Plow Shortening

DanielW

Member
Hi all,

I've been looking for a 4-5 furrow trail plow to pull with my Massey 555 in my area for some time (very loose sandy soil, flat ground, so I think the 555 would handle 5 just fine). Nothing's come up yet, but someone not far away is selling a Massey 880 trail plow: six furrows, with a two-furrow extension to make 8 furrows.

I haven't looked at it yet, but I'm wondering if there's anything holding me back from shortening it to 4/5 furrows without compromising the ability to add the others back on without significant modifications if I want to use it to do some legitimate land-breaking with a larger tractor.

Obviously getting it down to 6 is no problem, but not sure if the modifications to get it to 4/5 would mean some cutting/re-welding to get it to pull properly. I've only ever used semi/full mount plows before, so don't know what might have to be changed to get it tracking right. I'm thinking the 4/5 furrow would be ideal for having fun with the Massey, and the 8 would certainly help me break up land faster for the odd time I need to.

Thanks,

Daniel
 
Never heard of a plow be described as a 4-5 "furrow" plow or as a "trail" plow. Interesting terminology. Just like a cultivator being described as a "set" of cultivators. Has to be a regional thing.
 
John Deere and international made plows that could be converted to to 4 or 5 bottom or 3 to 4 . Trail plow is a new term I guess but means the same thing as a drawn plow or pull type plow .
 
7 or 8 bottom plow you would drive on land.

A 5 bottom plow you would drive in furrow.

6 bottom could be set up either way.

You might run into troubles on this, can you set it up to pull straight, can you go to in furrow driving?

Not familiar with your model brand of plow, many of the JD or IHC or Oliver newer styles the rear wheel just bolted on like it were a bottom, could use the same holes on the frame. So it is fairly easy to drop off the rear bottom and move the wheel up, adjust the steering rods to the right length and go,

But you are moving a lot, from 8 down to 5......

Paul
 
The owners manual would be the best place to find instructions on how to cut down some plow bottoms. What size bottoms does the MF 880 plow have? Newer plows tend to have 18 or 20 inch wide bottoms and a semi-mounted on-land hitch. A plow cut down to 5 X 20 will still be as wide as a 7 X 14. That could be a lot of plow for a 60-70 HP tractor.
 
I may be wrong, but all of the Massey 880 plows I have seen were semi mounted. And I worked for a Massey dealer back I. The 70?s.
 
Hi DanielW - That's UK terminolgy, anyway - ploughs here are "2 furrow", "5 furrow", "3 furrow reversible", "trailed, mounted or semi-mounted" etc etc. Never knew ploughs had "bottoms" until I joined this site!! Jim
 

cvphoto12809.jpg

The plough in the picture is a 880 MF with 18? bottoms. The base plough frame is 4 bottoms, and it can be converted into a 5 bottom plough by adding one on the back, or six bottoms by adding one to the back and in front of the base frame. You can simply unbolt the two extra bottoms , and reinstall the tail wheel, and adjust hitch. Takes 100 hp to pull 4 , 18? bottoms in my clay ground, with 5 bottoms on a 880 MF plough, my 100 hp 966 IH can pull in light soil, but in clay, gets hard to steer with the front tires it the air all the time. This M6 141 Kubota can handle it, but it can still be a grunt.
 
So if that is an 880 then what he is wanting he has the model wrong as he is wanting a trail type, drag type or pull type fot use with a tractor without a 3 point hitch. So what would be the model he is wanting? And what he is wanting would likely be a 14" or 16" bottom. Have some sales lit from the 180 tractor time and there was a pull type in there but it was before an 18" bottom was made. Don't know where to find it now as everything is a mess from moving. So I cannot check for model Number.
 
Yeah, I know exactly what you mean, but it's actually a combination of coulter (skimmer), bar point or share, breast, feather, mouldboard and tail that actually make the furrow!! (UK terminology!!) All I'm saying is the term 'bottom' is not used in the UK (well, not applied to ploughs, anyway)!! and, btw, here in the UK 'reversible' is used instead of 'roll-over'. Jim
 
Was the 880 not available with 2 pt, 3 pt or trail hitches as alternatives? Seems that way from pics on 'tinternet?
Don't know about Stateside, but older Massey plough spares are made of unobtainium here in the UK. Had to abandon an otherwise great working 262 reversible 'cos I couldn't source breasts (shins?) or feathers anymore.
 
So what model would the type of plow he is wanting be? I dought if it is an 880, I don't know the newer plows.
 
880s were a modular type plow that had all sorts of variations and adjustments.


There were trailer type 880s, but I have only ever seen them in 6 bottom and bigger.
 

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