Anyone ever seen disc harrow like this before?

MitchellB · Mar 19, 2015

I brought home this 4 disc 2 gang 6 foot disc harrow last night that I traded for. It is in pretty rough shape, but I got more time to repair this than money for a nice harrow and only a small garden to use it in. First thing I noticed is the lift pins are too small for my catagory one 861D Ford, so I know those 2 will have to be replaced. Has anyone ever seen a harrow like this? I'm not sure if it is factory made or homemade, but it is heavy. The top main channel is 6 feet long. At one time it had clean off scrappers behind for each disk before they wore/rusted off. Anyone know who made it or anything about it?

I also got a couple of 5 disc gangs from other old harrows in the deal, that I may try to join behind this to make one 4 gang harrow out of it.

jeff9366 · Mar 19, 2015

As it has a single row of pans, it is a Bush & Bog Disc. Boxes for weights are typical. Not a finishing disc.

"In North Alabama we call them Bush and Bog Disc, made for working in new ground with small brush. Once you go over the brush one way, do not turn and go into the tops of the brush. Go at them from the side. going at the brush straight on will find them coming up on the tractor with you and pushing you off the tractor. Lucky I was on an old h Farmall and went off one side of the seat, walked arond the draw bar and got back on the other side.

Don't run the plow in the same track twice it will only make a ditch."

"We used to pull them with dozers all the time.

The only problem is you can only disc with half of it at a time. It throws all the dirt to the outside
so if you move over a full width each pass you end up with the roughest field you ever saw. You have to let one half cover up the ditch you made on the first pass."

Here is a continuum:

1. Lift Tandem Disc Harrow

2. Offset Disc Harrow

3. Bush & Bog Harrow

4. Disc Plow

PapaPerk · Mar 19, 2015

jeff9366 said:
As it has a single gang, it is a Bog Disc. Boxes for weights are typical.

Yep bog disc. Looks pretty nice.

bullbreaker · Mar 19, 2015

Yup like Jeff and Papa said . Judgeing by the original color it could have been made or sold by Oliver back in the day .

2458n · Mar 19, 2015

It is a old piece notice the square nuts on the bolt coming up from the bottom half. Been a long time since these were common production nuts.

Soggy Bottom Outdoors · Mar 19, 2015

Nope, in my opinion this is not a bog disk. It is a 3 point hitch double gang disk. A "gang' of disk blades has a common axle. This one has two axles thus two gangs. The bog disk that I have has two gangs, each 10 foot, one in front of the other. One angles to the right the other to the left. Front gang has scallopped blades. Takes lots of HP to handle, cuts DEEP, but in leaves the ground Rough. Yours looks like a good disk heavy built. Only my opinion and observation.

LiveRoll · Mar 19, 2015

Where I come from that is known as a ditch filler. In irrigated areas, a lot of farmers using flood irrigation will ditch, generally with a 3 PH purpose built irrigation ditcher, ( Like a small V plow) the areas they want to irrigate, and once they have finished, will "pull" the ditches closed, so when they are swathing / baling / recovering bales they won't have to by-pass irrigation ditches A local Western Canadian Company Kirtchner Equipment built a lot of it.

Cheers

Roger

MitchellB · Mar 20, 2015

Thanks for the replies so far.

Any ideas what these 4 large holes were used for in the front of the gangs. Looks like some big pins or bolts might have attached something there. Maybe the gangs are backwards and the holes should be to the rear?

Xfaxman · Mar 20, 2015

MitchellB said:
Thanks for the replies so far.

Any ideas what these 4 large holes were used for in the front of the gangs. Looks like some big pins or bolts might have attached something there. Maybe the gangs are backwards and the holes should be to the rear?

Looks like they could be for adding weight, if they were at the back.

If you turn the gangs around and swap sides, do the scrapers unbolt to be put on the back, like they are now?

MORRISONSTEEL · Mar 20, 2015

Love the terminology from across the country on this thread. Around us this would also be called a ditch filler, just missing the wheels in the center like on current units. Except we would use them to fill the tracks made by center pivots mostly.

MitchellB · Mar 20, 2015

If you turn the gangs around and swap sides, do the scrapers unbolt to be put on the back, like they are now?

Whoops. I hadn't considered the scrapers when I guessed they were backwards. I suppose it is turned correctly. I just couldn't figure out what the 4 holes in front were for. ??????

Soggy Bottom Outdoors · Mar 20, 2015

My best guess on he holes is that the disk didn't start life as a 3 point hitch disk. The gangs you have were the rear two gangs (I think) from a four gang disk. The holes were for the now probably long gone attachment linkage to hook them all together and allow for some pivot in a turn. Just my opinion.

Big Barn · Mar 20, 2015

Certainly don't want to be a downer but looks like the discs are pretty well worn. Not much 'concave' left to them.

Terry

jenkinsph · Mar 21, 2015

Soggy Bottom Outdoors said:
My best guess on he holes is that the disk didn't start life as a 3 point hitch disk. The gangs you have were the rear two gangs (I think) from a four gang disk. The holes were for the now probably long gone attachment linkage to hook them all together and allow for some pivot in a turn. Just my opinion.

I agree the 3ph and top frame is/was cobbled together scrap someone had laying around. Nothing engineered about it, I would scrap it and start over.

bindian · Mar 21, 2015

I agree with Soggy Bottom Outdoors. Looks like pans from a drag disc made into a 3PH. Some drag discs had a inner pivot bolt and outboard chain or strap linkages. These could be what the mount holes were used for. It looks like someone tacked it together under a tree.

Square nuts doesn't necessarily make it old. Dad had a huge stock of square hardware that he used on everything he made. I remember the day he bought a ratchet and socket set. I asked Dad what were they used for!
hugs, Brandi

bindian · Mar 21, 2015

Soggy Bottom Outdoors said:
Nope, in my opinion this is not a bog disk. It is a 3 point hitch double gang disk. A "gang' of disk blades has a common axle. This one has two axles thus two gangs. The bog disk that I have has two gangs, each 10 foot, one in front of the other. One angles to the right the other to the left. Front gang has scallopped blades. Takes lots of HP to handle, cuts DEEP, but in leaves the ground Rough. Yours looks like a good disk heavy built. Only my opinion and observation.

Soggy Bottom Outdoors,
To me, what you discribe above about your disc is an offset disc. Does it look like this.

Do you have a photo or two of it?
hugs, Brandi

bindian · Mar 21, 2015

MitchellB,
I would say this is a doable project for a tight budget. Change the pins and start playing with it. Change the angles of the gangs up to see what it does. With the extra gangs, you could add a second row.
3PH discs need lots of weight to penetrate. Whatever you do, beef it up to handle the weight and stress. I wouldn't back up with this disc engaged in the ground. You might bend the 3PH mounting straps into a pretzel. It looks kinda not straight as it is. Good luck and have fun.
hugs, Brandi

MitchellB · May 9, 2015

I got the pins changed out on the Bog Harrow yesterday. I had to drill out the old holes to 7/8" so my new lift pins would fit. I also put nearly a tube of grease in the axles and replaced one clogged zerk. I used it for the first time this morning and it works OK. It would drag the front end of the 861D Ford around a couple times when it wanted to go one way and the tractor straight, but for the most part, tracked OK. For the money I got in it, I'm happy with it, but a newer/better 4 gang disc would make me happier. When I get time, I would like to at least beef up the 3 point frame where it connects to the Harrow.