Best way to attach a "Railroad Iron" to a disc harrow for busting up clods?

[mkt]

I have a new used Athens disc harrow and I have a 12' piece of "rail road" iron.. I would like to know the best way to attach a chain to the "iron" and
which direction should I pull the "iron?"
Anyone doing this and maybe some pictures?

Thank you very much...

 

[Ed of all trades]

Re: Best way to attach a "Railroad Iron" to a disc harrow for busting up clods?

If you weld you could just weld the end of the chain to the rail, If you don't you can drill a hole through the web and run a bolt through the hole and the end link of the chain. Ed

 

[mkt]

Re: Best way to attach a "Railroad Iron" to a disc harrow for busting up clods?

Hi Ed thank you for your reply. The Iron I have has holes about 24" from each end. So I will attach a chain.
Further questions:
Which direction should I pull the "iron?" so that the "flange?" (that the part that is held down by spikes?) hits the soil first?
Thank you..

 

[Qapla]

Re: Best way to attach a "Railroad Iron" to a disc harrow for busting up clods?

It may not make much difference since the iron may bounce around as it is pulled and may not stay with a particular side down.

We pull a roll of chain link with a few feet or loose fence trailing behind the roll - works quite nice.

 

[Alien]

Re: Best way to attach a "Railroad Iron" to a disc harrow for busting up clods?

chains allow the iron to jump around a lot. I used to use one to break up horse manure in the paddocks. Not very successfully I might add. I had it tied at each end but it was like a bucking bronco at times. 2 tied close together would work better as they would hold each other down and provide more weight.

 

[Ed of all trades]

Re: Best way to attach a "Railroad Iron" to a disc harrow for busting up clods?

I think I would try pulling it rail first with the chain going under the rail so it drags and not dig in so much. You might need to put the rail on a sled of some kind so it slides and breaks up the clods instead of digging in. Chain link would work for small jobs but if you use it a lot you might have to replace it often. Ed

 

[Gary Fowler]

Re: Best way to attach a "Railroad Iron" to a disc harrow for busting up clods?

If you had another section you could chain them together about 8-12" apart and that would tend to make them slide without digging in. I think it would work best with the rails travelling just like they were on the railroad road with the flange down. They would work best with a little bit of backward angle to help keep them from digging in too much. To get this you may have to experiment a bit with the location of the chains but attaching them below center just a bit should get you started.

 

[Big Barn]

Re: Best way to attach a "Railroad Iron" to a disc harrow for busting up clods?

If you had another section you could chain them together about 8-12" apart and that would tend to make them slide without digging in. I think it would work best with the rails travelling just like they were on the railroad road with the flange down. They would work best with a little bit of backward angle to help keep them from digging in too much. To get this you may have to experiment a bit with the location of the chains but attaching them below center just a bit should get you started.

Gary's suggestion is good. I've had good luck with similar setups.

Terry

 

[bcp]

Re: Best way to attach a "Railroad Iron" to a disc harrow for busting up clods?

Drill a couple of holes in the web of the rail and use two big, long, bent eye bolts to fasten the chain to. Or weld on something similar.



Bruce

 

[GLyford]

Re: Best way to attach a "Railroad Iron" to a disc harrow for busting up clods?

All the old guys running disks where I grew up would use a pair of stiff planks from the drag up to the harrow, anywhere from 4 to 8' long or so, which were then chained on as the "hinge", but still allowed some float. The planks were rigidly mounted to the drag to maintain the angle. Also loose enough it still allowed the drag to be flipped onto the harrow for transport. The drag itself could have been a log, chunk of rail, or most often, another plank. But the angle from the drag to the top of the harrow seemed to be the big thing.

They would do their final harrow going sufficiently fast and just the right soil moisture that the dirt wouldn't just break up, it would "flow". But then, this was also slightly sandy river loam that had been under the plow for 200 years...they'd had a little bit of time to get things tweaked to what worked for them.