Massey Ferguson 57 Rollover Plow

Dale39

Member
Hi there, I just made a commitment to purchase an MF model 57 rollover plow, serial #5166. I have a couple of questions. I plan to pull it with an MF 1135, so I'm sure I have enough tractor to handle it.

1) Is this an MF-built plow, or was it built for them by another manufacturer, and shares parts with other brands?

2) What is the correct spacing between rear tires on the tractor, for 3x16" furrows on this plow? The tractor has 20.8x38 tires.

3) I would like to add coverboards to it, does anyone know where I could find mounting hardware to do this?

4) The plow has a home-made hitch out the side, which I am assuming was for a harrow or some sort of smoothing device. If I choose to run a harrow behind to smooth out the furrows, what type of harrow should I choose, and how does it handle being flipped over at the headlands? I am trying to picture a harrow flying through the air as the plow rotates, and it doesn't seem like it would be a great idea, and yet I have seen pictures of reversible plows pulling rolling harrows.

Any help and advice is appreciated!

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Massey 57 is a true Massey. Built by MasseyFerguson. A 57 is a darn good plow,very popular here(western Colorado).Consumables are readily available. Your 1135(130 hp) is capable of easily pulling 4x16.I'm thinking the rear wheels need to be set 27 or 29 inches from the center of the drawbar to the inside of rear wheel. Best to hook it up and look and measure first.The harrow hitch is just that . you pull a single section drag harrow behind,with a 12 to 15 length of chain. The harrow never leaves the ground.Can't help with cover boards. Where are you?
 

Thanks- I'm located in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. Maybe coverboards are not needed, I currently have them on my MF 345 plow, and I think they close the furrows nicer than without.

Do you have experience plowing corn stalks with a 57? Not sure how it'll handle trash.
 
I have an IH 642. Frequently plow stalks. However I removed the coverboards. The hard packed 'dobe' dirt was breaking the coverboards.And sometimes heavy stalks would plug.Chopping and disking helps. Some trash doesn't get completely covered.But that's usually not a problem.I pull with an IH 1256,just last year bought a 1456/
 
Do I need to have an exact spacing between wheels? I have 27" from center of drawbar to inside edge of rear tires at the widest bulge.
 
No,doesn't have to be perfect.Those 20" tires are gonna crowd the furrow a bit as it is. No getting around that.At 27",it may already be right where it needs to be. Hook it up,plow a round or two.I'll bet it will be 'perfect'.too narrow is better,the first bottom will 'overcut' a bit. Too wide is not good. Then the first bottom will 'undercut'/leave a strip of uncut/unplowed dirt.
 
Thanks for your help- I'd like to see pictures of your tractor and plow, if you have some.

Have a good weekend!
 
Coverboards are a way to try to turn over furrow if you are trying to plow deeper than bottom design. A 14" bottom is designed to work 7" deep, a 16" @ 8" or plowing at 1/2 the width of bottom unless you have the bottom designed for extra deep plowing. I had them on a 4 bottom MF semi mounted, NOT rollover, and they made me problems a I did not want to plow as deep as the the deep bottoms were designed to do. I had a Deere that had the coverboards on when we got it and it was not long untill they were in the trash.
 
I have one plow out of 4 that has cover boards and I
really like them but I like plowing a little deeper than
most .
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I think my wheels are set in a bit to far for this plow
the front bottom isn?t cutting a full cut I was able to
adjust the sway blocks on the hitch to allow the
plow to be able to move towards the unplowed
ground and take a full cut
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To narrow moves the the front bottom farther away from the plowed ground making in not cut as much of a slice of unplowed ground
 
Thank you all for your help- I doubt my plow will do well in combined corn stalks, but I plan to mow them down low and rake/bale them for bedding. So that should help minimize the trash.

I'd love to hear from someone who uses the MF 57 plow if there's someone out there! And pictures always are good too....thanks
 
I?m set at around 30 to the center of the tire on the
3020 which is a bit narrow but manageable. On the
4020 pulling an IHC 642 i am set at about 36 to the
center of the tire 480:80:38 19 inch wide it works
perfectly . I did some plowing for a guy who had a
Massey plow Just like yours in tough conditions and
it did as good of job as the ih plow .
 
The side hitch would be for a 'furrow press' device (at least that's what they are called in the UK) No, it doesn't go flying through the air
at the end of the field, it gets dropped off just before the end of the rig and picked up again automatically on the way back! See this link to a youtube video Jim
Furrow press in operation.
 

Dale I just bought a 4 bottom Model 57 and I wonder if we could have a discussion on your experience. Mine does not have the ram so I will need to locate one.
 

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