficult types of heavy wet clay soil types to plow so I realize some
can do more bottoms or les hp than I need.

This isn?t as straight forward a question as you think. :)

Paul
 
Here in my part of Minnesota that works well, do rough tillage in fall, it freezes up over winter, mellows out in spring thaw and one pass with a good field cultivator
makes a good seedbed, warms and dries the ground in spring.

Paul
 
What brand of plow???? Many of them can easily be made into a 4 bottom by just unbolting one bottom. As for you pulling five bottoms with your tractor??? I do not think you will be able to do it.
 
You might be alright if its a White 5-16 but if it is a JD. 5-20 lookout. Here in S.C. Mn. I pull a 4 bottom vari-width JD. set at 24" with a 210 hp. Cat track. Gives it all she
wants. The vari-width JD. plows have moldboards as big as your kitchen table. That takes power.
 
Type of soil will make the difference. Dad pulled 4-16's with his 706 german diesel. It worked that 706. I doubt it would pull 5 bottom in our soil.
 
I busted all clay ground this spring that
hasn't been worked in 20 years with my
Mahindra 6530 pulling a Deere 145 5 bottom
semi mount. Plow had 2 busted points but
it pulled it.
Hook it up and see what happens. Can
always take one off
 

Now I need to post a picture. I was looking at the plows, and there is a bar across the front with large white numbers on it that look like settings as you slide the chassis across the bar. The numbers were, I think, 16, 20, 24, etc...

I thought maybe they were settings to draft to get the tractor in the furrow.

Maybe it's a vari-width...

Pictures this morning. Having coffee, out to see the cows and the plow soon.

:)
 
mvphoto43434.jpg


mvphoto43435.jpg


mvphoto43436.jpg
 

I had a 70 HP 2 wheel drive Case that pulled 5 bottoms no problem. I as going both up and down hill in fairly heavy upland soil.
 
On the heavier soil here you would need at least 90 HP to pull 5 X 16's. Go about a mile west and a 90 HP tractor would pull 6 X 16's with little effort.
 

My take on this plow is that I think the bottoms are 16 inches. Definitely not 14.

There are also 4 locations for either rams or threaded adjustable toplink-type adjustments.

As it is set right now, If I were to draw a line parallel to the tongue down the center... and then measure perpendicular to that from the rolling edge of the front moldboard to the cutting edge of the last, I would get maybe 36 inches or so.

Which, if I look at the numbers on the front. ... would tell me that the plow is currently set as less than 3 "bottoms".

It seems to me that, if this is a usable setting, not just a road travel setting, the tractor should pull it easily.
 

Do I have the just of this machine correct?

I would get a manual for the details, but I think I have a rough idea.
 

These may be 18" bottoms. At least 16".

It was hard to tell exactly, since the bottom cutting edge has settled into the ground. I couldn't exactly measure where the bottom edge squared off and where the moldboard began.
 
I'll bet you will have to move your right rear tire out. Most of the Mahindra's I've seen have the wheels
too close together(just looked at a 7520) to make a plow tractor. Seems to me, I have to have 26 inches
from the rt. rear sidewall to the center point of the tractor. You have to read your plow manual to be sure.
You measure plow size point to point. 3/16's make a 4 foot dirty strip, 3/14's a 42 inch dirty strip.

Bill
 
Just measure on the top of frame. Put your tape measure on one beam and measure to the
next, holding the tape perpendicular to the individual beams, not the backbone. You
don't measure the length of the shear, you measure the width the shear cuts, and there
are different lengths of shears used on the same width bottoms. Example full cut
shears and clipped shears.--------------Loren
 
(quoted from post at 06:50:39 10/03/19)
These may be 18" bottoms. At least 16".

It was hard to tell exactly, since the bottom cutting edge has settled into the ground. I couldn't exactly measure where the bottom edge squared off and where the moldboard began.
Click to expand...

Uhh, that s a John Deere 2600 auto reset variable width plow. I doubt you could even hook that up to a lil mahindra let alone do anything with it. That would be a handful for a 125hp tractor.
 
After seeing the pics below, you have a JD Vairy-Width plow. The plow is a 4 Bottom
with a 5th add-on so you can make it smaller for your tractor.---------Loren
 
(quoted from post at 07:26:14 10/03/19)
(quoted from post at 06:50:39 10/03/19)
These may be 18" bottoms. At least 16".

It was hard to tell exactly, since the bottom cutting edge has settled into the ground. I couldn't exactly measure where the bottom edge squared off and where the moldboard began.
Click to expand...

Uhh, that s a John Deere 2600 auto reset variable width plow. I doubt you could even hook that up to a lil mahindra let alone do anything with it. That would be a handful for a 125hp tractor.
Click to expand...

I think that you are probably mistaken with what "Mahindra" means.

They sell quite a few small tractors.

The Mahindra that I have has demonstrated this summer that it can pull a baler through mudholes with a fully loaded haywagon that my brother's IH856, a much "bigger" tractor would have been buried in.

I love big, old tractors as much as the next guy, but I'm starting to appreciate that maybe engineers have learned a little about proper balance and traction in the last 50 years, as opposed to sheer weight and cubic inches. If you would have told me that this thing could out-pull that 856 last year, I would have laughed. I'm not laughing anymore.

The hydraulics in new tractors are quite different than what many people expect or are accustomed to. The loader on this thing is rated for 5000 lbs breakout and 3500 lbs to the top of its lift.

If this 2600 is truly variable width, and can be set to, say, three bottoms equivalent width, I'm thinking it's a definite possibility.
 

Although... This issue... Tire placement may be an issue. There isn't much room on the axles to slide the tires out.
 
(quoted from post at 07:58:02 10/03/19)
(quoted from post at 07:26:14 10/03/19)
(quoted from post at 06:50:39 10/03/19)
These may be 18" bottoms. At least 16".

It was hard to tell exactly, since the bottom cutting edge has settled into the ground. I couldn't exactly measure where the bottom edge squared off and where the moldboard began.
Click to expand...

Uhh, that s a John Deere 2600 auto reset variable width plow. I doubt you could even hook that up to a lil mahindra let alone do anything with it. That would be a handful for a 125hp tractor.
Click to expand...

I think that you are probably mistaken with what "Mahindra" means.

They sell quite a few small tractors.

The Mahindra that I have has demonstrated this summer that it can pull a baler through mudholes with a fully loaded haywagon that my brother's IH856, a much "bigger" tractor would have been buried in.

I love big, old tractors as much as the next guy, but I'm starting to appreciate that maybe engineers have learned a little about proper balance and traction in the last 50 years, as opposed to sheer weight and cubic inches. If you would have told me that this thing could out-pull that 856 last year, I would have laughed. I'm not laughing anymore.

The hydraulics in new tractors are quite different than what many people expect or are accustomed to. The loader on this thing is rated for 5000 lbs breakout and 3500 lbs to the top of its lift.

If this 2600 is truly variable width, and can be set to, say, three bottoms equivalent width, I'm thinking it's a definite possibility.
Click to expand...

I don t think you could physically attach the tractor to this plow. It s likely a category 3 hitch and you re lil tractor is at best a category 2 and more likely a category 1. This thing is matched for a 4450-4850 Deere tractor. No matter what you claim, you can t outpull one of those on the mahindras best day.

If you want to plow, you need to find something smaller. Plows are cheap because lots of them are sitting unused. You are better off finding a much smaller much lighter 3 bottom plow for your tractor.

Why would you want to pull the guts out of your tractor with this much too much plow versus finding a proper sized plow for $250-$1000?
 
(quoted from post at 07:59:53 10/03/19)
Although... This issue... Tire placement may be an issue. There isn't much room on the axles to slide the tires out.
Click to expand...

You know, if you are good with welding, you could pry take two of the bottoms off this plow and make a fully mounted unit. It likely plows best at 20". Plows generally get pulled at a depth half their width, not always, but generally. Pulling 40 inches wide 8-10 inches deep might still be too much in some conditions, but you d have a lot better chance at that.
 
(quoted from post at 08:25:35 10/03/19)
(quoted from post at 07:58:02 10/03/19)
(quoted from post at 07:26:14 10/03/19)
(quoted from post at 06:50:39 10/03/19)
These may be 18" bottoms. At least 16".

It was hard to tell exactly, since the bottom cutting edge has settled into the ground. I couldn't exactly measure where the bottom edge squared off and where the moldboard began.
Click to expand...

Uhh, that s a John Deere 2600 auto reset variable width plow. I doubt you could even hook that up to a lil mahindra let alone do anything with it. That would be a handful for a 125hp tractor.
Click to expand...

I think that you are probably mistaken with what "Mahindra" means.

They sell quite a few small tractors.

The Mahindra that I have has demonstrated this summer that it can pull a baler through mudholes with a fully loaded haywagon that my brother's IH856, a much "bigger" tractor would have been buried in.

I love big, old tractors as much as the next guy, but I'm starting to appreciate that maybe engineers have learned a little about proper balance and traction in the last 50 years, as opposed to sheer weight and cubic inches. If you would have told me that this thing could out-pull that 856 last year, I would have laughed. I'm not laughing anymore.

The hydraulics in new tractors are quite different than what many people expect or are accustomed to. The loader on this thing is rated for 5000 lbs breakout and 3500 lbs to the top of its lift.

If this 2600 is truly variable width, and can be set to, say, three bottoms equivalent width, I'm thinking it's a definite possibility.
Click to expand...

I don t think you could physically attach the tractor to this plow. It s likely a category 3 hitch and you re lil tractor is at best a category 2 and more likely a category 1. This thing is matched for a 4450-4850 Deere tractor. No matter what you claim, you can t outpull one of those on the mahindras best day.

If you want to plow, you need to find something smaller. Plows are cheap because lots of them are sitting unused. You are better off finding a much smaller much lighter 3 bottom plow for your tractor.

Why would you want to pull the guts out of your tractor with this much too much plow versus finding a proper sized plow for $250-$1000?
Click to expand...


I get what you're saying.

I don't want my tractor's engine to have to cash checks that my pride is writing...

The hitch on the Mahindra is Cat II. That, I'm sure of. I didn't measure the pins on the plow to see if they are Cat III.

The neighbor that we work with has a large Case 4WD, something like a 2290 (I think...Case numbers are hard for me to remember, they are so weird to me)... All I know is that it's BIG and heavy.

He and I have worked together on this particular 60 acre piece, (the total size of the field that we do our 5 or 10 acres of sweet corn in). All of it could use a re-seeding, which would make his hay better on the rest of it and he may be agreeable to me using the 2290 to plow, while using the Mahindra for other tasks.

If that's a better size fit for this plow in the end, perhaps I would be better off pursuing that option.

The reason that I'm even thinking about the five bottom, as opposed to buying a small, cheap plow has a couple of points...

1. If we could use the five bottom, we would be able to work more of this field than just the few acres that we've been doing for sweet corn. We could also do maybe ten or fifteen acres of it every year with oats and seeding; which would get us some straw and completely renovate the field after a few years. This isn't something that I would consider doing with a small plow or a tiller... unless I wanted to go crazy.

2. The plow is essentially "free"... it is there to be used and the owner will let us use it as long as we are renting his land.
 

You re going to need 125-200 hp row crop tractor to pull this. If his case is a row crop and he s willing to move the tires and it is at least 125hp, it will pull it.

You should get it lifted up and see how the wear parts look. A worn plow can be hard to get to do a good job. Wear parts can run $100 per bottom depending on how much you need to change. If the mold boards themselves are bad, add another $150-200 per bottom. Otherwise, it s shins shares and landsides. Rotten hoses and pitted cylinders can also add up. I ve found that "free" can get very expensive.
 
One drawbar HP per inch of cut was the ballpark years ago. That would have you pulling at around 4 MPH in good soil. Today I think 1.5 drawbar HP per inch of cut is more normal and they plow deeper and move 5 MPH and faster with much less spinning and lugging down than in the old days.

With a properly sized plow (3- 14, 3-16, or in a stretch maybe 4-14 in very light soil) you should be able to turn under close to 1 1/2 acres per hour with your 60 PTO HP tractor (around 54 drawbar HP?). Plowing ten acres would only take 6 or 7 hours and the whole 60 acres would only take about 40 hours. Even gearing up with just 2-16 might get the job done quicker than you might want a fun job to last.

If your loader has a quick-tach bucket, remove the bucket for better visibility and better balance (more weight on the rear axle).
 

Am I missing the point of the variable width?

It looks like this plow could be setup to till as little as maybe 42"... give or take, or as much as, I don't know... maybe 90".

That would be a huge range in HP requirements.

Is this true? Or is it intended to be used as its full 5 bottom width and only narrowed down when the piece is nearly finished and you don't have a full 5 bottoms of width left to plow?

What is the actual use of variable width?
 
I suspect the minimum width of the plow is 16 inch bottoms, maybe 14 inch but I doubt that. The plow probably has 20 inch bottoms that can be set to maximum of 22 or 24 inches. Look online for more info or find a pre-owned operator's manual on E-bay.
 
(quoted from post at 10:15:56 10/03/19) I suspect the minimum width of the plow is 16 inch bottoms, maybe 14 inch but I doubt that. The plow probably has 20 inch bottoms that can be set to maximum of 22 or 24 inches. Look online for more info or find a pre-owned operator's manual on E-bay.
Click to expand...

Guess I'll have to get a manual.

This sounds as though I would need to get different shares for different widths.

It looks to me as though it could run as narrow as two of the bottoms or as wide as five of them, depending upon the hydraulic cylinder that sets the angle of the tongue to the frame.

A manual is about 20 bucks on ebay. I've spent more for less information. :-)
 
With the removable rear bottom, you could make it a 4 bottom with some wrenches and a winch/ loader/ jack.

Variable width, you may be able to narrow it to 14 inches. (You measure a plow bottom width straight across the frame, not the diagonal length of the bottom lay. You
probably can use the same lay for different widths.)

You might be able to pull a 4-14 plow with 60 hp in a lighter soil. It would be worth thinking about or trying if you have time to waste. You might be driving slower than
ideal or you might be hard on the tractor, watch it for overheating. Here it would not work, but we have very tough soils here.

The odds of pulling that plow as a 5 bottom with 60hp set at any width in sod ranges from unlikely to none. You have the traction, as you mention, but you don?t have
the hp and lugging ability. Your example of pulling a baler through mud is an example of using the traction, not really needing the hp and torque. For plowing, you need
torque and heavy hp. These are different concepts, the baler through mud is the opposite of pulling a plow. Would take pages to explain properly, but the Mahindra
engine is more like a car to race with for a few minutes, not a Pete truck to pull 80,000 lbs across the country with. They are different, hp is only one rating.

Our tractors are hobbies or tools for us. They don?t actually represent our manhood, and we shouldn?t try to pretend they are the strongest one out there and could
move the whole earth if we found a clevis to hitch on to....... you can wear an engine and drivetrain out pretty quick doing more than it?s able to do. If you have a smaller
plow and drive closer to 5mph you might get more done in a 10 hour day than over lugging a big plow and leaving lumpy ground from going 2mph.

I would take the 806 for plowing over a Mahindra any day. Your tractor is really nice for a small acreage and utility work and using a loader tho, very nice tractor for
those jobs and something to be proud of for your main uses.

Just some thoughts.

Paul
 
(quoted from post at 10:00:09 10/03/19)
Am I missing the point of the variable width?

It looks like this plow could be setup to till as little as maybe 42"... give or take, or as much as, I don't know... maybe 90".

That would be a huge range in HP requirements.

Is this true? Or is it intended to be used as its full 5 bottom width and only narrowed down when the piece is nearly finished and you don't have a full 5 bottoms of width left to plow?

What is the actual use of variable width?
Click to expand...

It plows best in the middle of the range. You can narrow it up in difficult areas and widen it out in easy areas, but it didn't do as nice a job at narrowest and widest. You could also use it to finish up the last pass with no overlap.
 
Agree on all counts of torque/hp, lugging and such.

The Mahindra is a small block with a turbo charger. As such, to me, I don't think it has the torque/lugging power out of the hole, especially with the tier 4 emissions, of some old 806/856. What I've noticed about the tier 4 emissions is that the engine is set to never smoke. If you take the tractor out on the road with a load of hay, put it into high range and let out on the clutch, the engine's control system will try to get that load moving without producing any smoke. It takes a little bit of bite out of the engine's power. I still am happy with that, though, because I can use the machine for eight hours on the baler and not smell like I swam in a vat of diesel for the afternoon.

I think my brother's IH856 is a D407 block, 407 cubic inches. The Mahindra that I have is 2.6 liters, less than half that many cubic inches.

A Farmall 806 or 706 would also have more cubic inches (the old German diesels were what? 281ci or something?) , more mass in the block... which helps to dissipate heat.

Traction though? Not even close between the balance of the newer tractors with MFWD and the old row crops with heavy front ends and pizza cutter front tires just opening the sod to bury the rest of the tractor.

I don't have any dreams of working this machine day after day pulling a plow.

A tiller would suit the engine better, and I can borrow a seven foot tiller. With that, I could creep along at 2 to 2.5mph. Roughly 2 acres an hour... two passes for corn.... three for grass seed...

If I can't move this plow quickly enough to work faster than the tiller...while keeping the engine temperature down; then it's not worth the experiment... I"ll just see if I can use the tiller or a bigger tractor.
 
I was kinda getting interested in seeing your progress with making it a 4 bottom and trying it out. :)

Paul
 
(quoted from post at 12:32:20 10/03/19) I was kinda getting interested in seeing your progress with making it a 4 bottom and trying it out. :)

Paul
Click to expand...

Didn't say I won't try it :)

It seems as though I could try running it as a four and then slightly narrow it to 52" of tillage (4x14).

I'm just saying what my criteria is for success/failure.

I'm curious, but not curious enough to ruin a perfectly good tractor by being stubborn. If it seems like it's working OK, and the tractor isn't being overloaded... great. Otherwise, I need to have a plan B, rather than burn out a very nice tractor.

There are a ton of other questions here, I've done a little bit of reading about these 2600's and all of the fancy hydraulic steering and such has things that need to be checked out
 
(quoted from post at 13:01:31 10/03/19)
Sorry...coffee is wearing off... 4x14 is 56 inches of tillage.
Click to expand...

I also wouldn't try this maybe at all on well established sod. I know the history of this meadow, though. The previous lessor roundup-ed the 60acres to death a few years back and planted it to corn.

It sat fallow for a year and didn't even grow weeds.

We have leased the land (the 60 acre meadow is part of 160 total) for the two years after that. We've planted sweet corn on five to ten acres of it, and our neighbor took a cutting of hay off of it this summer after we cooperatively bush-hogged all of it in June to knock the weeds back.

The hay that he got was thin. There is a little bit of clover coming back naturally, but not much else.

The ground has its share of clay in it, but the sod is sparse and not very strong.

If this was some field with a strong, heavy-rooted sod... that would steer me toward giving up on the idea entirely.
 

Been a great discussion, though... we got into hp, torque, weight, traction, different types of sod...

I guess determining what tractor you need for a plow isn't a slam dunk... :-)
 
Enjoyable conversation. Sometimes the limits of a printed word and Short forum replies make it a little odd sounding, but I enjoy a thread like this.

Seeing the plow really helped.

It?s worth trying a 4-14 plow on 60 hp tractor on medium/ light ground for hobby size acres, not day after day farming.

You shouldn?t burn out the tractor unless you are just bull headed to keep going. You will know if it works or not. It?s not uncommon to shallow up an inch to get through
tough spots or shift down. A concern is if you are going to plow that dang field no matter what.... but sounds like you are going in level headed. Watch the temps, listen
to the lugging and watch the engine rpm. You will know.

So then the concerns turn to:

Time to convert the plow over. Rusty old bolts and all. But most of us here on this forum are into such things so not a problem. Might be kinda rusty old iron to narrow it
up as well, make the width move as it should, every bottom has to pivot some, lots of pieces that need to move if they haven?t in years.

The hitch size, is the plow a cat 2 or cat 3 size. Likely came as either but finding the right parts any more to go to cat 2 could be time consuming. Sometimes it?s as easy
as putting 2 new pins on from the fleet and farm store, sometimes it?s a lot more to narrow up the width to cat 2 standards.

Lining up the right side wheels of the tractor to plow in furrow. Some tractors don?t want you to change the front width, some you need to flip the rims backwards then
you have to remount the tires then you are investing some real time and maybe real money into this, they likely don?t like the front wheels set wide for loader work so
you are looking at going back and forth on this if needed. Maybe your tractor is designed to adjust easier but I don?t often see that on small/ mid sized front wheel assist
tractors any more. If they are really close to lined up you can likely adjust the plow some to fit where the tractor wheels are, but that may affect how the plow follows in a
straight line, so it?s a process to consider how it all flows together.

My three concerns might be big deals or turn into nothing much at all, just supposing how I would examine it.

Paul
 
I just bought a 210hp front wheel assist. I happened to find a 6 bottom onland plow at an auction 60 miles away, I bought it. We mostly chisel plow now, I used to plow
with a 4-18 plow but taking the dual off and lining wheels up was a pain of a day of work, then back again to do other work.

I think this will be nice to hook on the plow and go plow 15-20 ares here and there. Stay onland so the duals and wheel spacing won?t matter.

Was a long day of driving to go pick up the plow, but it ended up a nice drive.

Paul
 

Looking at images on the internet of the 2600 with either Cat II or Cat III, I believe this particular 2600 is setup as Cat II, which is favorable. The Mahindra is setup for that.

Rusty bolts are no issue, I just got fresh oxygen for my tanks yesterday...
 
Not to sound like a no-it-all but here is a little schooling on JD. plows. The model 2600 that op has posted pictures of below is not a vari-width plow. Nor is it an on-land hitch.
You are driving in the furrow. The JD. vari-width is model 2800 which I have. The numbers on the bar in front have no significance to the width of cut. They designate the width of
cut for the front moldboard in relation to the wheel setting on your tractor. In other words you can pull plow with one of your tractors where wheel spacing is set for 40 inch rows
and tomorrow you can hook on your other tractor with wheel setting for 30" rows. When hooking to tractor with different wheel spacing you simply adjust that hitch to adjust the
width of cut for front bottom. Make note of what indicator number it was set at so you know where to adjust it next week when you hook it back on the other tractor. In your 5th.
picture you will see the 1" holes where you can mount a cylinder to make that adjustment simple. I have a manual turnbuckle in mine as I always pull mine with same tractor. I don't
even have another tractor on the farm that could pull my plow even if I wanted to. Now that being said, if you put a hyd. cylinder in there and you come upon a tough spot you could
narrow up the width of front cut to help you out. But keep in mind if you have a 20" frame and you narrow the width of first bottom to much, You will not have enough dirt to fill
previous furrow. So looking across finished field you will see every time you moved hitch. Maybe that won't matter to you. I know I don't like it in my fields. I want mine to be
so uniform that you can't tell how many bottom plow I have.
 
No need to slide tires on tractor. That is the point of the adjustable hitch on the plow. You leave tractor tires where ever they are and adjust hitch by those numbers on front bar
so you get first cut the proper width to fill the previous furrow.
 
Let me make this a little more clear. Some of you may remember the old model 1450 JD. plow. It seams everyone and his neighbor had one. They also had a turnbuckle to adjust hitch so you could get width of first cut to match your tractor tire width without adjusting your tractor tread. They just didn't have numbers on the bar. So don't let the numbers on the bar fool you. It is not a vari-width plow.
 
Gotcha. That would just be the left/ right adjustment.

I?m not up on JD plows, other than the 145H I ran too many years.

Paul
 
(quoted from post at 21:54:01 10/03/19) Gotcha. That would just be the left/ right adjustment.

I?m not up on JD plows, other than the 145H I ran too many years.

Paul
Click to expand...

After further investigation, I'm going to buy the manual.

I've looked at the available images and manuals online of both the JD2600 and the JD2800. As nearly as I can tell, the only difference between the two is that the 2800 is an "on land" version, with its own wheel to ride in front of the first bottom.

If the adjustment on the 2600 was only "left to right" then the angle of the tongue would remain the same relative to the backbone of the plow that all of the bottoms ride on, regardless of where the adjustment is set. (For instance, see photos of JD2500 plows; which have a rigid angle set between the tongue and backbone.)

If you look at the JD2600 and JD2800; both of them have the same exact adjustable relationship between the tongue and backbone which appear to change the overall width of land tilled depending on the angle that's set.

The 2600 manual shows that this angle can be set with a turnbuckle. I'm sure that a ram could be placed there as well.

Either way, I'll find out when I get the manual.

I guess it just irks me to see what was once such a high-line piece of equipment just sitting there in the field. If I can figure out a way to use it, it would just make my sense of utility very happy.
 
Yup, as long as you have your bearings and realistic expectations of where you might end up, it?s fun to play with this stuff.

That?s what this forum is all about, having some fun with the old stuff.

Paul
 
Lots of discussion here!!! I gather you don't own the plow so permission is needed to do anything with it. If granted, first thing I would do is hook onto it and get it out of the weeds to see whats really there. For your tractor, I would drop off the last bottom and make it a 4 bottom, you'll have a better chance of pulling it. Looks like all the wear parts might be a little rusty, spend a day with a grinder polishing the moldboards and shares and then go try it out. Don't plan on going very fast. jmho, Chris
 
(quoted from post at 16:31:08 10/06/19) Lots of discussion here!!! I gather you don't own the plow so permission is needed to do anything with it. If granted, first thing I would do is hook onto it and get it out of the weeds to see whats really there. For your tractor, I would drop off the last bottom and make it a 4 bottom, you'll have a better chance of pulling it. Looks like all the wear parts might be a little rusty, spend a day with a grinder polishing the moldboards and shares and then go try it out. Don't plan on going very fast. jmho, Chris
Click to expand...

Chris, there is a frequent poster here who says to sandblast the shares to clean them up.
 
(quoted from post at 17:56:50 10/06/19)
(quoted from post at 16:31:08 10/06/19) Lots of discussion here!!! I gather you don't own the plow so permission is needed to do anything with it. If granted, first thing I would do is hook onto it and get it out of the weeds to see whats really there. For your tractor, I would drop off the last bottom and make it a 4 bottom, you'll have a better chance of pulling it. Looks like all the wear parts might be a little rusty, spend a day with a grinder polishing the moldboards and shares and then go try it out. Don't plan on going very fast. jmho, Chris
Click to expand...

Chris, there is a frequent poster here who says to sandblast the shares to clean them up.
Click to expand...

Thanks.

I do have some minimal sand blasting capability. On a large surface that's easy to get at, like a plow share, I wonder how a good wire brush on an angle grinder would work.

I know that my brother used to always coat his plows with grease when he put them up to try to prevent this.

This is quickly becoming perhaps a more important issue for an odd reason... We couldn't spread our manure pile last fall, due to what I called the "historic mud season".

Now, we've gone through that mud season, a nasty spring mud season, a wet summer... and now another wet fall is shaping up.

I may need about ten to fifteen acres of "sacrificial" land to spread at least some of our manure pile on this fall... some land that I can rut up with the manure spreader and then just plow it all over, manure, ruts and all and then hope that things are workable next spring.

I haven't gotten as much use out of that nice spreader that I got from you, because it's been so darned wet!
 
An angle grinder with a wire wheel won't get the bottoms as shiny as dirt will. But it won't remove much good metal either. That said, Any cleaning you can do beforehand is that much less to do in the field.
 

I wouldn't want to sandblast myself. I would be afraid that it would greatly increase the time and length of furrow needed to scour the mold board. When I am done for the season, or even think that I may be, I back up to the shop door and find a partial can of aerosol paint and put a quick coat of paint on.
 
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