Anybody familiar with a 5540 plow?

770guy

Member
Saw a 5 bottom 5540 plow for sale. Looks good and the price and size are right, but I was hoping for a plow with a gauge wheel on it. Is it possible to add one to it? I'm going to assume that if it takes a wheel off another 5540 I'm going to be out of luck finding one. What about a wheel off another model? Or maybe it wouldn't be too hard to rig something from scratch. I've just never been around one of these, and I don't want to drive to see it just to find out it would be too much of a job to add one. Appreciate any help. Thanks.
 
What are you going to use to pull the plow? We never sold any with a gauge wheel? We had one person who wanted to try one behind a 560 IH with fast Hitch. We picked up a gauge wheel for it but he did not buy the plow.
 
Can"t rememeber if that"s the plow that was made for the 770 & 880? If so, I have one. Dad bought it brand new with the 880. I have both. The plow has the gauge wheel but, It is set as high as it goes and the only time it was ever used was when the plow was unhooked from the tractor we put a block of wood under the wheel so it wouldn"t tip over.
 
Maybe gauge wheel isn't the right term, but I'm thinking of the wheel that some semi-mounted plows have on the back end to control depth. Its just ahead of the last bottom on the opposite side of the plow. I've never had one, but I assumed on a larger plow it would be helpful keeping the depth when shallow plowing sod which is mainly what I use a plow for.
 
We bought a 5540 5-16s new back in the early 60s and never used the "gauge wheel." It has survived many thousands of acres and a number of tractors:1800, 1850, 2-105, and a 1950gm. It always has done an excellent job with a lot of clearance for trash. The pipe plows are getting hard to find. The only downside is it doesn"t have auto-reset bottoms(none did back then). The 5540 is more than 500 pounds heavier compared to other plows of its time(IH 512, JD F-120 etc.) It will out plow all these plus JD 1450. I have been told the 5440 was more common with the 770/880 tractors. I"m not sure what the difference is, probably something to do with the draft sensing?
 
The 5440 is not a steer able plow like the 5540. It was made in a 3 bottom model as well. They were made for the power traction hitch tractors. They also have a small tail wheel. There was no draft control on a power traction hitch.
 

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