How much can you guys pull?

We can pull the spring tooth in 4th gear easy on the 1855. Before we got the 18 we pulled it with our Massey 285 in 3rd low. I'm guessing a bigger cultivator like this one would be a 3rd gear pull with the 18, but that wouldn't be a problem.

Donovan from Wisconsin

Another problem with our 18' spring tooth, is that the teeth are getting extremely hard to find. They're the type that mount onto a pipe like on the really old IH spring tooth sections. I just bought 15 from Nebraska Cowman last month, and the machine is missing, I think, 9 at this time.

It's not made to be used as the primary tillage after the plow, but for now it's the only thing that's big enough to give the 1855 a remotely noticable load. We used a 12 or 15' glencoe before the S-T, and we still use it for spots that get drowned out or small strips.

I pull 17 shanks with my Farmall 140, Gary pulls I'm guessing around 120 shanks on that 180 hp tractor. As I see it very little difference, Gary claims his tractor is loaded, I can tell you mine is loaded as well. You do the math, we're both damn close to 1.5 hp per shank.

Stay away from those older cultivators with hinged shanks. The shanks don't stand up as well as S tines and they are about 5 times more expensive to buy shanks for. That factor alone makes those old cultivators little more than scrap metal.

If you use straight shovels you will not knock all the weeds out.

Shovels should be 2 inches wider than the spaces to ensure good coverage of the weeds.

Now if your following right behind the disc then weeds aren't an issue.

But I go right into bean stubble 6" deep, one pass with the field cultivator and plant.

Disc cornstalks once early then go over once just before planting.

This is a 30 footer with harrow and its a load for 180HP at 7 MPH

Our 18 has duals on for most tillage, and has fluid in the rear as well as a rops/conopy over the rear tires, and the front has 4 slabs (was tols 105lbs each) and the starter plus 1 stack so there"s a good amount of weight on it to put the power to the ground.

Donovan from Wisconsin

I'll have to call again on Wed. and see if it's still there- sales guy said he was just talking to a guy this morning about it.... Don't know if he was being honest or not, but I may try to go out there on Thursday before I have to go to work and look it over some more. May be worth it, may not.

Donovan from Wisconsin

I should add, there are several farmers in the area that mix-n-match swweps and points, pretty much always sweeps up front and points everything else.

For weeds, the only one we really have much trouble with is quack at times, so a point rips it out better than a sweep in our area too. We hardly ever use the disk, unless it was spring/summer plowed after 1st crop. Even then we don't like to disk much. It just cuts up the quack roots and makes it come back even stronger.

I gotta go on Thursday to return a carb kit I got for my 1600 (cranked it once more before taking the carb off, and sure as the sun was shining it popped right off... as opposed to last weekend when I needed it and it just refused to start...) Figure I'll take Dad with me and we can both kick the tires, do a little jaw jacking, and decide if it's really worth much, or if it's just another worn out machine.

I'll have to watch the auctions, there is a FFA consignment auction in the same town as the dealer the last Saturday in April, they have some good stuff and some bad stuff. We got a 24' spike tooth there for around $100, then we sold our smaller, worn out 20 footer(same make) on the road for $150 to a developer... My dad got that one at auction a couple years earlier (maybe $135) and while it worked, it would have cost us a good chunk just to replace all the bad teeth.

2 or 3 years ago I got another Glencoe with manual wings, think it's a 16'er, for $100 from a local auction. Good points, no harrow, no paint. It hadn't been used since the guy retired about 15 years earlier, and it sat in a dirt floor shed, along with everything else. Everything on the auction was pretty rusty, but nothing was rusted through. We came out of the auction with a small gravity box, the Glencoe, and a Kools blower for about $250.

I just wanna know where everyone is finding these 18-20' machines so cheep, and if they see a decent one within a towable (maybe 100 miles max) distance I wouldn't mind hearing about it...
Donovan from Wisconsin

I'm looking in the papers for auctions that list a 18-20ft or so cultivator. I've got a wedding to go to tomorrow, my fiance is standing up in it. May have to ge tout of the ceremony if something pops up though....

I think another good thing, if we can find one with wings and then a narrow enough of a main frame, we can still pull it behind our Massye 285 which is at the shop right now getting a major overhaul. Probably hook that up to the glencoe and drag that around while the 18 is pulling the bigger one this year. May have to pull the 3-16 plow with it to help break the engine in...

Donovan from Wisconsin

I'm not really sure what the spring tooth round pipe shank you have really is, so hard to compare.

--->Paul