Setting a plow

kenbob

Well-known Member
I plowed this weekend and it went ok. I have heard correctly setting a plow is a lost art. I know at a plowing day in NW Iowa it was obvious some plows worked much better than others. SO, I thought I would start a conversation about setting a plow so all of the guys who have actually done it before (that leaves me out) could share the wealth. I have a ford 101 1bottom behind a VAC with eagle hitch. The 101 manual is on line. THis is what I did: dropped the left arm of the eagle hitch, cranked the 3rd member up so the point of the plow was pointed down a little, aligned the plow so the back of it was canted a bit toward the furrow, pushed the wheel in so it overlapped the end of the shear by about 3", figuring the drag of the sod would push the plow left some. Did I overdue it on pushing the wheel in? I still have room for some adjustment on the plow. It did tend to pull the nose of the tractor toward the furrow a little.

As I said, it worked ok. But always looking for better.
 
I have only set up one mounted plow, a Dearborn 2 bottom on a Case 400. I jacked up the left rear tire and set it on a six by six block. With the plow behind the tractor on level surface adjust the Eagle hitch arms so the plow is level front to back and side to side. Establish a line parallel with the tractor at the inside of the right rear tire. Adjust your plow point to be the width of the share away from the line. That line is your plow furrow, that your tire will run in. I may have gotten some of this wrong it been a long time. Others please feel free to correct me. Like I said I only did it once, went to a trailer plow after that. gobble
 
Iused a 2x4 along the inside of the front tire. I thought that plow would pull farther left once in the ground so I allowed about 3" overlap between edge of tire and shear. Maybe didn't have to do that.
 


Here, try this link to the Ford plow book. It will give you the basics. http://www.wfmfiles.com/download/Ford_Plow_Book.pdf

The problem with trying to use a VAC Eagle hitch with a non-Eagle Hitch plow is that the geometry is different between the Eagle and ASE Ford type 3 pt hitch. The best you can probably do is get the plow set right for when it's plowing 6" deep or so and then not ask the hitch to do anything other than lift it out of the ground. IOW, don't expect it to be set right at 6" and then be righ tat 8" or 4". On Ford type 3 pt with the geometry meant for that plow it should (in theory at least) hold it's setting when going shallower or deeper, but the Eagle isn't going to raise or lower it evenly. I have an Eagle hitch Plow and have somewhat of the same issue in reverse trying to use it one a standard 3 pt. :lol:
 
Thanks, I know it is quite a bit different by how far I had to slide the plow to the right to make the tire meet the edge of the shear. I am ok with
mine. It won't ever have to plow ground that hard again. I have studied the ford book thoroughly. Mostly I threw it out there as a hot-stove-league
type of discussion. I enjoy reading how different folks do different things with the same problem and it is cold and icy outside.
 
The line of draft on a 1 btm plow is bound to pull the front towards the furrow. Pick up a manual for a Case plow and it tells you how to set the hitch to compensate for draft from the plow.
 
I found this on line for free. It is for the garden tractor,but since it is theory, it would seem to apply to any small tractor and 1 bottom plow. It is easier to understand than the ford manual i think.
http://manuals.casecoltingersoll.com/gardening/plowingtheory.pdf
 
Your first critical dimension is the wheel spacing. Check out the wheel spacing chart on page 3 of the Ford 101 plow manual for that dimension. Then, mount the plow on the tractor. Put the right side of the tractor up on blocks front and back. to simulate the position the tractor will be in when you are plowing, When plowing, the plow should be level front to back and side to side. On page 4 of the manual, it shows how to adjust the width of cut by turning the cross shaft which will point the plow to the right or left. On page 7 of the manual it shows how to adjust the width of cut of the plow. while in the field. DON'T move the cross shaft side to side, point the plow in the direction you need it to go to get the proper width of cut on the bottom. Do you know whether you have 12, 14, or 16 inch bottom. Get yourself a pair of 2x4 about 4 ft. long and place one on the ground up against the sliding landside and the other one on the outside of the plow bottom and make it parallel to the other one and measure the space between them, that will get you close to the size of the bottom.
I know nothing about a Case Eagle hitch but if you can hook a 3 pt hitch plow to it these instructions should work. It is very important to get the plow level when its in the ground,
Ford 101 plow manual
 
The center of draft on a single 14" bottom is 9.25" You will never get the rear tires in to 18.5" apart at inside of rear tread. That is why I suggested putting the second bottom back on. Then you would need 37" between the rear tires. Still pretty narrow.
That is why Case 3pt plows had a pivot point on the draft bar that could be set to center of draft of the plow, so it pulled straight, and then some minor irregularities in tire spacing can be dealt with.
The setup that you have is a situation where the tractors weight is trying to offset the off centered draft situation that you have. That is why the front end pulls to the plowed ground.
Loren
 
Thanks. That made a lot of sense. It certainly wouldn't be much of a job to add it back on.
 
Adirondak, I am in agreement with you about where the plow should pull from. I ordered a Case Ber plow manual just so I could read on how it hooks to the eagle hitch. I already have a ford 101 manual. One guestion though. I see the VAC or maybe V plowing with a 1 bottom factory plow. How did they make that work, or maybe they didn't?
 
That plow was designed as a 3 bottom plow and has very few adjustments that you can make. It was never designed to be used as a one bottom and I doubt you will be able to make it work properly. Most Case plows have a lot of adjustments to make them work. At best you may be able to get acceptable, but good is unlikely. Maybe if you add one back on you can get close enough.
 
There were a couple of different hitches before the eagle hitch came along for mounted implements.
The only 1 bottom plows that I have adjusted were Brindleys on the back of garden tractors, but they all have a center of draft that should correspond closely the centerline of the tractor pulling it.
On one and two bottom trailer plows the operator had to swing the drawbar to the RH side a bit to accommodate the fixed wheel spacing on older tractors, but then as I stated before the weight of the tractor was making up for side draft.
Also, after plows got real big, the tractor wheels could not be spread far enough apart, so they went to on-land hitches.
Loren
 

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