[AT] Plows, was Re: Supervision

[Grant Brians]

I can comment about brands here in California. First, plows are not 
primary tillage and have now been since the 1880's for nearly every 
farmer. Primary tillage has been and still is the disc harrow. You can 
run them with lower horsepower, they are better on a shallow soil, they 
are better at helping residue break down for the next crop and they are 
much faster to cover a field.
       Second, having said that, plows are a useful and returning tool. 
Now on to brands.... In the 1930s to 1950s, the heyday of the purchase 
of tillage equipment because of the conversion to medium size tractors 
and much technological change there were different brands sold than 
earlier with horses. John Deere did sell quite a few plows due to the 
dealer network, but the brands that sold most were AC, Atlas, IH and 
Oliver. Oliver and AC are still the preferred used equipment brands for 
older tractors!
       Atlas plows were built in Bell, California in Orange County and 
included the MONSTER plow that Richard Walker posted a picture of some 
years back pulled by two Caterpillar D9 tractors turning over an Orange 
Grove soil. Atlas plows were used nearly exclusively behind crawler 
tractors whether Caterpillar or IH.
      Allis-Chalmers plows were built in Ventura, California and the 
California built products were marketed mostly in the Western states. 
They were used connected to high horsepower wheel tractors for the era, 
starting in the early 1950s. I have one and can say that if the rollover 
valve works, they work very well. They were made in 3-6 bottom rollover 
models mostly 14" high clearance rollover frames. Very heavy on the 
three point hitch but work well. The size of the dealer network limited 
sales somewhat, but many farms with other brands of tractors ran and 
still run AC implements especially the rippers.
      IH plows were VERY common. In the early days single direction 
plows like the 4 bottom I posted about were sold and were quite 
efficient (but Olivers pulled easier and helped build their dealer 
network), then rollover plows were mostly sold by the 1940s. I have an 
IH 4 bottom rollover mounted plow and it is the one we use most.
      Oliver plows are still sought, but not as many were sold as the 
tractors because of the lower use of plows and because the dealer 
network was much smaller than JD or IH. For a time in the 1940s and 
1950s Oliver was the second best selling tractor manufacturer in 
California after Caterpillar! The Fleetline Series and Super Series 
tractors sold for vegetable, cotton, melon, asparagus production even to 
died in the wool John Deere people due to the hydraulics, superior and 
quieter 6 cylinder engines and easy adjustability. This did not help 
plow sales though because most plowing was done with crawlers and few 
rollovers came to California early enough. Interestingly, the Oliver 
lister bottoms (two moldboards mounted together in opposite cut 
directions) are still used extensively! Many people swear they are the best.
      Today, most plows sold in California are very large deep clearance 
Wilcox plows that are mounted to Challenger or John Deere tracted 
tractors. The most common size is 7 bottom rollover and they are usually 
pulled about 7mph. Wilcox got quite a bit of the AC tooling is my 
understanding. That 7 bottom size is pulled with 300HP and will 
typically be more than 16" in the soil....
                   Grant Brians - Hollister,California farmer of 
vegetables, herbs, fruit, nuts

6/26/2015 7:32 PM, deanvp wrote:
>      
> I interviewed an 80 year old John Deere Dealer in Mount Veenon, WA a few years back because he had worked at a John Deere dealer in the 50's and I wanted to tap his memory about some JD research I was doing at the time. Eventually we got around to talking about JD plows of that era. He really surprised me when he told me they didn't sell many JD plows. He told me that the farmers wanted Oliver plows because they pulled easier. That was the first time I had ever heard that and I was on a farm myself during that era with all J D plows. Your comment now is the second time I've JD plows pulled hard.
>
>
> Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE smartphone
>
> -------- Original message --------
> From: jtchall at nc.rr.com
> Date: 06/26/2015  6:41 PM  (GMT-08:00)
> To: Antique tractor email discussion group <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
> Subject: Re: [AT] Plows, was Re:  Supervision
>
> We ran 2 IH 450 auto reset plows (4 bottom).  I was only involved plowing
> one summer, we had pretty much quit plowing by the time I got old enough to
> help. HWe ran pretty deep, we referred to it as breaking land. Pretty sure it
> was over 12" deep we ran, soil is red clay and rocks (hence the need for
> auto-reset plows). I think we ran the Deere 4020 in 3rd gear. The other plow
> we ran behind a Deere 4430 at about the same speed. It was about all those
> tractors wanted when you hit a tight spot. Obviously we ran a full set of
> weights on the front. In a nut shell we figured about 20-25 hp per bottom.
> To put it another way, we had a Deere auto-reset plow that used hydraulic
> cylinders instead of springs. I was too little to remember the plow but do
> remember the story of the Deere factory rep that came to the farm because
> the cylinders were not holding up. After some small talk he asked my uncle
> did we always plow so deep. When my uncle replied yes he informed him that
> the plow wasn't designed for such work and there was nothing Deere could do.
> My dad had gone to work for an IH dealer. He brought home a 450 and switched
> plows right in the field. They immediately went up a gear on the tractor
> plowing at the same depth and quit fighting the steering (plow was trying to
> pull the tractor around sideways). A couple years later my family was trying
> out a 4430 vs a 1066. The 4430 won that trial however when the Deere dealer
> tried to get us to buy another plow, it was met with a bit of laughter. The
> 1066 was sent back to the dealership with an order for another 450.
>
> Eventually  a Taylor-Way chisel plow cut the molboard plowing out.
>
> John Hall
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Grant Brians
> Sent: Friday, June 26, 2015 7:03 PM
> To: Antique tractor email discussion group
> Subject: [AT] Plows, was Re: Supervision
>
> I liked Dean's story about the JD60 renewal. It is a lot like one of my
> Oliver 77's bought for parts that the brakes did not work. They were new
> but never correctly adjusted!
>        But I have a question for the list related to the JD 825 three
> bottom plow and the JD60 tractor. We run several 4 bottom plows (IH and
> AC) that are connected to our JD6430 four wheel drive tractors - 100HP
> roughly, the motors are rated close to 125HP I believe but the PTO is
> 105 and the drawbar is probably 94? Those tractors are working about as
> hard as they can with those plows pulling usually about 14-16" deep. Is
> it just we have dry hard soil here in California or are those plows
> being run MUCH shallower for you folks in the other parts of the
> country? Just out of curiousity....
>               Grant Brians - Hollister,California vegetable, herb,
> orchard farmer and seed businessman
>
>
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