Big Plow

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PopinJohn

Member

• Oct 2, 2013

• #1

I found these old photos about a big plow used in California to
bust up hardpan clay. Required three sixty horsepower
Caterpillars to pull. 1936, Maybe D7N"s?
Maybe someone who knows more about this can fill in some
information. Plow pictures from 1936.
The plow is said to do a fifty four inch furrow thirty six inches
deep.
The 1993 D11N 725HP Caterpillar is pulling a single shank
ripper at about seven feet deep. Text says the ripper will stall
the Cat at times. Project was to claim land for Eucalyptus
orchard.
Where would this have been in California?

 

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PopinJohn

Member

• Oct 2, 2013

• #1

Trying again to post the pictures.

 

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dino in iowa

Member

• Oct 2, 2013

• #1

May be around Modesto SanQuain Valley

 

Goose

Well-known Member

• Oct 2, 2013

• #1

I've heard of those once being used in the flood plain of the Missouri River.

 

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PopinJohn

Member

• Oct 2, 2013

• #1

Said it wrong about the big plow, it does a 54 inch deep furrow 36 inches wide.

 

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Ted in NE-OH

Well-known Member

• Oct 2, 2013

• #1

The Florida Flywheelers have a plow like that and they use it.

 

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rrlund

Well-known Member

• Oct 2, 2013

• #1

Didn't they use the Big Bud 747 for something like that when it was in Florida? I was thinking there was some ground that somebody was farming and it would flood with sea water and they had to turn it over super deep to turn under the salt saturated soil or some such thing. If I remember the story right,they sold the tractor to the Williams Brothers because the EPA or somebody shut them down. Declared it an environmentally sensitive area or something.

 

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Fergienewbee

Well-known Member

• Oct 2, 2013

• #1

They did a fire break here with a big plow several years ago. Don't know how big the plow was but the "furrow" is still a foot deep at least and three feet wide.

Larry

 

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Stan - Florida

Well-known Member

• Oct 2, 2013

• #1

I'm not sure if what I heard is true or not, but the farm/ranch where the Big Bud lived was, at one time, milking 3,300 cows (I was told that once when I visited there with a friend) and the runoff from the manure was polluting the St. Johns river, which starts very near there and flows north. EPA supposedly didn't like that.

Also heard that, at one time, they raised 8,000 acres of potatoes...can't verify that, though.

I'll enter a disclaimer here that I only know what I heard...didn't see that many cows or that many potatoes.

Stan

 

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Ivan in Mich

Member

• Oct 2, 2013

• #1

Fergie if that was in area where they had a forest fire and done by the DNR it is a plow that has a right and left hand mold board on it and is pulled by their dozer. There use to be one loaded on a trailer at the DNR headquaters by the Allegan Dam. It is quite impresive to see one in use.

 

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rrlund

Well-known Member

• Oct 2, 2013

• #1

Google I guess. Here's what it said about the history of it on Williams Brothers website.

"After leaving the cotton farm of the Rossi Brothers the Big Bud found its way to Indlantic, Florida. The second owners, Willowbrook Farms, also used the tractor for deep ripping purposes. Willowbrook Farms retired the Big Bud and left it to rest."

It's doesn't say anything about salt water,but I think it was in Toy Farmer that I read that when they came out with the toy version of it.

 

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McNugget

Member

• Oct 2, 2013

• #1

I think there is a big plow by the depot in Brownville, NE, which is on the Missouri River.

 

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dgasper

Member

• Oct 2, 2013

• #1

Do you mean San Joaquin Valley perhaps?

 

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Kent Petersen

Well-known Member

• Oct 2, 2013

• #1

as i recall from my younger days that plow was shown in a John Deere days movie it was said that it was used to turn under the sand after a bad blow

 

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big fred

Well-known Member

• Oct 2, 2013

• #1

Eucalyptus would be somewhere between Bakersfield and Sacramento.

 

showcrop

Well-known Member

• Oct 2, 2013

• #1

There is a picture around of one that was used to break up silt at Huntington Beach CA. It was pulled by two big Cats. I took note of it because I had recently been to Huntington beach with my son.

 

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Anonymous-0

Well-known Member

• Oct 2, 2013

• #1

They used a plow like that to turn under sand in the river bottoms after a levee break year's back.

 

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J. Schwiebert

Well-known Member

• Oct 2, 2013

• #1

Yes I remember that from John Deere day as well. Also they wanted to turn under the sand and get the good top soil on top. we must both be over 50 in the age department.

 

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Tony in Mass.

Well-known Member

• Oct 2, 2013

• #1

I stumbled onto something like that on you tube the other night, I wanted to compare to other's home videos- to see if I was using my new disc plow badly... I'm not. It is the was these things operate in damp dirt I guess.
But the next video choices were what you are talking about- try a search for? deep plowing? big plows?

 

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Bill in Colo

Member

Location

Rio Blanco County, Co

• Oct 2, 2013

• #1

I have a photo that I took in the Imperial Valley of Ca. in 1962 two D8's pulling a one bottom plow

 

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Anonymous-0

Well-known Member

• Oct 3, 2013

• #1

agreed about plowing under sand ,,. just lookin at pics , LOL,reminds me of gullivers travels and Paul Bunyon

 

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tobaccoman

Member

• Oct 4, 2013

• #1

Yep, the big ole plow at Brownsville,Ne is on the left just as you cross the bridge into Nebraska. I have seen it many times on my way to SE Nebraska to go pheasant hunting. Always wondered what they used it for and what the heck they pulled it with!