Ransomes 300 series reversibles

[John 1594]

Been after a plough for a while now, keep looking at various dowdeswells but cant seem to find the right one in my price range, ideally been wanting a DP7 /DP8b but all ive seen are too much money for such an old plough, or the other side of the country

Have seen a 4f TSR 300 in cheffins what needs a bit doing to it, just wondered about other peoples thoughts on them, i know the boards/skims etc are good, ransomes always were designed well there, but how about the beam adjustemnts?

We did have a tsr109 years back, we couldnt get it to run right as there wasnt enough adjustment on the headstock to get the plough right on our wheel settings, do these 300 series have two adjustments for the line of pull, like a dowdeswell or similar, where the back part of the headstock is adjustable as well as the front, dowdeswell usually had a few different holes for bolting the rear part of the main turnover tube to the beam, then an adjustment at the front to vary the angle/width as well

Also, does that mechanical switch over valve on the front of the headstock ever give trouble, looks to be a bit of a vunerable thing stuck right on the front like it is

Any ideas lads?

 

[Barleycorn]

We had a couple of them years back, and they both broke the casting where the ram that turns the plough over attaches. They may have beefed this up over the years, but its worth checking it.

 

[John 1594]

right, thats first thing on my list then! They look a good plough tbh, id prefer a dowdeswell at the end of the day, but my budget wont stretch far enough to get the one i want, have been told to steer clear of the early DP7s with the turnover ram on the front of the headstock as they can be a PITA to set up

Was there a way of adjusting the beam alginment on the ransomes? Seen pictures of them and looks like they have a pair of handles with threaded rods what move the front and the back of the headstock in relation to the beam?

 

[Monty]

What plough are you using now John? We bought a dowdeswell dp7 4f this year because it was cheap and I regret it. They are built to last, very heavy and you need a very wide tractor to suit it even on the narrowest setting. They have a stupid flappy depth wheel on them and there is very little adjustment but I really liked the turn over mechanism on it. No sticking at the top. Sold it again on ebay for a profit.
What ever you buy make sure it's straight as a die. You can always get rid of rust, replace wearing parts, weld cracks but you can't straighten them easily.

 

[John 1594]

What am i using now? in the last 12 months ive borrowed a dowdeswell, bought a kv, sold that becuase i didnt like it, sold another vogel and noot i bought cheap, and im now back with our old 3f lemken that i dont really like either

Ive ran a dp7 behind our tractor before, set on 68" wheel track it went well, that was a late model with the ram on the back, I do wonder if a DP8 would be strong enough for us, they havent got a lot of meat in them compared to a 7.

Im pretty limited on what im going to have, its got to be either a ransomes or a dowdy, as ive tried all the others and they just dont suit what i want to do with them, especially the KV, which was the worst thing i ever bought

 

[Monty]

Used to work for a contractor who had a dp8 and a delta furrow. The dp8 had hydraulic angle adjustment which seemed completely pointless and manual front furrow adjustment. The delta furrow looks like a stupid design to me, all that weight on 2 pins. Out of the 3 my choice would be a dp8 (but not the ones with the small slidy bit at the headstock). You shouldn't have a problem with bending/breaking it so long as you use it sensibly (low revs). I ploughed alsorts with it including bright red clay and it was fine with it but it was on a 4cyl that stalled before shear bolts went.

 

[Monty]

How do you like ploughing with levers rather than an electric linkage? I used to plough for the contractor with 3000 series fergies with the electric linkage, once set up, the tractor would plough for you. We did our ploughing with a mf4270 with levers and it was much more tiring in comparison

 

[B&B Pig Man]

Been after a plough for a while now, keep looking at various dowdeswells but cant seem to find the right one in my price range, ideally been wanting a DP7 /DP8b but all ive seen are too much money for such an old plough, or the other side of the country

Have seen a 4f TSR 300 in cheffins what needs a bit doing to it, just wondered about other peoples thoughts on them, i know the boards/skims etc are good, ransomes always were designed well there, but how about the beam adjustemnts?

We did have a tsr109 years back, we couldnt get it to run right as there wasnt enough adjustment on the headstock to get the plough right on our wheel settings, do these 300 series have two adjustments for the line of pull, like a dowdeswell or similar, where the back part of the headstock is adjustable as well as the front, dowdeswell usually had a few different holes for bolting the rear part of the main turnover tube to the beam, then an adjustment at the front to vary the angle/width as well

Also, does that mechanical switch over valve on the front of the headstock ever give trouble, looks to be a bit of a vunerable thing stuck right on the front like it is

Any ideas lads?

I might know where there is one!!

 

[John 1594]

How do you like ploughing with levers rather than an electric linkage? I used to plough for the contractor with 3000 series fergies with the electric linkage, once set up, the tractor would plough for you. We did our ploughing with a mf4270 with levers and it was much more tiring in comparison

never had a problem with ploughing with levers, ive got lower link sensing on this 1594 and its far better than the top link sensing on my smaller DB's

Normally have it set 50/50 in draft/position, as in full draft its so sensetive it jiggles the plough up and down too much, just set the lever to the stop, drop it down and go

 

[John 1594]

Used to work for a contractor who had a dp8 and a delta furrow. The dp8 had hydraulic angle adjustment which seemed completely pointless and manual front furrow adjustment. The delta furrow looks like a stupid design to me, all that weight on 2 pins. Out of the 3 my choice would be a dp8 (but not the ones with the small slidy bit at the headstock). You shouldn't have a problem with bending/breaking it so long as you use it sensibly (low revs). I ploughed alsorts with it including bright red clay and it was fine with it but it was on a 4cyl that stalled before shear bolts went.

if the dp8 had hydraulic "angle" adjustment then it would be a DP8b, they had the more conventional beam design, where the 8a had that slide that you refer too, very similar to a kv, im not after one of those, as there is no way you can adjust the angle of the plough in relation to the tractor, its fixed at one angle and thats it, after my experiences of the KV and vogel headstocks, id never, ever have another

this land of ours is tough as old boots, ive pulled the head off this lemken before and needed a new headstock, and that looks stronger than a dp8?

 

[blackbob]

That's interesting I have an old 3 furrow, with coil-spring auto-reset, and the beam is all in one; nearly bought a 4 furrow and that had 1-piece beam too, not 2+1+1 like yours.. Had the same problem with the casting connecting the ram to the beam, right in the middle of the headstock, think around £300 10yrs ago? Also a neighbour borrowed it and came back with another piece broken (grrr..), although it had been welded before, it sticks out from the beam and butts against the adjustable turnover stops? Good plough otherwise, worked fine behind NH7740, body parts cheap and same as Dowdeswell but dunno about supply of frame parts, don't think they the same as older Ransomes ploughs either

 

[John 1594]

by the sounds of these ransomes headstocks maybe id be better off with a dowdy??? Ive served my time welding ploughs back up after ruining them on our land, want something what i can sit back and relax with without worring il only be taking half of it home at the end of the day

So far we have bent the legs on a 3f ih conventional, pulled the headstock off of a lemken 3f, and broke the front of the beam on a kv

 

[mushnt grummmble]

don't worry bout the head stock
you haven't enough power to break it

 

[John 1594]

don't worry bout the head stock
you haven't enough power to break it

didnt take much to ruin this lemken, managed to elongate the holes on the trulign link and ended up gassing the rear pin out!

 

[multi power]

john what kv did you have? what was wrong with it?

 

[John 1594]

john what kv did you have? what was wrong with it?

LD85/160, 4f on no9s.

What was wrong with it...

The turnover valve kept jamming up as all the balls inside kept sticking, the 4 bolts holding the turnover crank onto the main pin kept working loose, the threads stripped on the collar on the turnover ram that you used to alter the ploughs vertical lean, the sliding headstock was hopless for adjustment and never pulled true, couldnt adjust the angle of the skims as they were straight up down on a solid square bar, the no9 bodies layed our heavy land terrible and left a tiny furrow bottom what i couldnt fit my 18.4 tyres up, the depth wheel hung right out past the rear furrow so i couldnt plough close to our rabbit fencing of take dykesides off without making a mess, and then i broke the two plates holding the front of the beam to the headstock

 

[multi power]

dont know what model my kv is, its old, no8 bodiesi think, good plough but the nicest ploughing i ever done was with a international 300

 

[John 1594]

i was expecting good things off it how everyone talks about them, but it turned out to be the biggest piece of un-workable rubbish i ever bought, i can usually amke any plough behave how it should, but no matter how or what i dont to the headstock slide/beam turnbuckle, it wouldnt pull true. I could make the plough run true to match up with the last pass, but could never get the top link to run true with the tractor, as soon as it went into work it used to swing over tight on the tractors stabilisers, no matter how you adjusted the alginment

 

[blackbob]

by the sounds of these ransomes headstocks maybe id be better off with a dowdy?

No that's the coil-spring auto-reset Dowdeswells that need you to carry a ratchet strap so you're sure of taking the plough home in one trip.. I've the feeling that the problem with the Ransomes is caused by the pin on the bottom end of the ram coming out, or partly out, iirc it's held in by a little bolt which can unscrew itself? So it may be preventable, mine had been bodged up when I got it and I decided to splash out on the new part.
Now have an old semi-mounted 5F DP6 I think it is, hydraulic a-r, have had no problems apart from the tractor lower-link hook letting go of its ball while turning over, bent the opposite hook, just one of those things I suppose.
Neighbour bought an old Lemken 4F for £100 at a mart machinery sale a few years ago, looks a flimsy thing and had a lot of wear in all those pivots (a-r too) but it worked really well behind his 956

 

[John 1594]

No that's the coil-spring auto-reset Dowdeswells that need you to carry a ratchet strap so you're sure of taking the plough home in one trip.. I've the feeling that the problem with the Ransomes is caused by the pin on the bottom end of the ram coming out, or partly out, iirc it's held in by a little bolt which can unscrew itself? So it may be preventable, mine had been bodged up when I got it and I decided to splash out on the new part.
Now have an old semi-mounted 5F DP6 I think it is, hydraulic a-r, have had no problems apart from the tractor lower-link hook letting go of its ball while turning over, bent the opposite hook, just one of those things I suppose.
Neighbour bought an old Lemken 4F for £100 at a mart machinery sale a few years ago, looks a flimsy thing and had a lot of wear in all those pivots (a-r too) but it worked really well behind his 956

i never have had much luck with lemkens, had a 4f on slats that was so short on the point to point clearance the skims could throw the trash up the back of the previous body if you angled them round too much. To get it to lay right you needed one link arm 2" longer than the other, sure it was bent somewhere

Out of all the ploughs ive used, the neighbours DP7E was far by the best, old thing was wore right out and needed re-mettaling front to back, but it still done a brilliant job and didnt pull as hard as i was expecting, love the SCN boards, make a perfect job on our land, far better than some bigger, more modern designs