4340 Plow Adjustments

I have a couple 4340 plows, a 3 bottom 16" and a 4 bottom 16". Both have a tendency to pull with a skew as I would call it. Basically, the tail wheel will want to ride up out of the furrow.

Last weekend, I used the 3 bottom for the first time. I could get a clean furrow occassionally, but often the tail wheel was running up. I've made some adjustments and wanted some feedback and ideas on
corrections.

The plow was set as I bought it. Drawbar up against center beam, rear tailwheel mounted with dish in, furrow wheel dished out per the book.

1. I moved the front part of the drawbar towards the front moldboard, so right if standing behind the plow. I felt that helped a little. I couldn't move the rear drawbar mount at that time.
2. I adjusted the bolts controlling the angle of the tailwheel to try to make it run angled slightly towards the front furrow wheel. It's adjusted as far as I can get it there. No real change.
3. I drew in the tailwheel stop bolt. I feel that probably was wrong, but I was trying to prevent the tailwheel from raising the back end up when it ran out of the furrow.
The plow was level side to side and front to rear.
4. I pulled it with a 1650. I did not change wheel spacing on the tractor. It's set for 30" rows, but I haven't measured exactly the wheel spacing. I did move the drawbar on the tractor over a hole to
make the plow follow the tractor furrow wheel.

Since then,
1. I moved the rear drawbar mount to the right as well. The drawbar is pretty close to inline with 3.5" in from the inside of the shin. That's what I understood to be center of draft from the book.
2. I noticed the furrow wheel was sticking a good way out from the edge of the share. I'm going to turn it back around so it runs closer to the furrow wall. I was trying to plow with it pretty close to
the furrow wall.
3. I noticed the tail wheel tire seems to stick out past the edge of the rear landside. I am thinking of reversing the dish on this wheel to move it inward from the furrow wall. I've never seen a picture
or anything of a 4340 with this that way. it's got a new 7.60-15 implement tire on it.

I'm trying to learn here, so I thought maybe some of you might have some experience and know whether I'm thinking right or wrong. I would appreciate any thoughts and opinions of how to make it pull straight
and now at a skew. It lays out a nice even pattern, just pulling the rear against the furrow wall and the tailwheel climbing out.

Thanks

For my set up I found the height of the tongue pulling point really affected how the tail wheel performs. Here's a picture of my tongue position:

I should have done some measuring on the height when I was plowing that day, but didn't. Thanks for the advice. Mine is higher than that for sure, about mid way up.

My 4340 behind my Super 88 gave me the same problem with the tail wheel as you describe. I could never get it to pull straight no matter what adjustments I made and tail wheel was always bouncing around up on the furrow edge. Finally I dropped the tongue down as 550Doug shows in his picture, what a huge difference!!! It makes sense too, dropping the tongue will force the back of the plow down. With that not adjusted correctly I wasn't getting enough down force on that back bottom, especially was noticeably in really hard soils. Softer sandy soils it plowed pretty good because it would easily suck down. Nate

   Top side of the drawbar on your tractor should be 14" from the soil when tractor is in plowing position.   Front section of the drawbar should go uphill to the tractor.
  If you have straight blade rolling coulters, they should be 3/4" (measure with a piece of 1" lumber) from the landside towards the unplowed ground.   Used to set them up that way in the dealership.


   Anyone on here attend one of the "Plow Hitch-up" programs that us Service Guys from Oliver did? I did a lot of them in the 60's, still have the slides and script!

does your p;ow have the long landside on the raer bottom and is the land side good

Now that is something I would like to see!!

Yes, long landslide on all 3 bottoms and they are new.

The coulters are set as you described, 3/4" from the landside.

I'll keep the 14" drawbar number in mind when I can put it in the ground again. I freed up all the adjustments to height etc late last week so I can more easily adjust that.

Thanks!

On Friday, I made some adjustments:

1. I turned the furrow wheel dish back "in", in that it would be closer to the furrow wall now.
2. I turned the tail wheel dish "out", moving it from the furrow wall.
3. I sat the plow down on concrete and adjusted the tail wheel bolt to put decent pressure on the tailwheel with it down. If the book is right, that is what should be the case.
4. I loosened up the bolts to adjust drawbar height. I'll have to make that move when I can plow again this fall.

Thanks for the advice so far, I appreciate it and I'll document what I've done so maybe this will help someone down the line.

BA Star, I always wondered why the coulters are set 3/4” away from the landslide? To me it makes sense that they are right in line with the landslide edge. That’s how I always set them till I read it in the book one day! Also, could you message me or email I have many questions about your plow seminars.