630 vs R plowing

fixerupper

Well-known Member
My son's friend had a few acres of sod to be plowed. It was an old landing strip so it was long and flat and not too wide. He asked my son if he wanted to plow it with the old iron so today we took the 630 with a 4X14's mounted and the R with a 4X16's pull plow. It was perfect weather wise. Temp was a sunny 70 and the wind was calm. Both plows are from the same era, late fifties.

This was the chance to run the two tractors side by side in identical conditions with close to but not quite identical plows. Both tractors tested about the same horsepower at Nebraska but of course the engine difference was quite different. The R runs slower RPM's but has a bunch more cubes than the 630 and is a diesel. This was in a little easier plowing soil than the black slabby stuff we have at home but it still gave both of the old girls a test for sure. Both of us were in second gear and fully loaded running nearly 100% horsepower most of the time.

Now for the differences, the R has a faster second gear than the 630 and the R was pulling a pull type plow but the R did handle it a little better than the 630 handled the mounted plow power wise. Both tractors were working their hearts out but the R was going maybe a half to one mile per hour faster. The pull plow held it's depth better but it has near new shares where the mounted plow has worn shares. The pull plow did plow straighter too. In the end we were not happy with the job we did, we couldn't go fast enough to turn the sod completely over in some spots and occasionally the plow plugged. That's where the mounted plow was better because it could be raised higher to get rid of the balled up sod.

Here are a few pics, like I said we were not happy with the job we did but a good disking with a heavy disk should smooth it out.



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The view down the hood of the 630. This is the tractor I spent many hours on plowing and doing field work all through the sixties and into the seventies.

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And the R.

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The view from the seat of the 630. We did not do a good job of plowing today but the tractors were exercised nonetheless.




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The fleet. The pull plow will be put away for the year, we have had enough! The mounted plow will plow the garden tomorrow, then it will be put to rest for the year too.
 
That's a lot of plow for a 630. Drop a bottom and up a gear and that sod would be all the way over. Bet the sound was awsome tho. I'm not much of an "R" fan or diesel for that mater but still cool to see them stretch their muscles. Love to have that 630. Thanks for posting pics.
 
When dad bought the 630 new in 1960 the dealer told him it would pull a four bottom mounted plow so dad came home with a four bottom plow. The 630 struggled along with it for eight years on a 240 acre farm but when dad bought another half section in 1968 the 630 was relegated to lighter duties and the plow was put away only to be used for little jobs. We did drop a bottom once but we couldn't pull three any faster in our soil because of too much of a jump in speed between gears. Our 51 A does better with 2-16's rather than 3-14's for the same reason. When we were deciding to do this I thought about bringing the 3-14's pulled by the Oliver 88 with super 88 Pistons but I decided to bring the 630 because I wanted to see what it would do beside the R. I really should have put the 3-14's behind the R and the 2-16's behind the 630. Then we could have done it in third gear. I also entertained the thought of doing it all with the 4650 pulling a 2500 series 5-18's. I could have done a much better job with that rig and I would have had a nice air conditioned cab to boot! LOL
 
Wow , that is a lot of plow for 630 and I thought we over loaded ours with a 3-16. I thought the rule of thumb for comparing plows is dropping one bottom when using a mounted
plow. Many variables involved here. Recently plowed in the same field with a semi-mounted plow of same size, really wish I could have hooked to it for a real comparison .
Wish I could have been there, thanks for posting.
 
The A was rated for a 2x16 plow in all conditions and a 3x14 plow in light conditions. An
AO or AR was geared a little different and pulled the 3 bottom plow easier in 3rd.
 
I went to a plowing bee 2 years ago with our 630 and a 3 14 Minn Moline mounted plow. Was in bottom ground 2nd gear plow in deep as it would go. Had fun and had 3 sets of rear weights, narrow front, with the three piece weight set for the front, and worn out 13.6 38 firestones. 730's were trying to pull 4 btm pull plows with no weights, left brakes were smoking. The plow was a 4 btm but I flipped the fourth bottom up since I didn't think the 630 would pull it. Maybe further away from the creek it might have handled it but right buy the creek it was gumbo.
 
4-14's behind the R. Sorry, made the same type last time I posted about the R. The R wouldn't have a ghost of a chance pulling 4-16's.
 
Looks like your going too deep for a 14 inch plow to do a good job. The JD 630 plowing side ways is because the draft control is pulling the plow out of the ground making the landslide not hold the plow straight.

I am really surprised you could pull the 4x14s with the JD 630. They where a three plow tractor around here. I am sure you had fun plowing again.
 
In the 1960's we plowed with a 630 with 3-16's in forth gear.(3 point JD plow) The only time I had
to drop to 3rd gear was plowing sod. The ground was considered to be sandy loam. My dad would say
the 630 would "run" with that plow.The ground in southern Maryland must be very different from
that in other parts of the country.I still have the 630 and plow.
Bob
 
The four bottom is now a three bottom. I backed it in the shop and in about 30 minutes the transformation was done. #4 became #3 and #3 became #1 because #1 was tweaked just a bit and didn't plow like the rest.

We were plowing 7" deep, the grass was at least ten inches long but down and tangled. I did think about shallowing up to five or six inches but at that depth the rear of the plow would come up and skate along on top of the sod. As I understand when the prairies were broke they just skimmed the sod enough to turn it over upside down, then they let it lay there to die and decay before they farmed it.

In some places the tractor stopped and the land wheel spun on top of the grass like it was on frozen ground. In retrospect I should have done this with the 5-18's behind the 4650 so I could have done a good job for him and done the recreation plowing somewhere else.

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It's three bottoms now. I tried it out with a smug feeling the tractor would walk away with it but when it went in the ground I found out the 630 could only handle it in second gear yet. The difference was now it pulled the plow through the really tough spots where with four bottoms I would have been in low gear if I wanted to keep it the same depth.

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Poor picture with the sun playing with the camera but this is what the tough ground plows like. It's shiny black and sticky. This is the type of ground that should not be spring plowed. It needs to go through winter to mellow it out. Some folks would call this gumbo but as I understand true gumbo is found only in a few places in the US. I think the Missouri river valley in western Iowa might have some true gumbo.
 

Especially for Sod, you need Cover-Boards to cover the sod, not more speed.

Here, a friend plows with his "R" and 4x16" Case Pull-Type plow and is nearly always in 2nd..

I saw him in Black Wax/ Alfalfa Plowing across the field with a Dead JD "A" chained behind him ( Plow in the ground) and still in 2nd..Blowing lots of smoke, but still in second..

We do have the Rack set at 17 and way more RPM added for Pulling, but not a thing done to the actual motor..

I found that 3-14" was NOT enough plow to get the Draft Control to work right..every time it asked for a little weight, the plow just popped up about 4".
Had to put the center Link in the top hole (NO Draft Control) to cure it..
 
For the 20 minutes or so I plowed with three bottoms the draft control worked OK. The top link is in the center hole. Soil types are so variable though.
 

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