Wheel Settings, Can I plough at 60ins?

[Selectamatic]

Not for competition ploughing, but ploughing at home.

David Brown 990 and David Brown C Type Plough, either a three or four furrow, both would be set to 12ins furrows.

The tractor has Power Assisted Steering Fitted, and, as the book says, 56ins is the narrowest track setting achievable with this setup, any narrower and the ram contacts the chassis.

So, in order for the wheels to run parallel on the inside edges, if the front's are at 56ins, the rear's therefore need to be at 60ins.

I think that this may be too wide for my plough, the plough book shows various combinations, but for a 12ins plough, 52 and 56ins seem to be in favour. (14ins furrows allow 56 or 60ins, but 14ins are too wide for what i want, and not achievable with my plough frames anyway)

So It would appear that I am scuppered.

The only way out, that I can see is that i set the rear wheels to 56ins, and the front to 52 ins, but the LHS front wheel (not the one in the furrow) stepped out to 56ins to save the steering ram. Would this work, or would it upset the steering geometry, and make the tractor look daft?

Even though it's a conventional plough, I would be ploughing one way, no casting or gathering, so im not too fussed as to where the LH wheel is, it's just running on the unploughed land.

Am I talking nonsense?

 

[Lincs Lass]

We used to run at 60inch ,mainly because tatty rows were 30inch and three rows of sugar beet was 60 inch ,,ran a reversable 4 x12fr dowdeswell .

 

[Boohoo]

I plough with the left wheels at 56" and the rights at 52"

 

[Bury the Trash]

In the past iirc , with a conventional plough, I had the front wheel track uneven, simply because I wanted to alter the front wheel track but didnt have time to do both wheels, ( had to get on ) so the in the furrow one got moved but not the other.... for that field or 2.

It was fine but just looked half cocked yes...

 

[Selectamatic]

I plough with the left wheels at 56" and the rights at 52"

That's my answer then! I'll give it a go! Thank You!

 

[Selectamatic]

We used to run at 60inch ,mainly because tatty rows were 30inch and three rows of sugar beet was 60 inch ,,ran a reversable 4 x12fr dowdeswell .

You don't still have said plough, do you...? I could do with a four furrow reversible on 12ins...

 

[Lincs Lass]

You don't still have said plough, do you...? I could do with a four furrow reversible on 12ins...

No ,it has long gone ,,theres a thread on the go about dowdeswell skimmer ,,,@grainboy

 

[Tonym]

Put the rears in and leave the fronts as they are. I have a Fiat 450 4WD and with the front wheels set to their narrowest setting they line up with the outside of the rear tyres which means they are about 4 inches wider than recommended. Tried it on my Match plough expecting the worst but found it no problem at all.
I seem to remember reading in the Ransomes Good Ploughing guide that they recommended putting the front track wider than the rear when ploughing hard ground.

 

[multi power]

I learned to plough with the front and rear wheels on the same track width, as in centre of front and back wheels in line, rather than inside of wheels in line, it was absolutely fine

 

[Boohoo]

That's my answer then! I'll give it a go! Thank You!

Let us know how you get on and don't forget the pictures.

 

[Howard150]

Used to plough with 12”KV ploughs at 56. If you use 60 then the buck lever is a long way toward the back of the adjustment. Not ideal and gets through some landslides but if you only do a bit, then no problem. Ransomes used to advocate inside faces of the tyres in line for shallow ploughing, both same centres for deep ploughing. Very very noteworthy ploughman from these parts always reckoned the same.
For 10 1/2” mounted match work then I run rights at 52, lefts at 56. Tried 60 but it’s too hard to bury the trash as not enough ground gets paddled. You need to turn one tyre on the rim to run at this setting.
got 56,s for the trailing plough 10” work but debating whether or not to change this. Decisions decisions!

 

[MrNoo]

Put the rears in and leave the fronts as they are. I have a Fiat 450 4WD and with the front wheels set to their narrowest setting they line up with the outside of the rear tyres which means they are about 4 inches wider than recommended. Tried it on my Match plough expecting the worst but found it no problem at all.
I seem to remember reading in the Ransomes Good Ploughing guide that they recommended putting the front track wider than the rear when ploughing hard ground.

The Fergie when set at 48" centres on the rear is like this the fronts are circa 2" off the furrow wall but then the cross shaft is slightly angled relative to direction of travel to compensate. I try to run just off the wall as it seems to be a more "natural" place to be, where the plough performs best or appears to. I did think about pulling the front furrow wheel in 2" and still might but the Fergie police were having kittens already without me adding to the fire!

 

[Tonym]

I plough at 10.5 inches with staggered wheel settings. Right rear on the 52" setting right left at 56" with the tyre reversed giving 54" centers and 42" wall to wall. The front right inside lines up with the rear inside but the front left runs central to the rear giving 56" with 44" between the walls .
The reasoning behind this is the narrowest setting on the right allows maximum movement to the ploughed land when taking 1 furrow off whilst I am able to straddle 4 furrows. The extra 2" on the front stops the tyres pinching the furrow walls and steering the tractor if things get a little too tight while straddling 4 furrows.