Plow advice, compact B7100

[ShaunBlake]

All great advice, Fisheye.

Sounds like you've started right, in low range, low gears. Also it sounds like your throttle is about where I'd set it, and use the pedal if it started to bog a bit.

So howcome it ain't workin right? Do what comfun1 suggested and I expect you'll find that your 3PH isn't letting the implement lower enough to really engage the ground. As a quick fix, back the nut off the end of the top link, and unscrew your top link an inch or two, then try it again (there's still plenty of thread still in it on the implement end). It looks like it is in the lowest hole on the tractor so you should be able to bury the thing to the end of the arms (if it had enough horsepower )!

Even if the MB isn't the ideal tool, you should be able to get it to plow for you enough to decide if you want to use it for the whole field, or borrow/rent a CAT-I implement that would make it easier.

Thanks for the pics, makes it all much clearer now. Please keep us updated on your progress!

 

[comfun1]

A middle buster plow is not really designed to work new ground. If you think about the uses as a potato plow or leveling a row everything is done on cultivated ground. A subsoiler will bust it open but only a relatively small area.

Back in the day this is what a turn or bottom plow was designed and used for, some will use a roto-tiller as a replacement but even then it will usually require multiple passes as they are not terribly effective at tilling new/compacted soil in a single pass. By design the turn plow with coulter will slice the soil open and then dig down until the hitch adjustment stops it all while rolling the soil over from bottom to top on a 12" to 16" swath per plow bottom.

A 3 pt. hitch will force the plow to follow the tractor rather than the ground so somewhat difficult to control. One way to help with that is to use a gauge wheel on the implement, this allows you to drop the implement all the way down and the gauge wheel will hold it at the set depth relative to the ground rather than relative to the tractor.

My plow looks almost identical to the one in your picture but has a shoe rather than an adjustable wheel. The adjustable wheel would probably work better.

 

[FisheyeFarmer]

Update:

Last weekend I went back to the lot (field) to give it another try. I started by mowing as low as possible. I brought wd-40 with me to help with the left arms and getting the pto shafts off and on. When I took the mower deck shaft off I noticed that there was some damage to the spindles. I think this might have been cause by running the deck while the shaft wasn't fully locked in. How easy or hard is it to replace the universal joint on the pto shaft? Or any way to refurbish the spindles? I can provide pictures in necessary.

After I mowed the grasses as low as possible I figured it was time try the middle buster again. I took the top link off and adjusted it on both sides to angle it down as much as possible. Then I went for a run. It still wasn't really cutting at all. So I used a rachet strap to strap two large rocks to it. This worked! The thing drove into the ground like it was supposed to for the first time ever! Except I couldn't keep it at the right level and the tractor kept getting bogged down by the resistance of the plow in so deep. I tried running it in 1st and 2nd low. I was able to rip the ground a bit by finessing the lift arms, but I gave up after a while and went for the tiller. An advice on keeping the lift arms at the right level? I had 80-100# of weight strapped to the middle buster. Was this too much?

With the tiller I had success! In low range I was able to till the whole area and chop through through the brush on the ground. I plan on going back this weekend to do another till and test the soil for nutrients, contaminants and composition.

I will come back with pictures.

 

[zload]

Fisheye you might see if you can find a sub-soiler point that will fit your middle buster frame, the wide middle buster shovel is not helping in your use i.e. floating and then stalling when forced down with the extra weight, think about how much dirt that wide plow is trying to move and it has nowhere to go when pushed really deep in hard dirt.

Something along this line (Example only, find one with the bolts on the same center distance as your plow):

subsoiler-point

Also a couple of videos showing how a middle buster works and the sub soiler as a comparison:

MB Plow

Sub Soiler

Getting rid of the shovel portion of your current middle buster will likely help since you would be basically turning it into a "short" semi subsoiler.

 

[Rodnok]

The weight of the b7100 is only a little over 1000 pounds. Your mariner wont even strain at that weight.