2 bottom plow: 3-pt or pull

[mediocrates67]

I'm looking for a two bottom plow for my food plots. I have a 45 hp 4wd tractor, and my disc just isn't enough to get through some old pasture sod. Looking for a two-bottom plow (I'm told that's probably as much as my tractor will handle). Should i get a 3-pt plow or a pull behind type plow? My dad is worried that we will hit a rock with the 3-pt one and ruin something, and thinks we should get a pull behind one that has springs and a reset of some sort. Any opinions? The 3-point would be great to have, but will I bust something without a spring/reset?

Thanks in advance!

 

[vtsnowedin]

Get the three point two bottom. That's the right size for your tractor and is much handier then a pull behind unless you have a lot of room at the ends of your fields. In rocky ground just go slow and be ready to push in the clutch if you fetch up on a rock. I have some ground where you spend as much time backing up off rocks as you do plowing forward.

 

[wolftree]

Consider looking for a spring trip 3PT plow. They are out there.

 

[jeff9366]

My dad is worried that we will hit a rock with the 3-pt one and ruin something, and thinks we should get a pull behind one that has springs and a reset of some sort. Any opinions? The 3-point would be great to have, but will I bust something without a spring/reset?

Does your tractor have Position Control and Draft Control? Usually these are two levers, side-by-side, which control lifting the Three Point Hitch.

Draft Control is part of the original Harry Ferguson design of the Three Point Hitch developed in the 1920's, when plowing was a tractor's most important job. Draft Control's specific function is to automatically lift the plow if an obstruction is encountered underground.

Older Three Point Hitch mounted plows had either shear bolt protection or spring trip protection. With either plow protection, plus Draft Control, you should be good to go plowing food plots, although plowing on slopes is an advanced skill. On slopes, ideally, you would use a plow with Landing Lever adjustment too.

I think new plows sold today have shear bolt protection if they have any plow protection at all.

If you do not use a Three Point mounted plow you will loose a lot of your tractor's traction. The whole point of Harry Ferguson's Three Point Hitch is to make the tractor and implement one unit, transferring implement weight to the rear wheels to improve traction. Ferguson's Three Point Hitch is what created the modern, relatively light weight, tractor. (Pre-Ferguson tractors were six tons and up.)

Draft Control is often an option on new compact tractors today, because few owners plow and most want less control complication, rather than more. Draft Control remains standard equipment on Big Ag tractors.

If you shop for a plow, look for a 2-12", with which you can plow 5-7" deep. You do not need a 2-14" which will leave the land rougher.

To educate everyone here, what is the disc diameter on the Disc Harrow you have tried? Disc Harrows are considered secondary tillage implements but they usually work fine for scratching in food plots if heavy enough and if the ground is moist. For your tractor I would think you would need a Disc Harrow with 20" diameter discs over loam, minimum, better 22" diameter. If you have any rocks, 22" diameter discs minimum.

I have a Ford Series 101, 2-12 trip plow, with a Landing Lever. I have $500 optional Draft Control on my L3560. While I only plow around twenty hours per year, plowing is interesting "sport" and teaching myself optimal plow adjustment is what I call fun.

 

[Baby Grand]

As part of your plow research, make sure you've poured over Jeff's post that condenses some of TBN member FWJ's thoughts on plows:
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/308006-moldboard-plow-wisdom-farmwithjunk.html
Lots & lots of good reading!

 

[Egon]

You will not have enough tractor to properly break sod with a disc. It will do a good job of working up the ploughed sod.

Go for whichever plough you find at the proper price. There are drawbar trips for the pulled plough.

 

[mediocrates67]

where are the shear bolts on the 3 point plow?

 

[jeff9366]

I do not have experience with shear bolt protected plows but there are a lot of posts on this topic in the T-B-N archive.

Here are the threads:

https://www.google.com/#q=shear+bolts+plow+site:tractorbynet.com

 

[art]

Jeff gave you a wealth of information of plowing but I can't help add my two cents! Draft control on many tractors isn't used as the amount of change that it takes to make it work is in excess of twenty percent. At that point you notice things aren't right so you will adjust. Many older plows didn't have any more of a breakaway then the tractor stops when you loose traction.
Old IH plows did have a type of a spring that held the vertical beam in position until overloaded. These plows are still bringing good money and in good condition will still exceed 1,000. even 30 and 40 years old. The age comes into play as well here as some plows wearing parts such as the points and shin are NOT available at this time or are very expensive to say the least if you can find them.
The width of cut varies with the application and 12-14-16" width are great for sod and the larger 18,20" bottoms are for non sod plowing.
Plow set-up is critical and I'd think depending on your tractor set-up you might even be able to pull a three bottom plow depending on conditions. I used to have a 35 horsepower two wheel drive that I pulled 3-16" bottoms with no problems in sod in central NY soil.
I'd say if it was a trailer plow definitely stick with a two bottom plow only. The further the load is away from the tractor the harder it is to pull.

 

[oosik]

I have a 2 x 14 three point bottom plow. My tractor has both position and draft control. I've tried adjusting the draft but about the time I think its adjusted I hit an "anchor on the earth" and I have to back off and restart. I also have an offset disk harrow. My disk harrow with a 400lb cement weight on it has trouble cutting thru the sod in my meadows. So I hit them first with the bottom plow and then dazzle the entire situation with the disk harrow. The final action is to smooth out & bust clods with my homemade drag spike harrow. Here where I'm at, this entire scenario works pretty well if I wait a while and let the ground dry out a little. Any plowing is done mid-May to early June.

 

[wolc123]

I have used both the very same 3-pt plow that Jeff recommends Ford 101 2x12 (still use it), and a 2x14, IH trailer plow, that another gentleman mentioned. Each has it's advantages, but the 3-pt plow is usually best. Two advantages of the IH, trailer plow, are its trip protection, and, that it is always set, perfectly adjusted, to plow real good in most conditions. With a 3-pt plow, you usually will not have that "trip-protection", so buried rocks could be an issue. In my own, rockless ground, that aint a problem. Also, you will need to properly adjust the 3-point plow, every time you use it, to get good plowing results. That takes a little practice, but you can find out how to adjust a 3-point plow in many old posts on this site. It all centers on getting the plow level, while one side of the tractor is lowered the depth of the furrow.

The 3-point plow has the advantage of letting you easily make adjustments "on-the fly". To get best field plowing results, different plow settings should be used for the initial, and last furrows, and that is tough or impossible with a trailer plow. Big advantages of the 3-point plow is its portability, and ease of fit into smaller plots. Another big one, as Art mentioned, is the traction multiplier obtained, on the rear axle, by the 3-point plow. I recall a story of the inventor (Harry Ferguson), plowing circles around a bunch of much bigger tractors with trailer plows because it rained, making the field muddy, on the day of the demonstration.

One thing you want to consider, especially if you are a "weekend-warrior", is to err on the small side with the plow, and all your implements. That way, you stand a better chance getting the job done, and not getting stuck with your smaller tractor, on the weekend if conditions are muddy. I have the same size tractor, and while it could easily handle a 3x14 plow in good soil conditions, there is no way I would get one, even though I live on my hunting property. I can literally pull my little 2X12 through standing water in a driving rain storm. It is kind of cool to watch the wakes roll off of the moldbords while I keep plowing through mud-holes. With this combination, I can always get my plots in on-time, rather than the big delays, waiting for the fields to get completely dry, as usually happened back in the days when I used a 2 wheel drive tractor and a trailer plow.

 

[mediocrates67]

Thanks so much for all your input guys! I've got a lead on a two bottom three point plow. I feel more comfortable getting one after hearing from you. It sounds like the shear pins are right down next to the moldboards. Im not looking forward to the first big rock, but it's inevitable. I'll finish it off with the disc, and im looking forward to the results.
Is it best practice to disc right away after turning or wait a bit?

 

[jeff9366]

Best practice is to plow in the Fall, turning under crop residue. Furrow ridges and crop residue will break down some over the winter, due to weather. Harrow and drag in the Spring, catching first germination of weeds, so the soil is clean when ready to seed.

The distilled wisdom of plows, plowing and plow adjustment is available to you via the link in Post #5. Take time to read the link and print out those sections relevant to your interest.

How about contributing to the readership by replying to the question posed earlier:

To educate everyone here, what is the disc diameter on the Disc Harrow you tried? Disc Harrows are considered secondary tillage implements but they usually work fine for scratching in food plots if heavy enough and if the ground is moist. For your tractor I would think you would need a Disc Harrow with 20" diameter discs over loam, minimum, better 22" diameter. If you have any rocks, 22" diameter discs minimum.

 

[Marveltone]

My pull-behind Kewanee disc is fairly heavy and has 16" blades, which, when used for their intended function as secondary tillage work great. While I'm still new to field work, my experimental runs prompt me to agree with the others who have stated that if you want to use your disc for primary tillage, you'll need to go with 20"+ to really dig in.

Joe

Sent from my XT907 using TractorByNet

 

[fisheerman]

For our deer plots we use disc plows. The are more forgiving than bottom plows when you hit something like rocks and big tree roots. I've about killed myself with bottom plows getting hung up on tree roots.
Agriculture TDP Disc Plows - Monroe Tufline

 

[Kirk-NJ]

If you have rocks or hard soil you might want to consider a subsoiler frist to break it up. I've been working this soil for four years and with my dearborn subsoiler pulled out this rock yesterday. I will not use my good 2B plow in my soil yet, maybe in a few more years of rockpicking.

Kirk

 

[dclynch]

Get a roto-tiller . They are awesome for fod plots one trip through and plant

 

[HCJtractor]

I use a three bottom Ford 101 with shear pins behind my 65 horse Kubota. Works great. our soild is rocky so I carry a pocket full of grade 8 bolts as shear pins. THen go slowly when in rocky areas and be ready to hit the clutch. I still shear pins sometimes, but it is no big deal, just requires dismounting and sliding another one in. May go through 3 or 4 in a day but this is in rough woods plots, not extablished gardens.

I had a Ford plow w/o any protection and destroyed it the first day. Broke several 5/8" grade 8 bolts and bent the heck out of the main frame when I hit a underground ledge of some sort. I would never get a plow without either shear pins or spring tripping.

So I plow and then try to disc over it ASAP to chop up the clay clods.