Implements that pull on the drawbar and the world of good enough.

[McMXi]

A bit of an update on this project. I finally got around to modifying the tongue on the disc to accept a lunette ring. The tongue is made from two pieces of angle welded together and there isn't a 90 degree corner to be found!

First step was to remove the tongue from the disc and cut off the cobbled together, farmer welded drawbar interface. I decided to leave the two plates that were welded to the tongue but did weld over the original welds which weren't very good. Then I cut up the "one time use" tow bar I made for the Jeep a couple of years ago so that I could repurpose the plate that the lunette ring bolts to. I welded the plate to the tongue using 7018 rod, and then welded the heads of the bolts to the back side of the plate and bolted the ring on.

It's going to pull a lot better than it did, and I'll be putting it to the test tomorrow afternoon/evening on a discing job.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

Turned out excellent!

 

[jonsstihl]

also works as an anti theft system since not many tractors have a pintle hook.

 

[McMXi]

Turned out excellent!

Thanks. I did a little more 7018 welding this morning followed by cold galvanizing and black paint. It occurred to me that the disc doesn't have any safety chains so I'll try to get something sorted today. The jack is not a priority.

In case anyone is wondering why I welded the bolt heads to the back of the plate, it's simply a clearance issue. Could I have welded the lunette ring directly to the tongue? Maybe, since the ring is probably cast steel (not cast iron), but since the ring already had holes for bolts it made sense to go this route.

 

[jaxs]

I can pull the harrow around, but the slop on the clevis coupler makes for an unpleasant experience, and my property is hilly with lots of off-camber situations where the disc wants to go one way and the tractor another.

I look forward to hearing if the disc trails any better. The main difference I see between discs I've used and those in your pictures is that your front and rear gangs don't have a pivot between them. I can see why your disc steers it self instead of following tractor.

 

[McMXi]

I look forward to hearing if the disc trails any better. The main difference I see between discs I've used and those in your pictures is that your front and rear gangs don't have a pivot between them. I can see why your disc steers it self instead of following tractor.

I'll be using the disc this afternoon so will report back, with photos of course. The disc has a cylinder to raise and lower it so I'm sure I'll be doing that in tight turns to reduce the drag. The pintle will allow for lots of articulation which should result in less stress on the tractor. I just hope that little MX pulls it around with any trouble. I'll be in L range no doubt.

 

[McMXi]

Here's the other half of the equation i.e. the MX drawbar pintle receiver, that I completed this morning. I added a large gusset in the center and two smaller gussets left and right to support the plate under load. I have the extra holes at the bottom so that I can bolt a matching plate to this thing if I want to run a different receiver type/style.

I shortened the drawbar such that the center of the pintle hook is located where the center of the original large hole was located.

I've had the needle gun shown below for at least three years now but today was the first time I used it to clean off the welds. Not sure why I waited so long.

 

[McMXi]

Last update on this project. I used the disc for three hours this evening and everything worked great. I flipped the drawbar over which is something I wanted as an option for pintle height. In retrospect I don't think I needed to flip the drawbar since all I had to do was to use the hydraulic cylinder to raise the disc so that I could get the pintle under the lunette ring.

The bottom photo shows the pintle and lunette ring when I got home this evening after using it for three hours. The disc tows really well and much better than it did with the cobbled together drawbar system that was previously on it.

 

[GeoHorn]

Following this thread. I really like the direction you are going!

More than One Pun in that Post.

 

[McMXi]

Time for a bit of an update.

I received a text last week from the son of the property owner in my last post above asking me if I could do some discing for him. Not sure it that'll happen, but another property owner reached out to me last weekend and I met with him this past Monday. I walked the boundary of one of his fields with him and used a Garmin GPS to calculate the area which is 3.1 acres (see map below). There's quite a drop off down to a wet spot if you head NW from his house, so I want to use the M6060 for this job. I could use the MX drawbar if I added a hole for the M6060 pin, but since I have two drawbars for the M6060 I'm going to convert one to the same format as the MX drawbar shown above.

Another modification I plan on making before the weekend is to add in two sections of 3"x3"x3/8" tubing to the Schafer disc so that I can install 4 to 6 additional coulters. I already have the coulters so it's just the cost of the steel for this upgrade. The two 24" sections of tubing will add weight and stiffness to the frame even if the coulters don't work out. I'll set the coulters to the same depth as the front and rear discs and they'll only cut straight relative to the disc. Those coulters are heavy (see last photo), so four or six more will also add weight, and if I want to raise them it's a simple case of loosening some bolts and sliding them up and out of the way.

I'll update with photos when I'm done.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

I'm confused....
You talked about adding to the Schafer disc , not to a moldboard plow????

 

[GrumpyFarmer]

Did I miss something? Seems like there has been a switcheroo?

 

[McMXi]

I'm confused....
You talked about adding to the Schafer disc , not to a moldboard plow????

My apologies for the confusion. I included the photo of the coulters on the JD plow for illustrative purposes. Yes, I'm modifying the Schafer disc and will post photos later today.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

My apologies for the confusion. I included the photo of the coulters on the JD plow for illustrative purposes. Yes, I'm modifying the Schafer disc and will post photos later today.

AWWWW good to know my mind is not completely in the wind.

 

[McMXi]

AWWWW good to know my mind is not completely in the wind.

This should help.

The 3"x3"x3/8" tubes are positioned so that the center of the coulter disk will be centered between the front and rear gangs when they're perpendicular to the direction of travel. The coulters are mounted on 3"x1" solid bars and are heavy. I don't know if this is going to work the way that I imagine, but if not, I'm ok with just adding a little extra weight and rigidity to the frame for minimal cost. I already have the six coulters which were expensive three or so years ago and bought them for the JD turnover plow.

I'll post some more photos once I've welded in the cross members, painted exposed steel and installed the coulters.

 

[PoTreeBoy]

This should help.

The 3"x3"x3/8" tubes are positioned so that the center of the coulter disk will be centered between the front and rear gangs when they're perpendicular to the direction of travel. The coulters are mounted on 3"x1" solid bars and are heavy. I don't know if this is going to work the way that I imagine, but if not, I'm ok with just adding a little extra weight and rigidity to the frame for minimal cost. I already have the six coulters which were expensive three or so years ago and bought them for the JD turnover plow.

I'll post some more photos once I've welded in the cross members, painted exposed steel and installed the coulters.

View attachment 153625

View attachment 153626

I never heard of putting coulters on a disk. But I guess anything that slices and dices should help. My concern would be taking weight off the discs, but yours is pretty heavy. Let us know how it works.

 

[McMXi]

I never heard of putting coulters on a disk. But I guess anything that slices and dices should help. My concern would be taking weight off the discs, but yours is pretty heavy. Let us know how it works.

That's kind of what I was thinking ... the "slices and dices" part. The coulters are going to chop up stuff regardless of the position of the front and rear disc gangs. They add a lot of weight to the disc, and being sharp I don't see them doing anything but cutting as low as the front and rear discs will allow. I'm looking forward to pulling it around this Saturday, and I'll be sure to report back after a few hours in the field.

I got the cross members welded in, painted and the coulters mounted. The cutting depth is set to match the front and rear discs. I have a few things to button up but overall it's ready to make some money.

 

[Russell King]

Will you damage the coulters when making a turn? They don’t look like they are made to be side loaded like the cupped discs are.

But maybe you can’t turn that disc enough to matter?

 

[McMXi]

Will you damage the coulters when making a turn? They don’t look like they are made to be side loaded like the cupped discs are.

Great question, and I don't know.

I raise the disc hydraulically when making significant turns, which based on last year's experience is the way to go since the disc wants to continue moving in a straight line. This disc was used by a local farmer in his fields for years, and he was only making turns on the headlands and would raise the disc at the end of a row, make the turn and then lower the disc.

It's really built for up and back type discing typical of decent sized fields. No doubt this 3 acre property I'm discing on Saturday will have a learning curve. The ground looks relatively soft and rock free so it should go well but you never know.

The previous owner ran power down the hill to a 220V pump, so I asked the current owner if he knows how deep the line is. Discing is only going to dig in 10" at most so hopefully the line is at least 24" below grade. I'll make sure the line is off though before I start.

 

[Lil Foot]

I'll make sure the line is off though before I start.

Sound wisdom!