Help with setting up a plough

Jon

Member
Location
South Norfolk
Some great advice here, if I could add if your soils stick or bulldoze on the mouldboards give them a coat of something every night to stop surface rust.

I do here as I have some muffly meadow land to plough occasionally.
 

fenhayman

Member
I'm no expert but perhaps get your mate to drive at your normal speed and you walk or run beside plough to see where the surface trash is coming from.
 

New Puritan

Member
Location
East Sussex
I'm no expert but perhaps get your mate to drive at your normal speed and you walk or run beside plough to see where the surface trash is coming from.

That makes sense. The only thing is, it wasn't going too badly when he was there, but once he'd gone home and I'd moved onto the next field (to the right, the other side of the hedge in the the video) where there was more trash, the trouble really started.

@bobk , @davidroberts30 , @Jon , @Two Tone, @Simon Chiles & @DrWazzock - and anyone else I've overlooked. I took some notes from everyone's comments and went over to the yard today to try and get things a bit more sorted - you are right about the front skimmers being all over the place.

So start with basics
Rear tyres exactly same pressure

Like this:

IMG_20190211_111158.jpg

:mad:!

Finding that was a bit disappointing this morning. Anyway, once I've sorted that out I will go back to adjusting the plough as per all the suggestions on this thread.

Thanks once again everyone,
NP.
 

Galcam

Member
When u say plough at 90 degrees to ground do u mean on land or in furrow? On a KV how do you set your front furrow width? Is that based on your Tyre size? Mine are 650 or what? My plough is a KV 4 furrow reversible vari width.
 

Selectamatic

Member
Location
North Wales
UCN's will plough shallow, this is 14ins wide, about 5 ins deep. It does depend on your type of dirt though.

SAM_3651.JPG


Tyre Pressures equal, plough level in both directions, set one pair of skimmers first, get them right, then copy that on the others. Set your front furrow to be right, so it's ploughing the same width as the others. Tractor wheels, front and back, should be the same inside width.

Take some more photos and come back! :)
 

New Puritan

Member
Location
East Sussex
Thanks @Selectamatic , and anyone else who's chipped in earlier.

The links are level - the levelling box is a bit notchy but I tinkered with it and used a spirit level to make sure. The tyres were level until I got that flat on the offside. The front and back wheels all run on the same track. It's just a question of doing what people have suggested and being methodical about setting stuff correctly and making adjustments as I go along. The front furrow could take more land I think, but it doesn't seem especially easy to adjust on this plough? There's a couple of fairly big bolts that need to be undone that connect the headstock to the main body I think, and then a threaded bar thing that unwinds? Sorry about my appalling lack of knowledge of the correct terms.

In your photo the skimmers look to be at a more aggressive angle than the boards. I think on mine they are roughly parallel, so I will adjust a bit more drastically. As mentioned previously there is also at least one Ransomes skimmer muddled in, I'll see if I can find the proper one or work out why it's gone missing.

As per @Flat 10 I am going to treat it to some new metal - the shins definitely need replacing.

My problem is usually I intend to do one thing and then get diverted onto something else, but I will be there in the next few days and will take some photos. It's a bit wet here at present to do any more ploughing, though I've only got one small field left to do when I can fit it in.
 

puppet

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
sw scotland
I was taught to set the plough up on a level yard with adjustments in 'neutral', then once in the field you can adjust the arms to level the plough once you have made your opening bout. Then check how much your front furrow is turning over and adjust to get sideways movement. I presume that is what your threaded bar is for?
Your pal looks ok except front furrow maybe a bit light.
 

Roy Stokes

Member
Location
East Shropshire
Seems to me that the tractor is crabbing and being pulled about by the plough, I'm not familiar with that particular plough model (DP7?) but can you adjust the headstock to suit your wheel settings, if so I would suggest sliding the plough so the front furrow runs wider then the tractor might pull straighter which will help
 

New Puritan

Member
Location
East Sussex
Thanks for that @moldengineer - that's really helpful.

@Roy Stokes - I think you may be right. I was having a fiddle with it yesterday but didn't get much joy from trying to move it over, something has seized somewhere.

The tractor's flat tyre turned out just to be from dirt being stuck in the valve - annoying but much easier to fix than getting the tyre off to mend a puncture. I've been over the plough and adjusted all but one of the skimmers as per what has been suggested by @DrWazzock - the one left is seized as one of the bolts is missing its head. I may end up cutting that one off if I can find a suitable second hand one to replace it.

Thank you everyone. I have one small field left to plough this season, I'm waiting for it to dry out so I can spread some compost on it prior to ploughing. Once that's done I will report back on how the plough goes.
 

Guy

Member
Location
Chipping Norton
A DP7 with UCN pretty much have me a mental breakdown ... fudging stupid idea having round skimmer legs that refuse to stay put, hen over tighten and the bolt shears off. Best thing I ever did was lose my temper and cut the barsteward thing up and bought a Kuhn MM120...

G
 
Thanks for that @moldengineer - that's really helpful.

@Roy Stokes - I think you may be right. I was having a fiddle with it yesterday but didn't get much joy from trying to move it over, something has seized somewhere.

The tractor's flat tyre turned out just to be from dirt being stuck in the valve - annoying but much easier to fix than getting the tyre off to mend a puncture. I've been over the plough and adjusted all but one of the skimmers as per what has been suggested by @DrWazzock - the one left is seized as one of the bolts is missing its head. I may end up cutting that one off if I can find a suitable second hand one to replace it.

Thank you everyone. I have one small field left to plough this season, I'm waiting for it to dry out so I can spread some compost on it prior to ploughing. Once that's done I will report back on how the plough goes.
get all the adjustments freed up and working when u get a chance
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
Another note in case anybody ever reads this.

I used to have match up problems even with tractor arms at same depth both ways, plough level back to the front and legs vertical both ways and front furrow width correct and the same width both ways. I had adjusted all the beam to point distances to be the same and set up all the mouldboards the same and set rear depth wheel to same both ways. Yet the front furrow wouldn't quite fill going one way but was OK going other way.

The only way round this problem was either

to lower the tractor arms a bit deeper going one way when compared to the other way so the front furrow dug enough to fill the trench

or (which I found more satisfactory)

to incline the plough over a tiny bit from the vertical one way, so that the front furrow ran a bit deeper to better fill the trench.

It took me years to work this out and when I finally did, the tractor gearbox went.

I can only assume the plough turnover shaft was slightly misaligned in the beam so it didn't present same geometry when turned over. Anyway, that's what adjusting screws are for.
 

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