I have an IH 720 Automatic 5-bottom 16" that was tough pulling with our 1100 Massey (94HP) so I dropped the back bottom off and moved the tail wheel up before I plowed this Spring. We're in heavy black soil. Worked much better as a 4 bottom, but that was in corn stubble that I had disked down last Fall.
Now a neighbor has a nice looking White 508 3-bottom spring reset semi-mounted that he wants to sell me, since I'm looking at buying a G900 Moline from him. I didn't measure the plow to check the width yet, but it has curved coulters.
I think it would be nice to have the 3-bottom, since I only need to plow about 5 acres per year. I think I could run it faster and get a better looking furrow. I'm working on getting the fields to where I can rotate about 5 acres per year from alfalfa to grain, then back to alfalfa the next year. So it's going to pull harder in 5 year old hay ground, than in corn ground that's been cultivated twice. More reason to go to 3 bottoms I suppose.
So if you had your choice, which plow would you go with? I'm assuming they're similar in value, so I should be able to sell the 720 for what I pay for the 508. I have a broken moldboard on the front bottom on the 720 that I need to fix yet. Probably should just jump on buying the 508 and figure it out later, especially since it's so close to home.
Now a neighbor has a nice looking White 508 3-bottom spring reset semi-mounted that he wants to sell me, since I'm looking at buying a G900 Moline from him. I didn't measure the plow to check the width yet, but it has curved coulters.
I think it would be nice to have the 3-bottom, since I only need to plow about 5 acres per year. I think I could run it faster and get a better looking furrow. I'm working on getting the fields to where I can rotate about 5 acres per year from alfalfa to grain, then back to alfalfa the next year. So it's going to pull harder in 5 year old hay ground, than in corn ground that's been cultivated twice. More reason to go to 3 bottoms I suppose.
So if you had your choice, which plow would you go with? I'm assuming they're similar in value, so I should be able to sell the 720 for what I pay for the 508. I have a broken moldboard on the front bottom on the 720 that I need to fix yet. Probably should just jump on buying the 508 and figure it out later, especially since it's so close to home.