swinging drawbar

Helo

What is the purpose of the swinging drawbar on older tractors? Should I let it 'float' when pulling heavy draft like chisel plows or big discs? How does this help the tractor function better? I am wondering if letting it 'float' or swing, lets the drawbar move to help- traction in turns but would welcome input.

wally

Swinging drawbars, mostly on wheatland models, are used when pulling cultivators (or chisel plows) to make turning easier at the ends of a pass, and on one-way disks and diskers that pull from the left side of the drawbar. This gives a straight line of pull from the drawbar pivot pin through the drawbar and disker hitch to the center of the disker or oneway.

It makes turning easier. We let everything ground engaging swing except the plow. Now none of them have it. Even our old 8430 which is just a big tillage tractor and nothing else. Our 856 IH was a wheatland so it had hydraulics and a heavy swinging drawbar and that was it.

Yes, semi swinging drawbar was used pulling one way diskers as they pulled easier when they could find their own line of draft. Nothing else
though. Cultivators, drills, etc. all were run with the drawbar pinned solid. If they were left to swing they'd be banging all over the place
when you lifted out of the ground on a turn.

Without a swinging drawbar it would take a lot more wheel brake to turn on the ends to keep the front wheels from plowing dirt using fitting tools such as in the picture.

Goes back to the drag type implements and being able to turn at the corners and the earlier tractors did not even have brakes let alone turning brakes. And the farther back of the axle center the harder to turn under a load and if you look most had the drawbar quite a ways back of the axle, a few had hitch direct against the differential housing like the orignal Fordson of 1918. And they would still with the disk that stayed in rhe ground all the time wanted to slide the fromt end sideways and outfit keep going straight. The swinging drawbar took care of that. The Farmal F20 did not have a swinging drawbar so they made it to automatically apply a brake on side you were trying to turn to so it would make the turn without sliding front wheels sideways. About the first wheel carried equipment was the grain drill and that did not put the load on to make problems turning but if left in swing position if eithe wheel would hit a clod it would whip it to that side and you could not get a straight and in place planted strip. Same aplies to wheel carried disks with the wip around and most are raised to make turns so no reason to let swing and wip around but if left in ground you would let it swing to make that turn and hope it did not wip around too bad the rest of the time.