3pt disc or pull-type disc for a 8n?

Nutty

Member
I typically have a larger tractor to disc with, but it has been recently experiencing problems, so I tried to pull the 10ft jd disc with the 8n. It struggled to pull it in the soft plowed ground, purely fron limited traction. I have been kinda skeptical of 3pt discs, as we had very limited success with one on our 2440 jd, but are they any good on a 8n? Is there a trick to using discs that i may not know? We pitch the gangs as far as they can go, and weigh them down with sand bags on the tandem disc. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.
 
3 pt discs pull fine with our N's, but 4' and 5' depending on the soil is all you can get. A 10' foot disc is just an anchor for a 20 hp tractor. Your question is really about horsepower, not hitches.
 
(quoted from post at 19:36:27 06/04/17) 3 pt discs pull fine with our N's, but 4' and 5' depending on the soil is all you can get. A 10' foot disc is just an anchor for a 20 hp tractor. Your question is really about horsepower, not hitches.
I should have said do 3pts break up clods and rip as well or close to as well. With the jd 2440, it just rolled over the ground without digging in. So we sold it and bought a disc similar to this. It pulls the 10ft fine on river bottom soil with a 75 lb sandbag on each gang, and rips pretty well, but i can't go in 3rd gear. It would help also to have the 8n to disc in a row with the larger tractor.
49432.jpg
 
I would say 6ft light to med weight disk,
One problem you are going to run into trying to go heavy even with a 6ft disk,

When you pick it up the front wheels are going to come off the ground, yes you can weight the front, but then you cannot steer the tractor or you stress the lift system,

See if you can borrow a light to medium weight disk and give it a try before you buy one,

Once years ago, I got a deal on one of the better heavy duty 6ft disk made, toughline brand I think it was,

Man it was made heavy, had sealed bearings, I was in hog heaven until I hooked it to my TO35 Ferguson tractor, it could pull it fine, but at the ends the only steering I had was with the brake petals, as the front wheels only kissed the ground from time to time,

Sold it quick, bought a medium duty Altas 300 6ft med duty disk, it works good with my tractor

You can over disk in a heart beat, with these little tractors,
 
(quoted from post at 23:34:23 06/04/17) But does it rip up dirt very well?
hese are leveling discs/disc-harrows, not plows, so don't expect much on virgin ground.
 
I used to weight my 3pt disc too.
How a 3pt disc cuts depends a lot on how you adjust it.
Most double row 3pt discs have adjustable angle gangs so that
you can angle them to cut as desired in your soil.

The top link can also be adjusted so the front gangs dig deeper
than the rear ones and let the rear ones level out the ground.

I wouldn't expect it to plow sod, but then my JD pull behind won't
plow sod either. It is similar to the one pictured and uses a trip
rope to angle it every time you get in the field and set it straight
to pull it without cutting in so much.
 
A JD 2440 is a pretty big tractor. Like 60 hp or so. For that size I think you'd want a wheel disc. Probably 12' or better.
Ns will do fine on a smaller scale. A 6' lift type (20 pans) was the size that was most often sold with these N tractors when new. They also sold a pull type disc with them but they were not as popular.
For modern uses like for gardens and deer plots a 16 pan disc us pretty popular too. Those will open new ground better - cut deeper, etc if you don't plow first.
I pulled an old no name 3 pt 6 footer (20 pans) that I rebuilt with my 2N for a few years and added about 250 lbs to the disc to make it cut better. More weight than that and I would have needed to weight the front end to keep it down, which I never did. Instead I bought a little bigger tractor and then a bigger disc.
I did have rear wheel weights on my N - 225 lbs per wheel. Could have used a bit more but that's what I had. I personally think a 2wd tractor without added rear ballast is pretty much worthless for anything other than tractor rides.
A lift type has several advantages over a pull type. One, like Royse says you can shorten your top link so only the front gangs are cutting. Another is if you lose traction you can lift the disc and the combination of added weight and no load will let you walk it right out of a tough spot. Lastly is the obvious- you can pick the disc up to transport it or in small, tight places pick it up, back it in, drop it and make square corners in your plot or garden. I have to do that when I work one of my cousins' gardens that is only about 40'x60'. There would be no room to turn the tractor around in such a small area with a pull behind.
Small scale farming is what these little Fords were built for and pound for pound and hp for hp they do a darned good job of it.
 
Your asking the buggy horse to pull the plow. 8N was made for 6 foot disk or 3 section harrow. Forget about adding weight and stay in 2nd gear.
 
I used to weight my 5-foot disc heavily, too, but it eventually broke the discs' bushings and I had to replace them. It was difficult to remove the bushing housings because the ends of the bolts were all peened over from having hit rocks. So I would recommend against weighting your disk, and wet the ground a bit if you want the disk to dig in better.
 
attached picture of my little med weight disc
Altas 300 6ft disc

about all the weight a small tractor will want.

I really do not like the slotted disc blades in the back as they can hang on the drag chains.

but some say slotted blades will go in the ground better than solid, who knows.
it does a good job and not a killer to lift at the ends for turning and transport

I would not want to add 700# of sand bags to the this disc for my little tractor.

might consider one like this, bad, you have to grease the bearings, I understand seal bearing disc might pull easier,
as you can see, if someone would keep it clean and oiled it might pull easier,
but I would just get it dirty again,
a162077.jpg
 
"What are the drag chains for?"

They're to catch in the rear scalloped discs! :)

Just kidding of course. A lot of guys around here pull some
sort of leveling drag behind there disc to smooth the ground.
All of the big farmers use them on the field finishers here.
Most are already attached from the factory. Maybe optional?

On my disc, I adjust the top link so the back gangs don't cut
in as deep and let them flatten the ground out. That works Ok
on dry soil. Not so well if the soil is wet since mine's mostly clay.
 

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