Mounted plow settings

[DrAllis]

I have a 4 x 14's fully mounted A-C snap-coupler plow that I have removed the OEM pull tongue and built a 3-point hitch pull bar and tower for. I
plowed 10 acres yesterday and it worked well BUT, it (at times) wants to pull the front wheels to the right, causing me to hit the left brake to keep
it straight. If I were to move my pull bar to the left 2 inches would this help or hurt ?? I can do this, but would like to be sure this is correct
before going to the trouble to do so. Thanks.

 

[DanielW]

I think you'll find you want to move the pull bar to the right on the plow (effectively moving the rest of the plow over to the left). You want to put the centre-line of draft on the plow further to the left; it's currently to the right of centre, and thus wanting to drag you to the right. Think of the plow like a boat anchor hanging out behind the right-side of the tractor - you want to shift it so it's hanging perfectly centred.

Many/most mounted plows have an adjustable pull-bar that's easy to shift left/right by loosening a clamp or collar. Unfortunately as you shift the bar to the right, you're effectively moving the plow to the left, and thus you have to concern yourself with tire tread settings on the tractor to make sure you can still ride the dead furrow properly. If only moving an inch or two, you'll hopefully be fine.

There are a lot of other considerations to make it pull correctly though. Most fully mounted plows have a pull-bar with offset pins and adjusting lever/crank to twist it, which changes the position it rides in left/right. I'm guessing you don't have this, unless you've taken the bar and adjustment mechanism from another plow. I'm also assuming because you said you made a tower, that this is a fully mounted, not semi-mounted.

Are the landsides in good shape and pulling square? Is it pulling against the draft/sway chains on the tractor's hitch arms? I'm guessing it is, and it definitely shouldn't be. It should be able to find its own happy home pulling square, where the force on the boards pulling the plow to the left is balanced by the force on the landsides counteracting it.

There are piles of things to look for when setting a plow to pull correctly, and lots of people hanging around this forum who know waaaay more than myself. Hopefully some of them chime in.

 

[DrAllis]

I do have an adjustment to steer it left/right and I changed it to the max that I built into it. It definitely helped, but still need a little more. I'm over cutting the front bottom by a couple of inches, so I was in hopes, instead of changing the wheel tread, I could move the pull bar to the left (moving the plow to the right) two inches and solve two problems. If I move the furrow wheel in two inches (and I'm able to) I'd want to try and move the land wheel in four inches to maybe help with this pulling issue. I do have 500 lbs of cast iron on the land wheel and nothing on the furrow wheel, so I could lighten the land wheel up a little and that would help too.

 

[Paul swpa]

If it is pulling to the right just a little and only sometimes, I think the unequal weighted wheels could be the cause. The left (weighted) wheel is getting better traction at times pushing the front end to the right. Just a thought. Paul

 

[DrAllis]

I'll have to make some changes to my land wheel weight bracketing, so I think I'll remove 200 lbs leaving 300 lbs. I've moved the right rear wheel in 2 inches to solve the overcut of the front bottom and set the left rear to match it for width. Then, I'll give it a try Thursday afternoon in the same field, same soil type as last Saturday. The tractor and plow work so nice together, if I can just eliminate this occasional pulling to the right. Thanks for the help.