12 ft. discs - how many HP needed?

Chris VdV

Member
I am looking at a set of 12ft. Oliver discs at $600. Good condition.
My question is will my 550 and/or 1265 be sufficient HP to draw that? I am planning on converting some longtime grassland into vegetable beds. Bear in mind I am a newbie part-time 'farmer'.

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They might but I think with those tractors you would be better off with like a 8ft or so. Depending on how aggressive you want to disk but a 12 ft is a pretty big disk for the 550, not sure about the other one
 
Well, I have a 10' Oliver disc that I use with my 1650D in fairly
light soil.

It seems to me to be plenty of drag: not because of pure power
but because in plowed or otherwise tilled soil in my vegetable
operation there's enough resistance that I lose traction rather
easily. I have two sets of wheel weights but fairly narrow tires:
15.5 -38,

I have a friend with a 1265 and I don't think his tractor has any
more traction than mine.

If you have other choices for discs, I'd consider something
smaller. If not, you can probably make it work.

Mark
 
thanks for the advice. Actually my '1265' is a 1255 - :oops: sorry...so even less power. The 550 is a diesel.
Hmmm looks like I need to keep looking!
Or maybe my OC3 would pull it or how about a Cletrac E38?? Weren't they used for plowing and such? :?:
 
We have a 7.5 foot Oliver 3pt disc and it works perfect behind the 550, the 1255 would be good with a 10 foot.
 
Just how many acres are we talking here? If just a few make several passes and you will get enough loose dirt. I think your biggest problem is going to be traction. Another thing if you have just a few acres find a friend and a log chain and hook the 2 tractors together. I remember the first 1800 diesel we sold almost 50 years ago. He though his new 1800 and a 12 foot were a good match. In the same token the boy has a 24 foor disk. We have pulled it with a 95 horsepower tractor (has dual wheels)if it is not the first time over and his pardner wanted to rip up a couple acrs of old clover the other year and they had a 175 horse power in front and it was a load. Traction can be more of a problem then horsepower.
 
Chris, I would say a 12 ft. disk is way too large for a 550. I have a 10 ft disk and use my oliver 770 to disk the garden. But it doesn't have enough traction to drop the disk all the way down in soft ground. An 8 ft might be a better choice. Al
 
The rule of thumb I was given is 5hp per foot of width.
So a 12 foot disc will require 60 DRAWBAR horses.
 
I used to pull a 10 foot with a 1550, then got a 12 foot disc and it was too much. Had an 880 diesel, it would pull the 12 foot, but it made 'er sing. Have a 550D, and you need to be at 7 or 8 feet width for it. Traction becomes a bigger problem than power with the small utility type tractor- There's nothing like 38" tires to pull tillage equipment with.

My experience is you want a disc that you can pull "smartly", to get maximum action. If you're struggling just to pull it slowly, it will take more passes ($$$).
 
We use a 7'and a 8'foot disc with our 550's. Makes them a good load when set to full cut. Thats with wheel weights and loaded tires. Like J said its more of a traction issue than horsepower.
 
Chris,

Good luck trying to find a good smaller disk around here. Especially an Oliver. I've seen a lot of the new smaller disks but don't think too much of them. Pretty light duty in my opinion.
 

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