[AT] Using the JD Plow

[Chuck Bealke]

On 7/12/2013 11:49 AM, The Allen Family wrote:
> Last week, I noted I had picked up a JD #4B Plow...
>
> ... I took two trial passes with it yesterday evening behind my '48 A...
>
> Anyway, on my two passes, the thing plowed well for maybe 25 or 30
> feet, but then the soil and the grass (the field was recently brush
> hogged but has never--at least not in the last 40 years--been plowed)
> began to bunch up between the moldboards, the colters, and the beams.
> When it was all clogged up, the plow naturally stopped turning dirt and
> essentially rode on top of the sod....

Steve,

Fifty plus years ago I was a newbie to plowing without easy access to advice
and remember facing the exact same problem. You have described it well.
In addition to the adjustment Brian mentioned in his excellent advice,
your colters should turn easily by hand before you start and be sharp enough
to cut as they roll.
As I recall, they are also not hard to lose in a field when you start
plowing a bit with them, so be sure the mounting bolts are tight every time
after you adjust them. I'd bet more than one of us on this list has lost a
colter bouncing down roads between fields or while plowing and had to go
hunting it. Dropped ones likely not the best thing to run over with a tire.

Here's a link to an old brochure with adjustment advice
https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/33404/1061770.pdf?sequence=2

Chuck Bealke
Dallas