Well, the plow is ready again

[Adirondack case guy]

I went up to the farm shop yesterday, where I could get out of the rain to work on the plow. It needed all new shears and I had to put the #2 bottom back onto the plow. I repaired the frog the day before. The brace between the landside plate and moldboard support broke off when the bolts broke and the side of the frog had a big crack down along the mounting holes. I fixed that all buck up down in my shop. Kevin and I replaced all the shears and welded pieces of the old shears onto the worn landsides. The moldboard brace was also missing on the 4th bottom, and Kevin found a similar one stashed away in the farm shop. We modified it a bit and bolted it on.
After the repairs we went over a lot of the bolts on the plow and found several of them that needed tightening. We got it all greased up and then dropped the engine oil in the 930 and serviced that.
Now just waiting for the rain to stop so I can get back to plowing.
Kevin is going to grease up the bottoms of the Kneverland 6 bottom plow and put it away. It does a horrible job of plowing, leaving half turned furrows. I have spent hours trying to get it to pull straight but to no avail. the whole thing dogs off to the LH side. It is just built wrong. Instead of the main draft beam being hooked to the frame around the 3rd bottom, it pulls from the 5th bottom. I truly think that this modular plow frame was designed to be a much bigger plow.
Loren

 

[Bob Bancroft]

I'm impressed that you can get points for that plow. It sure does a nice job.

Guys, when they can go at all, are plowing ruts here trying to harvest. Last chance for any decent tillage here was in September.

I appreciate what you say about how a plow pulls. Dad bought a big new semi-mounted 3x16 JD in 1966! That plow pulled so straight you could ignore steering. He pulled it with a narrow front tractor. When he traded for a bigger tractor, he traded the plow for the same thing, only 4 bottom. Never could get it to pull correctly. It ground the right draft link into the sway block, and was always pulling the tractor to the right. JD had just added a fourth bottom to the three bottom frame, and there was no way to move the hitch/draft point to correct it.

 

[Case Nutty 1660]

Looks Great Bro! You know my thoughts on those kneverland units,, if it was up to me it would have been thrown in scrap pile years ago lol I am about done with my game of tractor tetris
cnt

 

[John Saeli]

White bottoms on a CASE Plow is like using a golf ball for a hood ornament on a MACK!! Or using a "leaping deer in the air" sticker for a grille ornament between the lights instead of a Chrome Old Abe Eagle on a CASE Tractor!!
Anyways, on those Kvernlands, did you cut the tails off the ends of the shares?

 

[Case Nutty 1660]

We were a dealer of them starting in 1973, we got two 6-16" pull-type units in,, always Hated that worthless pulling plow,, the trips worked Flawlessly, it plowed like a bent of pile of junk always did from new, it was set correctly enough, I should know I spent the next 30 years trying to make it plow like a Case or a White plow,, it Never happened, I have been told the semi-mounts are better,, with my years of dealing with the one we bought new you could not give me a brand new one, I was never so happy as the day I loaded it on a guy's trailer and he handed me 150 cash,, I do still have three NOS metric implement tires for them in the shed, they would never plow smooth like the Case and Whites did here,, nor would they completely bury the trash, we sold LOTS of Case plows and later lots of White built Case plows,, all worked like they were supposed to, I guess the kneverlands are like the COM,, you either love them or hate them I do not hate many things but those plows I despise, in our soils if the lays got half worn the plow would just ride up and out of the ground in hard spots, when the lays for it got to 35.00 each in the early 80's I found a 400 series Case/White plow to replace it, best thing I ever did for plowing here,, I still have it today
cnt

 

[Adirondack case guy]

John, yes we cut the tails off the shears, and all 6 bottoms have the long landsides. You CAN NOT make a 6 bottom plow pull straight when you are pulling on the 5th bottom.
I never condemned Case bottoms but I much prefer Radex bottoms. Replacement parts are readily available and much cheaper. I picked up Wisse 18" shears at R-Imps for $36.80 with the bolts. This plow requires a Case landside and they wanted $57 plus shipping apiece for them and had to order them. The Kneverland plow is much worse yet for cost of parts. Shears are $100 each. Kevin told me yesterday that they were spending around $3000 per year just to maintain that plow, and unknown time and wear and tare on the secondary tillage tractors and implements trying to smoothen out the mess that the Kneverland plow left. That is crazy.
Kevin and I were talking yesterday and we both believe that we can totally eliminate discing the bean ground next spring,that I plowed with this 8358 plow. Previous years the trip over with the disc was needed to fix the mess the big plow left before using the spring tooth harrow with roller baskets that does the finish ground work, prior to planting. We will likely have to still make one pass with the disc on corn ground, and definately on the alfalfa ground that will be plowed next spring. They had the sprayer guy come in and burn down a lot of the alfalfa hay ground a couple of weeks back. You can't give a bale of hay away around here.
They also have a tentative deal worked out to sell their upper farm on the other side of the valley. It will continue to be farmed by a neighboring dairy farm. Roughly 150A tillable and 55A of woodland.
Loren

 

[John Saeli]

$36.80 for shares??!! I'd get tarred & feathered if I boned our customers like that!! We get $27.55 for the "Weise" CASE shares w/ bolts.

 

[Adirondack case guy]

John, sure can't knock your prices. Next spring when we may be due to replace more shears, landsides and shin pieces I will give you a call. That would be a good excuse to take a ride your way.
Here is a good pic of that worthless Kneverland plow behind the 7220 MFD. You can see where the draft beam is hooked to the main plow frame, and a pic of the Case 8358 plow with the draft beam properly located near the center of the main beam. The Case plow also has a 3x10" cylinder mounted between the main frame and the draft beam so I can make the plow track in the direction (Right or Left) that I want the plow to go. This works great on our irregular fields and sidehills where we have to plow around curves and follow contours, and throw furrows up hill..
Loren

 

[John Saeli]

I got that same CASE plow except with Real, Authentic CASE Bottoms!! Ours is a 4-18. On that neverland plow, looks like that front arch will move up 1 bottom, but I don't see bolt holes for the rear mount to come forward??

 

[Adirondack case guy]

John, you are correct about no holes in the main beam to relocate the pull beam forward. Those holes would have to be drilled, the beam reinforced in that area, as the holes would weaken the beam in it's center where stress would be most sever. The pull beam would have to be shortened about the same measurement that the mtg. bracket is moved forward. I bet you are rite about moving the cross beam forward. That is the only way that I can see to make this plow pull correctly. and still allow enough room for the tractor's rear duals to stay on unplowed ground. I suggested to the uncle a couple years back that the pull beam had to be relocated and shortened, but he did not like the idea of that.
As long as I can continue to plow with the 931 and this Case plow, they can put the 7220 onto secondary tillage tools and cover more ground per day this coming spring. Just need to find another operator. What is Colleen doing next spring????
Loren

 

[John Saeli]

Colleen's pretty busy. but she was an excellent operator. I can still see her in the cab of the 4690, 1:00AM fitting ahead of me, while I was drilling beans. Constantly looking around & paying attention. Actually all our kids were excellent operators. Must have been the teacher!!

 

[Adirondack case guy]

Are you referring to yourself or Chris. HeHe.
Loren

 

[Bret4207]

Huh, funny to hear anyone say anything bad about Kneverland (sp?) plows. Around here they are the Cadillac of plows, but they're all 3 pt with not more than 3 or 4 bottoms. The long moldboards work great in our clay.

 

[Adirondack case guy]

This Kneverland plow never plowed wright the from the day it was delivered. I don't know why the uncles
accepted it after seeing how poor a job it did. I too have high regards for Kneverland plows. There is more
to the story on this plow that we don't know.
Loren

 

[John Saeli]

Without offending anyone here, they got their operating abilities from my side of the family. With your abilities, I'm surprised you don't have a goal of fixing those K'land plows. All bull$hit aside, when they are right, they do a good job. Yes, plow parts are $$$, but they outlast the American parts 4 times. The earlier K'lands had weak frames, but that plow is new enough, it has a massive frame, simply put together wrong.