plowing with a ford

Ray IN · Mar 10, 2018

I hooked the ford 3600 to a 3 bottom plow and tried it out today. It has both a draft control lever and a position control lever. I had it working good, but still confused on where to set the levers. And which one is best to make it plow deeper? It seems like both levers caused the plow to change depth, so how does one know when it is set for optimum performance?

Adirondack case guy · Mar 10, 2018

Position control is exactly what it says. The arms drop to a certain point as you move the quadrant lever forward. If the plow has good shears it will drop to where you set the lever.
Draft control senses off the top link, and uses the weight of the plow and soil draft to improve traction. The harder the plow pulls the more pressure is applied to spring on your top link and when the spring compresses, the linkage from it starts to raise the plow momentarily. If your draft lever is set correctly. Once traction is gained and wheels stop spinning it will allow the plow to settle back into the desired depth, if as said the plow has good shears so it has "suck". Setting draft control is a balancing act, and top link sensing is rather difficult to control, unless you understand all the dynamics involved.
Loren

carvel minne farmer · Mar 10, 2018

Ray we need to see pictures :lol:

flying belgian · Mar 10, 2018

Plow only deep enough for plow to work. Like Pa used to say "there's nothing down there that I want on top"

jamstra · Mar 11, 2018

Assuming the Ford system is the same as Massey Ferguson, the position control has no role to play in ploughing - leave it alone in fully raised position. Lower your plough into the ground with the draft control, and when you are deep enough, move this one back up to where the depth is 'balanced' - not going deeper, not lifting. If you can't get your plough to go deep enough, shorten your top link a little to steepen the 'angle of attack' and create more 'dig'. As has been said, don't go deep enough to start pulling up unwanted sub-soil! The key to good ploughing, though, is in a well set up plough! Jim

Fordfarmer · Mar 11, 2018

With the two lever system on Fords, you have to have the position control lever down, not up, to use the draft control.

Leroy · Mar 11, 2018

And if it is like the Fords I had (earlier, 2 of the 3 cylinder 4000 and 5000 all with 38" rear wheels) in position control the lift arms would drop lower than in draft control. Use posion control only to set arms at height for hooking up and as soon as hooked up go to draft position. You can plow in position control but it does not work corectly. It will go deeper as the arms will set lower unhooked than in position. But then it will not work to in tough spots to ease load so you do not spin out. On the 5000 I had I did use the position at times with the 4 bottom semi mounted when I would use the plow in setting without a top link installed and it worked like a fully pull type of plow but with your tractor you would have a fully mounted plow and not a semi mounted or a trail type. I have use a trail type behind a NAA and a Ferguson 30 both hooked up to cylinder lift trail type of plow. You get more wheel spin that way.

jamstra · Mar 11, 2018

Apologies for confusing the issue with a wrong assumption!

plowing with a ford

Ray IN

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Adirondack case guy

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carvel minne farmer

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flying belgian

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jamstra

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Fordfarmer

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Leroy

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jamstra

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