Disc plow vs Turn plow

aarolar

Member
I am in the market for a 2 bottom plow for my TO-35 and am curious why disc plows have been phased out over time. From my research they seem like a pretty good tool but what makes a turn plow more desirable?
 
I believe you mean a disk or Moldboard plow. The disk plow was real good if you had a lot of rocks but over time what was plowed has been less and less over the years.
 
I have both flat bottom (MF 62) and disc plows (MF 64)for my 1957 model TO-35.

I like both plows, if the ground is fairly clean, not much debris, the 3x12's ferguson plows do a great job,
but if there is a lot of filth, corn stalks, heavy grass, weeds, etc: then my 3-12's tend to choke up. They just do not enough throat to let the filth pass through, however, 16's plows will do much better as they have more throat.

my old disc plow will not back up from anything, roots, rocks, corn stalks, they just leave the ground rougher, but I like to use them. Great plows.
a108011.jpg

a108012.jpg
 
I have a 3 bottom trailer disc plow. Bought it for reclaiming older brushy pasture. So far I haven't been able to get it to plow good. I'm thinking the discs might be worn too small to work right. I love the idea of them, just need to get it working right.
 
Disc plows wee also known as new land plows. They worked great,
for plowing newly cleared land. As others have said, they roll right
over that which is too big to cut up. They also don't make a hard
pan, like regular moldboard plows do. Some farmers around here
would not have a moldboard plow on their land, for that last
reason. Hard to find the discs for them, now, they are usually big,
(26-32") and have a deeper dish, than normal disc blades, and have
a bolt circle, to bolt them to the hub.
 
I have both the Ferguson 2 disc plow and a Massey #62 2-14"
moldboard plow. I pull both of them with my Ferguson TO20. I
prefer using the disc plow. It pulls much easier than a
moldboard plow,and it will plow most anything. As far as the
disc's as long as you get a Ferguson or the later Massey
version you can still get new discs for them.
 
Of the two plows in the pictures, the upper mold board plow
doesn't work well here as it is very moisture dependent in this
Houston Black Clay. If the clay gets any kind of moisture, which
it normally has, it will gum up and you just have a big mess.

The disc "one way" plow works perfectly and at two bottoms for
30 ish hp tractors it fits well. For the larger tractors, JD makes
one ways out to 16 or so discs.

Mostly what is used here is a disc harrow used as a plow for
repeat tendering year to year, and a deep running chisel for new
acreage or a periodic plow pan breakup for actively managed
soil. For the MF 35 a 6' wide, 20 disc harrow (in two V shaped
rows) works fine. The harrow will turn under surface vegitation
but leaves the soil much smoother than a moldboard, especially
if you drag a spike tooth or other type smoothing harrow behind
it.

Mark
 
The moldboard was used in more areas of the country so more popular and so was cheaper to build and also so there were more repair parts needed so that is why they discontinued the disk plow first, now even hard to get a moldboard plow. But even tho the disk was better in certain conditions than a moldboard cost was the big factor in selling them. They probably would have worked in my area but was not a requirement so with all cost factors never sold here, never even had opertunity to see one work. But it all boils down to cost of plow, not what it will do.
 
(quoted from post at 16:59:24 03/22/13) Of the two plows in the pictures, the upper mold board plow
doesn't work well here as it is very moisture dependent in this
Houston Black Clay. If the clay gets any kind of moisture, which
it normally has, it will gum up and you just have a big mess.

The disc "one way" plow works perfectly and at two bottoms for
30 ish hp tractors it fits well. For the larger tractors, JD makes
one ways out to 16 or so discs.


Mark

There are disc plows and then there are disc tillers. A disc plow has a separate standard for each bottom. A disc tiller has the discs on a common axle. Disc tillers are also known as "one ways".

The pictured disc plow pictured above in this thread is in fact a disc plow. The item in this other thread- http://www.ytmag.com/cgi-bin/viewit.cgi?bd=implment&th=189335 - is a disc tiller.

Just to clear up any cornfuzhun.
 
(quoted from post at 16:19:13 03/22/13) I have both the Ferguson 2 disc plow and a Massey #62 2-14"
moldboard plow. I pull both of them with my Ferguson TO20. I
prefer using the disc plow. It pulls much easier than a
moldboard plow,and it will plow most anything. [b:c9107bf607]As far as the
disc's as long as you get a Ferguson or the later Massey
version you can still get new discs for them.[/b:c9107bf607]

Jason, could you direct me to where you can find these discs? The only currently manufactured disc plow I can find is the Monroe-Tuffline and they refuse to respond to inquiries regarding the availability of the discs themselves.
 
Sparex sells them which any Agco dealer can get. I have the
part number written down here some where.
 
bret:

the trail guide wheel is very important in making a disc plow work, or pull straight.

the disc blades push the plow to the left, the trail guide wheel must be angled enough to push back and keep the plow running straight.

most old disc plows were put in the fence row when the rear trail wheel disc blade (straight blade like a plow coulter blade worn down and could no longer bite in enough to keep the plow running straight.

my friend and I have two ferguson disc plows, picture attached is the other disc plow, both work great: I had to replace the rear trail guide blade on both of them first thing.

I bought a flat plow coulter blade 18" I think, laid the old blade over the new one and used my torch, blew the mount holes into the new blade,
worked like a charm.

again: you must be able to adjust the rear guide wheel and it must have enough bite to it, to keep the plow going straight.

otherwise, a disc plow will not work.

on the plow disc blades themselves, you can take your 4 1/2" disc grinder and sharpen the edges of the main plow blades, if necessary.
a108323.jpg
 
I have only seen one of the two bottom "plows" shown in the
pics. A neighbor guy who flew in WWII had one in behind a B
Deere. He had a 100 acre plot and would plant peas and plow
them in just to have something to do. He was roughly 85 at the
time and the second and third (his kids) generation on the farm.

Everything else of that nature was on a single beam and had at
least 16 discs and the "offset" wheel and I vaguely remember a
box of dirt.

Thinking back some 25 years ago as haven't seen any since and I
was new to country living at the time, I think some had a
massive cast offset wheel and I think some had a box of dirt and
a much lighter weight wheel....the box supplying the weight to
anchor the wheel.

I don't think the guy told me what it was, I just saw what it
looked like and don't remember for sure if it had two
"standards". I think it did as I remembered being able to see the
concave surfaces of both discs in full form which would not have
happened had they been on a common axle. His must have had
the scrapers broken off or not supplied on whatever brand plow
he had.

We referred to them as one ways because the soil was cut only
one way as compared to tandem disc harrows that we use down
here as plows and cultivators which cut the dirt both ways
simultaneously.

Mark
 
Hey Bret try this link

http://v2.gb.sparex.com/ItemDetails/ItemDetails.aspx?ItemNumber=57412&CurrentTab=Manuf
 
(quoted from post at 17:06:09 03/23/13) bret:

the trail guide wheel is very important in making a disc plow work, or pull straight.

the disc blades push the plow to the left, the trail guide wheel must be angled enough to push back and keep the plow running straight.

most old disc plows were put in the fence row when the rear trail wheel disc blade (straight blade like a plow coulter blade worn down and could no longer bite in enough to keep the plow running straight.

my friend and I have two ferguson disc plows, picture attached is the other disc plow, both work great: I had to replace the rear trail guide blade on both of them first thing.

I bought a flat plow coulter blade 18" I think, laid the old blade over the new one and used my torch, blew the mount holes into the new blade,
worked like a charm.

again: you must be able to adjust the rear guide wheel and it must have enough bite to it, to keep the plow going straight.

otherwise, a disc plow will not work.

on the plow disc blades themselves, you can take your 4 1/2" disc grinder and sharpen the edges of the main plow blades, if necessary.
a108323.jpg

The trail wheel on mine is roughly 30" in diameter, has an edge that stands 4-6" proud of the wheel and is part of the wheel casting. When I fixed the trail wheel bearing I had to dismount the wheel. That required taking of the 3 wheel weights that were probably 35-40 lbs each. The wheel itself weighs about 100 lbs I'd think.

The reason I think the discs are word too much is that they are 22-23" in diameter and the standards look to have enough space for 30-32" discs. Unfortunately I've never been able to determine the make. It has red and blue paint like a McD/IHC in places, but has "DP" prefixes to casting numbers which don't cross to IHC according to info I got here. I still think it may be an IHC though.
 
Actually no...I"m in TN but Sparex is in England. I think the
Massey dealers can still get a few of the original Massey discs
as well as being able to get the Sparex discs. Last time I
checked the serrated discs are no longer available.
 

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