Plows

What is a good rule of thumb for number of horsepower per plow bottom?

It depends on the width of the bottom and the soil. In my central Iowa dirt, I found 4-18s a bit much for a 4020 gas, couldn't keep the front end close to the ground in 3rd gear at 3 mph. That's 72" of cut. A neighbor used to use 4-14 on his 4020 and thought that was a match. Now I use 3-18 and plow at 5.5 mph and the front end stays down. But I turn more dirt per hour. That's probably 88 hp or 1.6 hp per inch total width.

I've seen soil that the 4020 might pull one bottom sucessfully if it wasn't very big.

In this same dirt my MF-135 at 35 hp pulls 2-16 at 4.5 mph. It has new tires, the 4020 needs tires.

Gerald

--->Paul

Sounds like about 1 hp per inch of total plow width, with possible modifiers including but not limited to soil type, speed of plowing (I'm assuming about 4 mph baseline) and whether the plow is fully mounted (3 pt hitch), half mounted, or a trailer type, with the trailer pulling hardest.

When I was a kid the local Massey dealer had a demonstration of a Massey pulling on a chassis dyno, which showed the weight transfer of their hitch arrangement. The dealer would raise a few eyebrows on field demos to local farmers when those "little" red tractors would outplow their larger competition.