(800) 853-2651
SHOP NOW

3pt cultivator vs mounted cultivator

H

hoosierhog

Member
Ok so a friend of l mine who usuall grows 3 acers of sweet corn and 2 acres in popcorn ask me about row cultivators his question was is it better to cultivate with a narrow front tractor or a wide front? also is it better to use a 3pt mounted row cultivator or something like a farmall M with the mounted cultivator. I do most his tillage and he uses a tiny kubbota with a one row 3pt cultivator but he has decided to get a larger tractor as he is planting double corn acres next year along with several acres in pumpkins and melons for his farm market.

my opinion was that they dont make narrow front tractors for a reason along with mounted row cultivators so i advised that he gets a wide front tractor with a 4row cultivator for the 3pt

but then again i have never used a narrow front for cultivating nor have i used a older say farmall H or M with mounted cultivators so i dont have a comparison. so what do you all think
 
narrow front tractor with mounted cultivators,preferably front mounted, better visibility from the seat and more precise control of the cultivator, and no sore neck from looking over your shoulder for a 3 point mounted unit, all makes it easier to not get the shovels into your crops
 
3 point is easier to put on and take off. However you may need blocks to keep the 3 point from swaying from side to side on a side hill. You don't have this problem with mounted cultivators. Also with a 3 point setup you are always looking back to see what is happening, with a mounted it is right in front of you. For that few acres I would say it really doesn't matter but my bet is a mounted is easier to work with.
 
Wide front is better. When it's wet, the narrow front will sink with all the wight in one spot.

However a lot of wide fronts of old don't turn short enough, that's a bummer.

Front/mid mount cultivator is much easier to steer and watch, cultivates like a dream.

But a pain to put on and off, and not as mobile, and when you get in the mud, you either gun it and get across, or get very very stuck. No stopping, no lifting and getting out of a wet spot.

So, a wide front with good turn radius and a front mount cultivator that I don't have to put on and off myself, and never have wet spots to deal with during cultivating.

Ideal.

Paul
 
He's probably going to plant the corn in 30" rows? I don't know. Just guessing. Front mounted cultivators on those old narrow front tricycle tractors can't get much narrower than 36". My experience. We used to put about 40 acres into sweet corn under contract with a canning company and they insisted on 36" rows. We were down to 38" rows by then, no more horses. But 36" was a stretch. Long and short of it. He'll be able to straddle 30" rows perfectly with a 60" tread setting and narrow (30") rows canopy over quite quickly and stop all weed growth right then and there. Then there's no more need to cultivate.
 
Paul I couldn't have said it better than you did. You also don't have as much 'cultivator blight' as I call it, with a front mount and if this is a food crop you need every plant to produce. Jim
 
You never had a WC Allis with a front mounted cultivator. If it took you more than two minutes to get that front mounted cultivator either on or off you were killing time on purpose.
 
2,9,8N Fords had a guide that bolted to front axle so you didn"t have to look over your shoulder to drive. The cultivator also had a disc blade that kept the cultivator centered.Good setup for a few acres.
 
I have had both types, and would opt for a narrow front and mounted cultivators any day over three point, at least around here. We have some hills and a three point seems to always drag down hill- a problem I never had with mounted workers. Plus, the visability is much better and overall control is much better. That said, though, I'd never go back to working corn since no-til and chemical weed control have been the standard around here for over thirty years....
 
We used Farmalls for cultivating.
Cub or an A, B or a BN if you want narrow front.
Hence, "Culti-vision".
Others made offset tractors for the same purpose.
Photo borrowed from the internet.

12531.jpg
 
I had a three point 4 row cultivater and liked it untill I bought a 4 row front mount and put on my narrow front 3020 Deere. The visability is so much better and we have hills and contors strips that a rear mount will not work on.In our area we can gain 3-8 bu more corn by cultivating.The Deere AT-40 that we have mounts up fairly well.
 
You did not say what type of ground your friend has. If it is flat and the fields are square then a three point cultivator is not too bad to use. If it is hilly with ill-regular shaped fields then a rear mount cultivator is a pain-in-the-neck. LOL

If his ground is well drained where it is not muddy often,then a narrow front tractor with a front mounted cultivator would be the way to go. The later cultivators on the late 1960s and early 1970s tractors where not that hard to take on and off. I have a set for my JD 4010, 4 x 38, I can remove them by myself in less than fifteen minutes and it is not hard work. You do need all of the brackets and such but they are out there.

Your premise of them not making them because they did not work is wrong. They quit because farming practices changed. Tractor became larger and chemicals controlled the weeds. So the narrow front and cultivators became obsolete.

If your friend is needing a 50-60 hp tractor and the ground is flat and well drained he would love a narrow front tractor. Also if he trying to control his weeds without any chemicals the he will need to be able to cultivate with greater control. You can't do that with rear mount cultivators unless your fields are dead flat and straight.

If he could afford it he might be better off getting two tractors. An IH "H" or "M" with a set of cultivators that he would not remove and a different tractor for his other needs.

If he wants/needs just one then I would go with a JD 3020/3010 or JD 4020/4010 diesel with a set of JD AT400 cultivators. These cultivators will work even with a wide front end. You should have dual remotes. Then you can do 2 or 4 row and have the three point for the wheel sweeps. They are pretty easy to get on and off too.

IH had a good cultivator that would go on and off the IH 706 tractor pretty easy too. I don't know the models numbers of them. Maybe one of the IH guys can help you.

I will tell you this, even as a JD guy. You do not want a JD two cylinder with the hand clutch for front cultivating work. They where miserable to run and you needed to be an octopus to run them.
 
We always called it "sledding the feed", we used a 6 row on the back of a 966. That much looking backwards is a pain. We had quite a few acres of feed but I still would have loved a smaller mounted cultivator.

He sounds like a hobby guy. He's less likely to take out a row with a mounted cause he isn't constantly turning around. About the time he gets the hang of it each year and learns the machine he will be done. That's a high percentage of his crop that done to less than stellar standards each time. Of course, he may be a whiz at it and it good from the start with either kind.

I vote mounted.
 
For just 5A total a C Farnall to cult would be great. For the money it would be hard to beat. Even a B farmall would do it fine easy to steer.
 
IHC 300 wide front was a bear to put on, but we moved the wheels a lot because we baled with it, and the wide front didn't turn quite short enough to make the ends easy. Was nice with wide front tho.

Ollie S77 can turn on a dime, but narrow front, and it was a bit of work mounting it. Little easier with the narrow front that way. Uncle put power steering on it, you sure want that for a front mount cultivator.

Allis was not so much in the neighborhood.

Paul
 
As a 12/13 year old (I'm 50 now) I have used both. A front mount 4 row on a JD620 and a rear 4 row on a Massey 85. I liked the JD front mount much better, I know I ruined much less corn with it. A few years ago I got the rear mount out of the fence row and cultivated a field. I was wishing I had the JD.
 
I don't know how many really cultivate anymore, but when I do, it's with a 3 pt. mounted one on either our Massey 285 or Oliver 1600. My neck never gets sore because I don't look back, and it's honestly best not to. When you do, that's when you jerk the steering wheel and wipe out 4 rows all at once.

I'll go along in 4th gear (1st high on the Massey) about 15-1800 RPM's and have no issues. Drop it & go.

Donovan from Wisconsin
 
Had a 4 row front mount on an Oliver 77..38" rows. Went to 30" rows and stretched that 4 row wide to six narrow and used them on my 880 WF diesel. Just made the turns for 6 row narrow, but still liked them much better than the 4 row rear mounted.
Larry NEIL
 
As a teenager in the middle 50's,I used the Case SC and mounted cultivators, on the old mans river bottom corn, and the same rig was used on the hilly bean ground. It was narrow front end-no power steering,and mechanical lift. The only thing that gave me trouble was early corn 4" to 6" that I had to slow down to keep from covering, and adjusting my fenders to let a little dirt to the roots, but not cover it. When it came time to lay it by in july, I could really fly up the rows. usually the only miscumbobles, that happened was when I would get hypmontized, and drift off to sleep. I hated that! Couldnt hide the ervidence.I like mounted, and nfe, for my personal use.
 
It doesn't matter; the tricky part is setting the cultivator up right.

Gotta throw enough dirt to get in between the plants, but still not cover the crop up.

Allan
 
Paul
A bit OT, are you familiar with Jerome Klingler & his cultivating mirrors? I had to leave the area to find work a long time ago, he was still in business back in 85.
Willie
 
Todays chemical weed controls works much better than mechanical cultivating ever did, especially in wet years.

The suggestion of a Farmall C with a two row front mounted cultivator sounds ideal if you want to cultivate for only five acres of corn. My uncle had that setup in the 1960's, great visibility, economical, individual hydraulic control of each row. He didn't have a 2 point hitch on the back, I dont know if a 2 point would interfere with tall corn in narrow rows.

I liked a front mounted cultivator on a narrow front end tractor for close cultivating small soybeans. The higher axle clearance on narrow front tractors also let us do a late fast "lay-by" cultivation when the corn was too tall to use a wide front end tractor anymore. If it was wet enough for mud to ball up in a narrow front end it was way too wet to be cultivating anyway, you were not killing the grass and weeds, just rearranging them in the mud.

We used a John Deere T4 cultivator on a 3010 and 4020. After the mounting brackets, front rockshaft and cylinders were in place you could take it off or put in on in about 10 minutes.

For a rear mounted cultivator a wide front end helps a lot. Put a mark on the front end beam right over the row to elliminate most of the need to look back at the cultivator. It worked well on hills and curving contour rows.

The rear mounted cultivators with "S-tine" or vibrating shanks needed some speed to get the shanks vibrating properly. Rolling shields let you move faster over small plants.
 
I like a good front mounted cultivator. Its the idea that I dont have to look behind me nearly as much. Also works much better if the rows are not straight. I have one field with a steep walled dry pond on one side. When planting, I plant around the side. The first 30, or so rows are pretty tight turns. Makes for nervous work with a 3pt hitch. Much better visibility with front mounts. By the way John Deere made a #725 up until the mid 90's for wide fronts. Wont work on older tractors though. I have one in a 6 row narrow set on a JD 3055.
 
I set the B-238 on my B and did several acres of 30 in row sweetcorn it can be done. They also made a veggie model that would do any row from 15in on up and 6 row max for the A and B,BN Farmalls
 
Not much comparison in my mind. I think most companies had a good front mounted cultivator. Neighbor had a two row on a narrow front AC WD45, and it did a fine job. AC even had "delayed lift" so the front and rear were sequenced rather than operating together.
My experience is with JD. We cultivated and pulled beans. Dad had a four row front mount on his 50. He ordered a 2510 narrow front for the spring of 1966 to replace it. It came with a wide front, but he demanded it be changed for his "drive in" cultivator. The 7.5L tires on the roll-o-matic weren't as friendly going through crops, especially pulling beans, as the narrow tires on the 50 were. They liked the 2510 so much that my uncle bought one the next year.(They pulled beans with a pair of tractors) But he kept the wide front. And to my surprise (I was 11-12 years old) they came up with a wide "drive in" front frame for the bean puller(basically an old two row cultivator). The wide front was much better all the way around.
When I bought my farm the old fellow I bought it from wanted to cultivate corn for me as I still had wide rows. He pointed to a spot in the tall grass where he said there was a cultivator. I didn't see anything. Well, over time a couple of pieces of pipe appeared in the frame of his Oliver 77(running on 5 cylinder)diesel. Some spring tooth gang assemblies were clamped on. I was holding my breath wondering how much corn I was going to have left. It was foolish concern. Turned out to be a clean field of corn.
We tried a new Brillion rear mounted cultivator with "S" tines. It was basically worthless in our ground that can turn to brick.
But, that's all ancient history! Hasn't been any more cultivating here than there has been moldboard plowing,in years.
 
I have used both in my 55 years of farming. 2 row front on a JD 60 to 8 row rear on a JD 8300 with straddle duals. 8 row sure is faster.
But I have two 4 row rear mounted for sale. One is a IHC and one is a JD. Reasonable priced and located in central Kansas.
 
I have a Hines H-1600 I cultivate with and its the best tractor for a garden or truck patch I have ever used.Its very similar to the old AC G but a lot more handy it has the cultivator under the front.The offset Farmalls were also great cultivating tractors lots of those still around.
Also in addition to regular cultivator shovels get a set of disk hillers use them to pull the dirt away from the row and get the weeds the first cultivation and then turn them aroud and throw th dirt back in the 2nd time around.Also if you have the space another way to do it.I plant my rows 4 to 6 feet aprt depending on the crop and go between the rows with a garden tractor and a tiller on the back,only need to cultivate about 2 inches deep and it gets every weed plus keep the surface of the ground broken up.
 
Front mount are way more user friendly and will do a better job. Growing up Dad had a 44 2N Ford with 2 row rear mount and in 57 bought a John Deere A with hand lift cultivators, I was 14 and not yet able to lift those cultivators so the first year I used the Ford, next year told Dad I was taking over the Deere. Had other later Deere 2 row front and then 4 row fronts. Bought larger Fords and 4 row rear mounts and only used for a few years till I put the front mount 4 row cultivators (one a 4-40" on a 51 A and a 4-30" on a 49 B) back on and parked those rear mount jobs. After a day with those rear mounts I was a nervouce wreck but with the front mounts was good and those tractors did not have power steering or live hydrolicks.
 
I have run both and chose a Farmall Super C with fast hitch. I have the mounted cultivators up front with fertilizer side dresser set up. I have the fast hitch rear cultivators that apparently serve no purpose other than to cover up the tire tracks. It works perfect and is tall enough to cultivate till it doesn't make sense due to disturbing root structure. Corn and beans are mostly canopied over when I quit cultivating.

Narrow front is much nicer to operate as it is,in effect, a zero turn tractor at the end of the row. Wide front makes for a 3 point turn to get headed back the other direction.

I sure like it as there is no looking back. I have a big garden and don't use any chemicals other than granular fertilizer. Properly set up they are easy to hook up. IH had stands to allow fast and easy removal, then reinstallation. Took me a while to track them down. Most are not with the tractor and have been lost over time.

As cheap as Super C's are mine is dedicated for cultivating and I don't have to remove anything. I bought a good super c with cultivator for $1400. earlier this year. I'll put $3-400 hundred in it getting it serviced out and fixing leaks. Sure is cheap horse power.
a91063.jpg
 
It's so neat how you can ignore reality and live in a dream state. I guess we aught to take your advice and go back to yields that were 1/4th what they are now, have people routinely dying in their 40's and 50's, 3/4ths the world starving to death, and only the wealthy having decent food. That sounds like a wonderful plan.
 
a front mount is nice for visibility but I don't miss putting them on, you can do a good job with a rear mount but you never want to look back unless you want to see how much you tore out looking back the first time you looked back, get a Culti-Vision mirror made by Klinger mfg. they work good, lots of them sold and one would be cheap as few cultivate anymore, I have one in the shed, I lloved using it but I don't want to sell it as I cultivate occasionly
 
I don't see how we could produce anywhere near the amount of food we do today with yesterday's methods. Whether that's right or wrong is beyond my ability to know.
There is a close correlation between the big horrible chemical/seed/drug/etc. companies. While they certainly don't need me defending them, (and in many cases I wouldn't) anyone who takes a blanket stand against them wants us to go back to an agrarian society. Back when several children were born, and you hoped a few of them lived. That may be a nice utopian dream, but it defies reality.
 
if he is using wide rows i.e. 48 inch best one row tractor for the job is a super A or similar offset one row farmall,2 row super c or mt jd for 40 inch rows or less,i've used both front and rear mount ,i prefer the rear mount for larger units ,rear mounts aren't as hard to use as some make like,cultivating is about a lost art, if done right on a TIMELY basis it works if not then it's a hoe or a weedy crop,never will forget what my wife and SIL told a man who had hired them to hoe his tobacco,they told him if he wanted the field hoed that he better get there daddy to come and plow it, because who ever had just done it only worked the middles,little while latter i saw my DIL in the field ahead of them,he use to make my MIL upset asking her to walk behind him an uncover any hills he covered up, his reply was i'd rather cover up a hill or two doing it right instead of flat weeding a field,times have changed i've seen the time that i kept 40 acres of tobacco cultivated with 1 140 farmall
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

C
M Rear Cultivator
Replies
14
Views
918
ChrisInPA
C
L
two row cultivator
Replies
9
Views
678
crsutton81
crsutton81
C
Boundry Problem
Replies
9
Views
1K
Fixingfarmer
Fixingfarmer
F
Farmall c cultivator adjustment
Replies
8
Views
893
Fordy20
F
A
Teach us about the Farmall 140
Replies
14
Views
890
NawlensGator
N
Tractor Parts Tractor Manuals

We sell tractor parts! We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today.

Copyright © 1997-2024 Yesterday's Tractor Co.

All Rights Reserved. Reproduction of any part of this website, including design and content, without written permission is strictly prohibited. Trade Marks and Trade Names contained and used in this Website are those of others, and are used in this Website in a descriptive sense to refer to the products of others. Use of this Web site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy TRADEMARK DISCLAIMER: Tradenames and Trademarks referred to within Yesterday's Tractor Co. products and within the Yesterday's Tractor Co. websites are the property of their respective trademark holders. None of these trademark holders are affiliated with Yesterday's Tractor Co., our products, or our website nor are we sponsored by them. John Deere and its logos are the registered trademarks of the John Deere Corporation. Agco, Agco Allis, White, Massey Ferguson and their logos are the registered trademarks of AGCO Corporation. Case, Case-IH, Farmall, International Harvester, New Holland and their logos are registered trademarks of CNH Global N.V.

Yesterday's Tractors - Antique Tractor Headquarters
Website Accessibility Policy

Back
Top