[AT] Am I crazy?/Potato hilling

[Steve W.]

Potato hillers are real easy to build. I have built a few of them as
well as adapting horse drawn style to tractor drawn. Start with a pair
of disc harrow blades (dished and the larger the better) make up a T
shaped frame with the proper hitch for your application. The discs get
mounted to uprights that clamp to the crossbar on the T. That enables
you to alter the angles and spacing with little effort.

Basically you want a modern version of this Leroy hiller.
http://www.farmerbrownsplowshop.bigstep.com/generic52.html
about halfway down the page.
They work GREAT and take less power than the blade style.

Steve Williams
Near Cooperstown, New York


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Greg Hass" <gkhass at avci.net>
To: "Antique tractor email discussion group"
<at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Wednesday, February 22, 2006 9:29 PM
Subject: Re: [AT] Am I crazy?/Potato hilling


> In my opinion (worth what you pay for it), these would not work very
well
> for hilling potatoes due to the limited amount of dirt they will
throw.  I
> pattern my potato hillers off of the ones pictured in the Cub 144
> Operator's Manual.  Mine are homemade, however I now find out that
> something almost identical is available commercially for just under
> $50.  In the January 2006 issue of the Agri Supply Buyer's Guide, go
to
> page 19.  They are called "Layby Sweeps (Buzzard Wings) and are about
2/3
> of the way down the far righthand column on that page.  Or... you can
find
> them online at http://www.agri-supply.com
> They are listed under tillage.  There is a way (I can't remember how)
to
> get a picture of them.   In the picture, the shank part is folded
down. The
> part number is #29492.
>
> The first time I used my homemade hillers, I hit a stone and bent them
all
> to h***.  I straightened them all out, and on the second row of
potatoes
> did it all over again.  Being in a bad mood by this time, I looked in
the
> cultivator book and (upon careful looking) found they had mounted a
> righthand tooth and a lefthand tooth ahead of the hillers and running
> slightly deeper. The hillers are then mounted on the SECOND row of
teeth on
> the cultivator. This way the tooth loosens the ground and takes up the
> shock of hitting the stones.  It now works great.
>
> PS:  What someone else mentioned of the weed controllers is true.
People I
> have talked to say that in sand to clay loam, they work fine, but in
heavy
> clay they will not penetrate and just slide along the top.
>
> PPS: If I were doing it again, I would buy the "buzzard wings" rather
than
> trying to make them myself.  $50 really isn't that much buy today's
standards.
>
>
> Greg Hass
>  From the tip of Michigan's Thumb
>
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