Disc harrows

[Cathy Liebchen]

We run a disc harrow over all the firebreaks every winter

 

[jyoutz]

Glad this popped up. Thinking hard about changing this order from disc’s to a 74” tiller.

I think a Fred Cain cultivator for deep aeration/breaking hard ground and a tiller are the ideal combination. It’s what I’ve settled on after years of also owning a turning plow and disc.

 

[BAP]

Usually, the notched discs are on the front for chopping and the smooth ones are on the rear for finishing. Wonder what someone’s thoughts were putting them on like they are. Great looking disc though.

 

[GreensvilleJay]

Glad I'm not the only one wondering about the disc setup ! I was told notched up front cuts the soil better, less strain when turning as well.
It is a GREAT looking disc, far better condition that the Fleury-Bissel(sp?) I owned 10 years ago. Mind you that disc was already 1/2 a century(or more..) old and only cost $75,loaded into my short box pickup.

 

[HuntIL2]

Have had two to three acres of sweet corn for the past 20 years. The first year I tried discing the stalks down for fall prep after all the picking was done. The weight of the disc I had wasn't enough to cut/chop the discs up even in a couple of passes. It took forever to finally get the residue buried and small enough to decide to leave it for next spring.
Thereafter, we mowed the stalks down with the 3 point brush mower before rototilling. That was a huge improvement over the discing.
A couple years ago we bought a flail mower and now use that to mow the stalks down first before tilling. Again, a huge improvement over the regular mower! You need to keep watch on the flail's belt tension during first use until the "stretch" is out of them.

If you leave your corn/food plot standing til spring......you should mow it first before tilling. Trying to unclog wound up corn stalks from the roto tiller aint fun!!

Here's what first happened and then after new belts were installed the Flail Success in Corn.

Thanks bird dogger that picture of your mower belt is ingrained in my head. I do plan on mowing it down first so it's good to know that a tiller will take care of it from there. I was still afraid that even small chunks of corn stalk would clog that up.

 

[mcmxi]

Usually, the notched discs are on the front for chopping and the smooth ones are on the rear for finishing. Wonder what someone’s thoughts were putting them on like they are. Great looking disc though.

I'm clearly no disc expert and EA and Dirt Dog discs only have notched discs so they're no help. I've looked at lots of photos online and any models that have notched and smooth discs do seem to put the notched discs up front. I'm going to weld on end caps on the box sections to keep wasps, rain and dirt out and will look into switching the gangs around.

I just went outside and looked closely at the disc harrow and took some measurements. It would be useful to have the gangs off in order to weld on the end caps so that will be the perfect time to switch them around.

 

[BAP]

If you don’t know, your harrow has the ability to adjust the angle of each gang. That’s what the pins and holes are on the main beam in the middle. Making the gangs more angled, increases the aggressiveness of their cutting ability. To chop up virgin ground, you want it more aggressive. To finish it off, you want to straighten out the gangs for a smoother finish. Keep it level from front to back for best finish. Being able to adjust the angle is one of the things that sets apart a good quality disc harrow, from cheap poor quality one. Also, a tow behind one will give you a much better finish than a 3 pt hitch one because it follows the contour of the land better. Make sure you keep the bearings greased and be prepared to replace them if you use it much. They do wear out. Spent thousands of hours pulling disc harrows and changed countless numbers of bearings.

 

[mcmxi]

If you don’t know, your harrow has the ability to adjust the angle of each gang. That’s what the pins and holes are on the main beam in the middle. Making the gangs more angled, increases the aggressiveness of their cutting ability. To chop up virgin ground, you want it more aggressive. To finish it off, you want to straighten out the gangs for a smoother finish. Keep it level from front to back for best finish. Being able to adjust the angle is one of the things that sets apart a good quality disc harrow, from cheap poor quality one. Also, a tow behind one will give you a much better finish than a 3 pt hitch one because it follows the contour of the land better. Make sure you keep the bearings greased and be prepared to replace them if you use it much. They do wear out. Spent thousands of hours pulling disc harrows and changed countless numbers of bearings.

Thanks very much for sharing your experiences. I did realize that the angle of the gangs can be changed. There are six position holes for the front and rear gangs. I also realized that the jack/screw up front changes the fore/aft weight distribution of the gangs.

I stopped by the local Kubota dealer on the way home with the disc harrow to show it off to them, and one of the very knowledgeable sales guys checked out the implement and gave it a big thumbs up. He mentioned that pulling off the draw bar is way better than a 3-point because the harrow follows the tractor and doesn't push lots of dirt sideways in the turns if you leave it in the ground.

I thought of another possible use for the harrow yesterday and that's creating a fire break around a field if needed. There's a big fire not too far from me and it's possible that I could run around the fields to tear up the ground to reduce the chance of the fire crossing the field to my house. I recently saw some farmers in England doing just that to save a wheat crop.

 

[MOOTS]

I am gonna contact a local dealer, that I’ve dealt with for work, and see if he has any 84’s on the lot. Maybe we can work a deal, and I’ll cancel my set of discs.

Finally heard back from dealer.
UH-84 is $3,880 with no idea on lead time. UM-72 is $2,999 with one or two on the lot.

I’m into the EA disc for $3400.

Decisions, decisions.

 

[mcmxi]

Finally heard back from dealer.
UH-84 is $3,880 with no idea on lead time. UM-72 is $2,999 with one or two on the lot.

I’m into the EA disc for $3400.

Decisions, decisions.

I'd go with the heavier duty UH if I were buying, even if it meant waiting for a few months. Buy once, cry once and all that.

 

[MOOTS]

I'd go with the heavier duty UH if I were buying, even if it meant waiting for a few months. Buy once, cry once and all that.

My thoughts too.

 

[MOOTS]

Canceled my harrows.... that hurt. Told titan dealer to get a UH-84 tiller. 9-12 week lead time. Will buy some second hand harrows and maybe a tiller after deer season.

 

[rc51stierhoff]

That looks like a nice tiller (UH)…my LP has a kickstand and it is helpful…I’m on my second one already…if you forget to put back up for use behind your MX I bet you will have a similar result on the kickstand as I did (FUBAR)….oops….the kickstand really helps for setting and attaching though.

 

[mcmxi]

Canceled my harrows.... that hurt. Told titan dealer to get a UH-84 tiller. 9-12 week lead time. Will buy some second hand harrows and maybe a tiller after deer season.

I wonder if your tiller will come with Titan or Iron Craft stickers on it. Has the dealer in your area changed any signage or similar to reflect the new name?

 

[MOOTS]

I wonder if your tiller will come with Titan or Iron Craft stickers on it. Has the dealer in your area changed any signage or similar to reflect the new name?

I’ll guess iron craft. He has a few titan on the lot. He said his guy at titan said they have hard stopped shipping till the IC sticker is on everything. Hence the 9-12 week lead, but really who knows?!

 

[rc51stierhoff]

I’ll guess iron craft. He has a few titan on the lot. He said his guy at titan said they have hard stopped shipping till the IC sticker is on everything. Hence the 9-12 week lead, but really who knows?!

Must be one heck of a sticker

 

[MOOTS]

Must be one heck of a sticker

Lol. Yep. From what he said, the titan brand was made overseas, India and the like, where the gearboxes for literally everything comes from. Titan has always outsourced stuff, figured they’d stop that and build, to their specs, in house. He’s just a dealer so, who knows.

I looked at a UM-72 and it was beefy. And could offset with the lower 3 point connections. Figured the “heavy duty” is that much better’r. We’ll see in 2 months or so.

 

[mcmxi]

Lol. Yep. From what he said, the titan brand was made overseas, India and the like, where the gearboxes for literally everything comes from. Titan has always outsourced stuff, figured they’d stop that and build, to their specs, in house. He’s just a dealer so, who knows.

I looked at a UM-72 and it was beefy. And could offset with the lower 3 point connections. Figured the “heavy duty” is that much better’r. We’ll see in 2 months or so.

Maybe your dealer is confusing Titan Implements with Titan Attachments! Many companies will use gearboxes from overseas. The gearbox on my Del Morino flail is made in Italy along with the rest of the machine but most if not all of the gearboxes on my Land Pride implements are made in China.


"OUR COMPANY launched in 2014 when we opened our first plant in Decatur, TN. Our implements reached an excited customer base seeking top-quality equipment at a reasonable price. We opened our second manufacturing plant in Athens, TN and continue to grow."

 

[rc51stierhoff]

UH At almost 1000lbs (spec sheet said 993)…it’s a good bit more than any of the different grades from LP. Most tiller in the 500-800lb range depending of the grade.

 

[MOOTS]

Maybe your dealer is confusing Titan Implements with Titan Attachments! Many companies will use gearboxes from overseas. The gearbox on my Del Morino flail is made in Italy along with the rest of the machine but most if not all of the gearboxes on my Land Pride implements are made in China.


"OUR COMPANY launched in 2014 when we opened our first plant in Decatur, TN. Our implements reached an excited customer base seeking top-quality equipment at a reasonable price. We opened our second manufacturing plant in Athens, TN and continue to grow."

No, we talked about that, figured that was the reason for the name change.
Maybe he said the gearboxes were from Vietnam, maybe Italy. Can’t remember. Nothing is truly made “here” anymore.