plow question

I"ve been looking up info on semi-mounted plows. One term I keep seeing is "fore and aft clearance". Can anyone tell me what that means and how to measure it on a plow?

Picture parallel lines at the tip of the plowshares, 90 degrees from direction of travel. Distance between lines is fore/aft clearance. Slightly less than distance between points.

This my explanation as stated in the "Ferguson Plow handbook"
"Clearance: Two base plow- 21' from point of share to beams. Single base plow- 22 1/2"from share point to beam. More clearance allows trash (corn stalks, tall grass etc) to flow thru.
"Aft" is not defined, however I would call it the distance, between the edge of the coulter to the beam. (wider means "trash flow")

I have raised, shake, kick corn stalks at this "Throat area, and forever wished I had a "Sod buster Plow, with about 30".

Charles Krammin SW MI

How do you measure it then-String, square, tap, etc., when its not on plow in "line of travel"?
What is the importance of the buying a plow with "good fore and aft clearance"?
I wish to be educated more on this term?
Other important things I look at in used plow is:
Bent Frog?, bent or welded beam, equal measurement from front between points and between rear of points, steel share and, coulter condition, rear rolling tail wheel, thinnest of steel at rear of bottom.
Charles Krammin SW

If you've never plowed, it doesn't seem like it would be a problem. But!

The stuff on top of the dirt - cornstalks, straw, bean stubble, vine residue, big weeds....... They will plug up a plow rather than pass through and get buried.

The more room there is between bottoms and the higher the main beam of the plow is above the dirt, the more room there is for this junk to pass through the plow.

So, the more distance between bottoms, the more trash that can pass through.

The closer the bottoms are, the more ugly, miserable, plugged up plowing you will have.

The other way to fight this plugging is to remove the trash (bale straw, cornstalks off), or chop it up real fine (disk or use a corn stalk chopper to make the stalks real short). And have a straw chopper on the combine to grind up the bean straw and spread it apart.

Good large coulters adjusted right also help a whole lot.

Typically a plow made in the 1950s doesn't have much clearance, and one made in the 1990s has a lot of clearance. As we dirt farmers learned how much nicer it was not to plug up the plow so often...... As well. We went from 100bu corn planted at 20,000 plants per acre, to 200bu corn planted at 35,000 plants per acre so very much more trash on the field......

If you are going to plow very clear fields without much crop residue on the top it won't make much difference.

Paul

Ditto on what Paul says- bigger the "throat"....height and width, the easier trash (to be PC- "residue") will flow through. Doesn"t matter if you measure with parallel lines or point to point...you want large throat. Spacing out bottoms on a longer frame also increases power needed to pull plow.....remember the story of a 100 lb bag on a 100 foot rope behind a horse? Longer frame also means more plow weight, which has to be pulled. BUT, a better plowing job is done with uniform coverage of trash.

I think what you have described is vertical clearance. I plowed cornstalks this spring and had lots of plugging on my plow. It's a lot of work unplugging the plow, which is why I am looking at the semi-mounted plows.

Thanks! I think I understand it now.

I've never heard the story about the 100 lb. bag on a 100 ft. rope behind a horse. How does the story go?
Other than the plow being heavier, why does spacing the bottoms farther apart make the plow harder to pull?

Story is to tie a 100 lb bag behind the horse- easily pulls it. Tie it on 100 foot rope and horse can"t pull it. I cannot verify truthfulness, but increasing the distance between the tractor and the load does increase resistance.

I have an A0-14, I think. I had a lot of trouble with plugging with sorghum, but last years corn stalks weren't too bad. I think I only had to unplug less than a half dozen time. 'course the plot is only 1/3 acre. I always leave it standing over the winter. Next spring I'll brush hog it. I might even do a couple of rows occasionally for the smaller critters that can't reach as high as deer.

Larry

Distance changes the line of draft.

I have heard of draft horses and I have heard of work horses. This now has got me thinking. LOL"