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RE: plow for garden tractor

Drawbar — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 04:04:30 GMT

I have heard a lot of good things about the Brinley. They can be hard to set up correctly but when they are, they cut well. I had no idea you could order them from Home Depot though. Cool. Thanks for the link.

RE: plow for garden tractor

JohnnyAd — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 09:05:34 GMT

The case 446's are nice Garden tractors. You can attach any 10" Sleeve Hitch Moldboard Plow:

http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1vZ1xr5/R-100609655/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

I am not sure if the 446 supports a 3 point hitch but it should have a sleeve hitch stock. You can also put a rear power tiller on it that runs off the hydraulics. And they have some nice front end loaders for them too.

As for spreading gravel you need to make sure you put the rear weight box on, load it up and use the wheel weights, chains may help too. Drive slow, its a garden tractor not a dozer :)

I prefer simplicity tractors myself though :)

RE: plow for garden tractor

Drawbar — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 05:17:46 GMT

That looks like a pretty robust garden tractor by the pictures I searched for online. I am not sure I would give up yet. It sounds to me that you simply need more weight. A little on the hiney of the tractor to keep from breaking traction, and a little on the plow to hold it down into the earth while pushing.

You may have an adjustment problem too. Setting the angle of attack by just a little does a whole lot as far as an aggressive bite goes. It has to be set so that the cutting edge, and the curl of the blade forces the soil up and not down which attributes to ride over of the soil you are trying to push.

Ag lug tires also help which you can get at Tractor Supply pretty inexpensively.

It all depends on what you want to spend. You could spend a little bit of money and have a workable, but smallish tractor to do more tasks, or you could invest deeper and get a bigger tractor and just out and out do more. You'll never regret the bigger tractor for sure, but its a serious commitment. The good thing is, if you have the means, with this economy, now is the time to buy. Not only do they have great deals on tractors, on your taxes you can easily depreciate it under Section 179 on Schedule F. You gotta love that!

RE: plow for garden tractor

ihenigman2 — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 17:53:44 GMT

well this weekend my big job was to finish up burying a waterline that i hooked up to a stand pipe hydrant the trench was already dug so all i had to do was backfill. i took the mower deck off the case and attatched the snow plow and used it to do the job it was wet clay like dirt i just pushed an inch or two in at a time my tires broke loose otherwise i was supprised that when you lower that plow all the way and more it actually picks the front of the tractor up i also used it to spread some 4 inch gravel i had delivered for the driveway i had fun but i think id like to step up a bit maybe just keep the case for mowing

RE: plow for garden tractor

Drawbar — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 03:51:14 GMT

That is oh so true too. I will say I am impressed with people that modify their little garden tractors and do some pretty monumental tasks with them, like one guy that put a Front End Loader on his Garden Tractor and then proceeded to dig out his yard so he could have a pool. He said how much money he saved over renting an bobcat to do it, and now has the ability to do even more jobs around the house.

But on that same forum a guy had the same Kubota as me mentioned the tractor being tippy and wanted to cure that problem (common on Kubotas) by putting dual tires on. I told him how I inverted by back wheels to give me a lot wider stability and it worked well. Instead he went out and bought wheels and rims and put dual tired on his tractor, 4 hours later he snapped his rear axle completely in half. Big difference between a NH 9684 and a 2500 Kubota. But I bet it looked cool for those first 4 hours!

RE: plow for garden tractor

Wichman — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 18:38:30 GMT

[quote]britboy (10/16/2009)

I probably should just keep my mouth shut but I only wanted to pass on that
people should be careful about what they ask machinery to do.
[/quote]
Amen Hallelujah.

BTW I have seen ploughs being sold to hang of the back of quad bikes. I am sorry but that is not right.
Rofl

RE: plow for garden tractor

Drawbar — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 09:15:21 GMT

BB,

You and Wichman are both right which is why I agreed with both of you. Huge difference between lawn tractors and garden tractors. Years ago we owned a Wheelhorse 8 hp tractor and it had all kinds of pull. But it was heavy, had a good cast iron tranny, and had wicked ag tires. Man would that thing work.

In fact I suspect today they almost cheat on the hp of lawn tractors to edge out the competition. Kind of like saying a chainsaw has a 20 inch bar when its the ccs driving it that count. The companies tout up the hp and figure it "creatively" to say the least.

But I am not surprised at all about you 17 hp Kubota. When I bought my 25 hp machine I said it was too small, but I was paying cash and that was all I had. The salesman said it would do everything my Ford 900 would do, and man was he ever right. I was skeptical, but 1500 hours later that Kubota is just as tough as the day I bought it, and I cut a lot of wood in a year. Logging is hard on tractors!

As for the 8N Doug, we had one before my time but in 1958 bought a Ford 900 that lasted until 1999. It was a good tractor and not a whole lot different from the 8N really. It had a lot of limitations, but yes plowing was something it did extremely well.

From 1870-1988 we were potato farmers primarily, and we plowed a lot of ground...deep tilled back in those days. I remember my Grandfather plowing fields with that 900 Ford in 3rd gear! He had the throttle so wide open, and going so fast that the sod would roll off the moldboard and flip a full 365 degrees before it landed, that was fast! And that was pulling a two bottom, 14 inch Dearborn plow behind it! I am not making it up, though I do attest that it was good ground without big rocks!

That old Dearborn plow now though, is a single bottom plow. In 1998 the 3 point hitch on the old Ford 900 was getting soft, so a neighbor wanted me to plow his garden up. I did, but I used my Uncles 90 hp John Deere. All was going well until I hit a big rock. It wedge itself between the two plow bottoms, but as it twisted, the tractor puffed a touch of black smoke and snapped the beam right off the other half. That made my old Two Bottom plow into a single bottom plow.

RE: plow for garden tractor

britboy — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 07:26:02 GMT

Yes, in this little part of England in Illinois we still speak using the English terms for stuff and after I wrote what I wrote I thought I may have got it wrong.

Also my eyes are not as good as they used to be but your avitar looks like you are pulling a plough with a ride on lawn mower? I dont know because you say it has a cat0 3pt hitch?

I probably should just keep my mouth shut but I only wanted to pass on that people should be careful about what they ask machinery to do.

BTW I have seen ploughs being sold to hang of the back of quad bikes. I am sorry but that is not right.

RE: plow for garden tractor

Wichman — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 18:18:21 GMT

[quote]britboy (10/15/2009)

A word of caution: A lawn tractor is designed as a high Hp but low torque machine, whereas a real tractor is the otherway around. When you start to strain the lawn tractor, asking it to pull a really heavy load the engine will strain too much and because it is built for "speed" it will damage, and eventually break.

The engine on a lawn tractor is made of Aluminum and the bearings will start knocking the journels and break them resulting in you requiring a new engine.

A tractor engine (even a Chinese one) will be made of cast iron and the components (being big and heavy to increase torque) are designed for heavy low speed load.

My 2c: Yes you probably can do it but you will pay for it.[/quote]

Britboy,
There is a lot of difference between a lawn tractor, a garden tractor and a riding lawnmower. The original tractor discussed a Case seemed to be a garden tractor, built to be tough and used for real work.
I know that my tractor (60's vintage) is not built for speed. The farmer that I work with is constantly amazed at the torque it has. And it is true that you must match the tractor and the implements that you use with it. Trying to run a two bottom or a class 2 disk would just be asking to break stuff.
But there are class 0 implements out there that are designed to be used with smaller equipment.

RE: plow for garden tractor

Douggifford — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:24:25 GMT

You all bring up a good point about torque. My little Ford 8N is only 25 hp but is designed to plow. I pull a two bottom 12" plow easily, even on soil not previously tilled. When I first got the tractor my uncle told me I would never be able to pull a two bottom plow. Obviously he was wrong.

Safety is another issue when plowing. Using a tractor, even a garden tractor, is an inherently dangerous business. Last month my cousins friend was using my uncles Ford 861 diesel, a relatively small tractor with some serious power. He got a two bottom plow stuck, and instead of raising the plow he just kept pulling on the throttle. Eventually the torque was so great it snapped the rear axle and damaged the plow. if your equipment is now powerful enough, or you misuse your equipment, you can injure yourself or your equipment. Every year you hear about people who have been farming all their lives who are injured or killed while driving a tractor.

RE: plow for garden tractor

britboy — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:22:31 GMT

I have a really old Kubota tractor, cant remember the number but it is only 17Hp - I bought it off the road about three years ago and I found the manual on the internet, I was really amazed at it being only 17Hp but it does everything I ask of it, ploughing the drive with 18" snow, Augering 12" holes and towing etc.

To put it in perspective I bet I could chain it to my daughters ford focus and I would bet the tractor would win a tug of war contest!

I will say though that I colleged in applied physics and my whole working career has been associated with engineering design of industrial machines HOWEVER I am not sure I could properly explain the relationship between a tractors torque and horsepower, and I am damn sure the average tractor saleman doesn't know either!. The farmer that uses a tractor would be able to explain it through practical experienced knowledge.

BTW do you know what has happened to meadow/walls? I dont beleive he would have left this thread alone? Hope he's OK.

RE: plow for garden tractor

Drawbar — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 13:36:26 GMT

Good point BB. I own a 25 hp Kubota and a guy at work who had a 60 hp kubota was making fun of it. He laughed and said "I got a lawn tractor that is just as big!" Perhaps I said, but you are talking apples to oranges. The old steam driven tractors of the 1900's were rated at only 12 or 14 hp, yet they drove a flywheel of 2 tons! Inertia and horsepower are both important.

Note: Of course back then, when a salesman said a tractor had 12 horsepower they had better be able to pull like 12 horses. Can you imagine the old farmers today when you showed up with your lawn tractor and said it had 18 hp. They would laugh you into the soil!

RE: plow for garden tractor

britboy — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 06:49:37 GMT

The engine on a lawn tractor is made of Aluminum and the bearings will start knocking the journels and break them resulting in you requiring a new engine.

A tractor engine (even a Chinese one) will be made of cast iron and the components (being big and heavy to increase torque) are designed for heavy low speed load.

My 2c: Yes you probably can do it but you will pay for it.

RE: plow for garden tractor

Wichman — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 19:39:59 GMT

yes you can.
If you look at my avatar, that's my sears garden tractor with a 10" plow on the back. Works like a charm.
You need to look for Category "0" (zero) 3 point hitches and accessories. I know that an electric 3 point hitch is available so maybe a hydraulic is as well.

RE: plow for garden tractor

Drawbar — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 05:08:53 GMT

You are on the wrong forum my friend! :-) Yes, you can and by all means it would work, but the people you need to talk to really are over on www.mytractorforum.com. You would not believe what they built. I have seen them use garden tractors to plow with, but I have also seen them fabricate front end loaders, backhoes and stuff on garden tractors. It actually blows my mind what these guys do with garden tractors. I mean I am blessed with a big tractor, but what they do to mod these garden tractors to do amazing amounts of work is truly inspiring.

I checked a bit, but in 10 minutes I must be at a Dr appointment. Still I found this home-made potato digger on the back of a garden tractor to show that not only can your plow be done, good god don't let your imagination be limited to plowing. From plow to harvest a garden tractor can do it all. You just got to be creative.

Interestingly enough, my dream has always been to start a business where I fabricated and engineered mini-equipment and implements for garden tractors and four wheelers. With hobby farms and farms in general getting smaller this is where there is an unfilled niche in my opinion.

Anyway here is the link to that potato digger and enjoy!

http://www.mytractorforum.com/showthread.php?t=95561

RE: plow for garden tractor

Douggifford — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 22:13:22 GMT

You might, possibly, be able to pull one 12" plow. Maybe. If you have an owners manual check the specifications. If you don't have an owners manual they are easy to find on the Internet. I believe Case made a hydraulic tiller for that garden tractor that runs off the PTO. A tiller might be a more versitile implement for your use.

plow for garden tractor

ihenigman2 — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 19:50:13 GMT

hello ive been toying around with the idea of building a single tine plow that is on wheels that goes up and down by use of hydraulics im not sure however if my tractor would be able to pull it it is a 16 horse case 446 that has truck wheels on the back of it any body have any idea