Ploughing with a Ferguson 2 furrow plough

[Sausage]

I’ve bought a 2 furrow plough for the garden to go behind my 135. The 4 furrow KV is just too big for the job. I have never used a 2 furrow before so it might be a bit of a learning curve. My first question is the track width. It seems the middle of the second furrow is in line with the center of the top link, so I would think the width between the inside of the tyres should be 3 times the furrow width.
However it is on 10 inch furrows and the tractor has 12.4 tyres, so that is only 42.4 inch centres, I think I’m missing something? Any advice welcome.

 

[MF-ANDY]

We always had wheels set a 52" ie one setting from completely in.

 

[Courier]

Is the headstock not sideways adjustable on the crossshaft ?

 

[Sausage]

It is, if I can get the U bolts undone. I’ll put the wheels on 52” as they’re currently on 62” for spud rows, not that we do that any more, can only vaguely remember the 135 involved in that. As you say, if the front furrow is taking too much I’ll have to slide the cross shaft over.

 

[MF-ANDY]

It is, if I can get the U bolts undone. I’ll put the wheels on 52” as they’re currently on 62” for spud rows, not that we do that any more, can only vaguely remember the 135 involved in that. As you say, if the front furrow is taking too much I’ll have to slide the cross shaft over.

It is, if I can get the U bolts undone. I’ll put the wheels on 52” as they’re currently on 62” for spud rows, not that we do that any more, can only vaguely remember the 135 involved in that. As you say, if the front furrow is taking too much I’ll have to slide the cross shaft over.

Can't be 62". 135 goes from 48" to 60" with the dishes inwards and 64" to 76" with the dishes outwards in 4" increments. Therefore you must be on 60" or 64"

 

[Sausage]

You are right as I measured it yesterday, but was still half sleep in previous post clearly. Other tractors are on 62, 135 is on 60. To know that off the top of your head is quite impressive.

 

[MrNoo]

You'll want the wheels right in, as far as they go. My TEF is 38" between inner tyre walls (48" centre to centre) It will be fine at 52" centre to centre too, leaves me 2 furrows and then an 8" strip for the finish.
You will need to loosen up the U bolts and cross shaft. The idea being that the cross shaft is vertical and you slide the plough over one way or t'other to get the front furrow width you want (10") the shaft then can be moved back (to narrow) or forward (widen) the front furrow.
You'' be ok on 12.4" but ideally in match ploughing world we run them on 11.

 

[Exfarmer]

The narrower you can get, the easier it will be pulling the plough straight. The really important thing is the width between the rear tyres and ideally the centre of any plough would be equidistant between the two. Of course that is not practical when the plough is only 20 inches wide.
Keep the pressure in the tyres high relative this will reduce the squab .
The plough will probably already set fairly well over and before I did too much work I would try it out to see how it pulls. If it is rusty it will need to shine before you really know what is going on as it will crab anyway.
One tip of course, it is actually only necessary to adjust the furrow wheels on the tractor, but it will look a bit odd. Make sure the front wheels are correct to the back, ideally the front and back inside the tyre walls should be the same, to keep the tractor straight. If they are on centre to centre, then the tractor will be driving into the land and that will definitely make the plough crab

 

[Sausage]

Thanks for all that. The plough cross shaft is cranked. What affect does adjusting this have on the plough?

 

[MrNoo]

The narrower you can get, the easier it will be pulling the plough straight. The really important thing is the width between the rear tyres and ideally the centre of any plough would be equidistant between the two. Of course that is not practical when the plough is only 20 inches wide.
Keep the pressure in the tyres high relative this will reduce the squab .
The plough will probably already set fairly well over and before I did too much work I would try it out to see how it pulls. If it is rusty it will need to shine before you really know what is going on as it will crab anyway.
One tip of course, it is actually only necessary to adjust the furrow wheels on the tractor, but it will look a bit odd. Make sure the front wheels are correct to the back, ideally the front and back inside the tyre walls should be the same, to keep the tractor straight. If they are on centre to centre, then the tractor will be driving into the land and that will definitely make the plough crab

The cross shaft is not at 90 degrees to the plough and was actually designed to crab relative to line of pull. If you set a Fergie up for ploughing as Ferguson intended the front inner wheel measurement is 4” wider than the rear or 2” each side!! So in effect the tractor crabs towards unploughed land.
You can make the cross shaft square to the plough but I have never bothered, Richard Ingram has done on his plough but I am unsure of the benefit.
And yes, it’s a waste of time unless you have decent clean boards and a decent set of shares, lead to land is very important on them or you’ll never go straight and share tips need to be circa 19mm below landslide lower edge.
Get the boards swept back and make sure the plough is all square.
They can do some lovely work on a good day!!

 

[MrNoo]

Thanks for all that. The plough cross shaft is cranked. What affect does adjusting this have on the plough?

If you rotate the shaft it will widen or narrow the front furrow, we all use cross shaft adjusters so we can adjust it whilst ploughing to parallel up a plot, take kinks out or pull the lever right forward to take a single furrow off towards the finish.
For basic ploughing the cranks want to be around vertical, if you slide the plough towards ploughed ground and you still have a wide front furrow you just crank the shaft rearwards (this narrows the front furrow) relative to you being sat on the seat

 

[Sausage]

Presumably it also changes the front furrow depth which you then need to compensate for on the lift rod.

Thanks a lot for the advice i’ll get it all setup and go from there.

 

[Exfarmer]

The cross shaft is not at 90 degrees to the plough and was actually designed to crab relative to line of pull. If you set a Fergie up for ploughing as Ferguson intended the front inner wheel measurement is 4” wider than the rear or 2” each side!! So in effect the tractor crabs towards unploughed land.
You can make the cross shaft square to the plough but I have never bothered, Richard Ingram has done on his plough but I am unsure of the benefit.
And yes, it’s a waste of time unless you have decent clean boards and a decent set of shares, lead to land is very important on them or you’ll never go straight and share tips need to be circa 19mm below landslide lower edge.
Get the boards swept back and make sure the plough is all square.
They can do some lovely work on a good day!!
View attachment 1010348

I was unaware of that feature om a Fergie plough, of course the OP did not specify make of plough and I was talking genericly. I actually never used ferguson conventional ploughs, except a single furrow deep digger, which we could bever get to pull in line as it was determined to crab to the left. Perhaps changing the front wheels may have helped

 

[MrNoo]

I was unaware of that feature om a Fergie plough, of course the OP did not specify make of plough and I was talking genericly. I actually never used ferguson conventional ploughs, except a single furrow deep digger, which we could bever get to pull in line as it was determined to crab to the left. Perhaps changing the front wheels may have helped

Yes, I run the wider fronts on my match ploughing tractor and in a perfect world I would modify the front axle furrow side to be in another 2” but would need a bit of surgery to do that and I’m not sure the Ferguson ploughing police would be too keen!!