Using a ripper.

Thanks, Jim from Australia.

In addition, a low rake angle will drastically reduce the horizontal force required (i.e. the Draught force) thus making the tine easier to pull through the soil with a particular sized tractor

David Sayer
Cranfield University
UK

I too am in SE Australia (Melbourne) with heavy soil. I use a ripper without too much trouble.

Make sure that you have a VERY strong bar on the top. My mechanic actually welded heavy tube to the top and bottom of a solid bar of steel.

Second - make sure your ripper is absolutely verticle so that the ripper blade is at the appropriate angle. With this set up as long as the ripper blade gets a bite it will pull the ripper down, so make sure you give the ripper plenty of slack so that it can go down.

Send me an email if you want to discuss further.

You have a Massey Ferguson, which most likely has the Ferguson system.

The Ferguson system is an automatic draft control that automatically raises and lowers 3 point implements in response to 'drawbar' load. This was one of Harry Fergusons' design breakthroughs that was intended to allow a tractor to plow through varying soil densities while maintaining traction and a relatively constant speed.

The 'outer' lever is for controlling draft using the Ferguson system... and will allow the 3 point hitch lower control arms to automatically raise and lower using the ferguson load sensing system. It's also used when you want 'ground following' like some mowing applications.

The Inner lever is a 'fixed' position control and will hold the lower 3 point control arms in any position you choose.

The fixed position control is usually used for posthole diggers, boom poles or other implements you want held in a fixed position relative to the tractor..

Now, if you're seeing wildly varying depth from your ripper, I'd wager the ferguson system is raising your 3 point in response to the load.... For 'normal' plowing, this is a 'good' idea... however, for your particular operation, you may have better luck by using the fixed position control... Give it a try and see what happens...

So... when using the Ferguson system...

You should either have the outer 'draft' lever all the way back and be using the inner 'position' lever to hold your ripper down...

Or use the outer lever for 'automatic' draft control with the inner lever all the way back in the 'transport' position. You usually don't use 'em both at the same time.

Another feature is that the ferguson system can be fine tuned for different plowing applications... there is a 'response' control down by the starboard floorboard that varies the speed and sensitivity of the system to varying plow loads...

By the way, If the 185 is as good as the rest of it's family (135, 165, 175) you've got a REAL strong tractor. The hosts for this board sell manuals for the rest of the family, the operator's manual for the 175 would probably be a real good thing to get if you can't get a 185 manual.

hope this helps.

bbott

Also, from the description of your ground, you might want to consider having someone come in with a bulldozer and a bigger ripper for the first pass.

Like I said, just guessing here, trying to float some ideas.