weighting tractor for plowing

[johndeeregreg]

have a 720 diesel with factory wide front, 16.9-38" rears at about 40% tread w/o fluid and a F145H 4-16 plow running about 8" deep and in second gear with the high speed transmission. plowing in SE MN black dirt. i know there is a lot of variables but how much weight would you put on to start with and where?

last year with same rig i had 4 wheel weights in each wheel and 600# hanging out front. hard to tell how much slippage there was but i don't think it was much and the front end seemed to stay down just fine. don't want to go over kill but don't want to spin out all day either.

also this year i will be using the center link draft sensing where as last year i was not, not sure if that makes any difference on how much weight i would need on the front or back for that matter? if i'm thinking about it right in theory if the front never comes up and the wheels never spin to dig down and change the relation of the tractor to the plow the draft sensing will never adjust depth? it would just keep the plow where it is and lug the engine down more correct? or is the sensing more sensitive than i think it is? also what hole would you run the center link in? maybe i'm just thinking to much.

 

[fixerupper]

We always ran the center link in the center hole with a fully mounted plow. We have never pulled a semi-mounted plow with our 630 though. The top hole provides practically no sensing, the bottom hole provides maximum sensing. The way I have experienced it, too much sensing will make it too jumpy. When we had a #9 mounted sickle mower on the 630 we had to put the top link in the top hole. The bouncing of the cutter bar would set the load and depth into a rhythmic up and down jumping with the bar bouncing up and down if we had it in the second or third hole. Your black soil provides pretty good traction. We pulled a fully mounted 4-14 s in black soil similar to yours with the 630 with a 300 lb cement weight in each wheel and traction was never a problem. Two bangers are heavy in the rear to begin with and the draft from a plow hanging on the three point hitch provides even more weight. A neighbor used to pull a 4-14 trailing plow in our black soil with a 730 with no rear weights if I remember right. It has been 50 years since I saw that rig working so I might have forgotten about weights if he used them.

 

[Mike M]

If hilly that would make you need more frt end weight to hold it down on the hills. I just remembered you have a WFE so that may be all the extra you need up frt.
Isn't there a way to calculate wheel slippage ? I thought I saw a chart in the plow manual ? or maybe it was on a tire makers info ?
At a show one time I hooked my 720D onto a 4 bottom fully mounted JD plow of some sort and was surprised how well it pulled it as I have no added weight either.

 

[johndeeregreg]

wheel slippage can be measure by measuring the distance the tractor moves with X revolutions of the tire with plow out of the ground vs with the plow in the ground. i just didn't take the time to do that. there is a couple small hills but nothing major.

 

[Mike M]

I think it would be well worth the time figuring it out if you are planning to do much plowing with it ?

 

[johndeeregreg]

ok...maybe ill try to take the time to figure it out when i go plowing, its only 2-3 acres at a steam show.

 

[DR. EVIL]

Sounds to me like you have your tractor weighted WAY TOO HEAVY. Maybe one or two wheel weights per rear tire is enough on the back, and nothing extra on the front.

If you were trying to plow at Half Century of Progress this year then you would probably had to be weighted heavier.

Can you actually pull the plow in 3rd gear? Maybe at a shallower depth? Playing around plowing a couple hours at a tractor show or plow day is one thing but loading a tractor real heavy in the lower gears with lots of weights over-loads the transmissions and final drives especially when done for hours and hours on a daily basis. Much better to pull 3-16's faster with no added weight than having to add 1000# to pull 4-16's.

 

[johndeeregreg]

with the big tires, 2nd gear is 4.3 mph no load wide open throttle and 3rd is 6.5 mph no load wot, so no i cant pull it in 3rd just to big of a jump, i suppose if i only went 4-5" deep maybe but whats the fun of that, i don't want to do a half a$$ job. i know high torque in lower gears causes more wear in transmission and that you want to have some slippage to help lessen the amount of wear/load it puts on everything. i know i tried plowing with dads 730 gas with no weights and 3-16 trailer plow and spent most the time spinning and raising and lowering the plow to keep going. i also have a 4-14 mounted plow and there doesn't seem to be any noticeable difference in how much either one works the tractor. that's all i do is a little plowing at shows so about 2-4 hours a year of plowing is it, so winning the race and plowing lots acres in a short time isn't much of a concern.

i do feel i go a little overboard on the weights though, i think this year ill just bring the weights with and add them as needed till i think its about right.

 

[SVcummins]

This one is ballasted to 9780 pounds I really want to put it on a diet but pulling a big baler and loader work the Weight is nice 66 3020 powershift

 

[MikeinKy]

For some reason, maybe draft control,the 2 cylinders seem to do better with a fully mounted plow, than a semi mount. A neighbor had
a 730 with a 4 bottom mounted and did good with it. Another got a 4 bottom semi mount and it was at least a gear slower.

 

[johndeeregreg]

when the tractor had 15.5-38's on it it had 500# of fluid on each side, that's kinda why i started with 4 wheel weights on each side figuring i was just replacing the fluid that i removed. with how i had it weighted last year the tractor is right around 10,300#. its around 8500# with no weights.

 

[mdross]

A lot of variables I do agree with some of the things I have read to much weight is a waste. My 60 plowing with 2-16's was spinning too much so one wheel weight per wheel stopped that. Also driving the tractor onto the deckover the frontend was too light so added the JD front weights fixed that. Now plow in 4th gear all day enjoying every minute. Trial and error is the only solution for me at least.