Questions about a John Deere 52 (I think) plow

[lastcowboy32]

Good evening, people.

I can get a little impulsive, and I just bought a set of ploughs off of Craigslist.

Now... the buy was impulsive, but there WAS some thought behind it. We have a few acres that has been in corn for a couple of years that I want to put into oats and grass-seed (back to hay) And we have a few acres of weedy sod that I want to renovate. Our two biggest tractors are a Mahindra 6075 (60 drawbar HP, roughly) and a Ford 3000 (33 drawbar HP, roughly).

We have a 7 foot tiller for the Mahindra, and it works really well on already tilled ground. Not so well on sod. It takes many, very slow, passes on sod... and still doesn't get the trash put under very well.

So, I've been looking for a plough. I have friends with modern utility tractors with tillers... and they have discs to go with the tillers. I really don't see the point. A disc still just cuts from the top... like a tiller... to me... a small plough is the best complement to a tiller. It will actually flip the sod over and expose a more "tillable" surface to the tiller. Right? Or am I off in the weeds here?

I was looking for an "on land" plough, hoping that it would be more adaptable to be pulled by different tractors. I was also looking for one small enough that the 3000 could pull it, so we didn't have to put ALL of the tillage hours on the Mahindra... and so two people could work on the same day... and so we have two possible tractors to pull the plow.

So... anyway... I bought a John Deere plow off of Craigslist. The price was right. Small gamble, money-wise.

I asked the owner for a model number. He texted back "The left plow reads John Deere 612. The right reads John Deere 613"...

I looked that up and that pointed me towards the whole machine being a John Deere 52.

OK... So... now I need to figure out whether I need to change my wheel width on the 3000 to pull it, or if I really need to worry about all of the setup that a 3pt hitch plow needs...

I assume there is a John Deere 52 manual still available?

Looking for some feedback here... will the 3000 pull it? Do I need to fiddle with my tire width? Any other adjustments I should make?

I'm also assuming that, since it's John Deere, I can still buy points, colters and such for it

 

[Sleufoot]

I have a #52 John Deere plow and I use a 1940B to pull it. My B is rated at less than 20hp at the drawbar so your 3000 should handle it easily. As far as tire
width not sure how wide your tractor is but I just move my drawbar if it doesn't follow properly. I think you'll have to go back to ebay for a manual and parts
are available through different sources. Good luck! Tom in Mn.

 

[lastcowboy32]

(quoted from post at 16:15:12 04/07/21) I have a #52 John Deere plow and I use a 1940B to pull it. My B is rated at less than 20hp at the drawbar so your 3000 should handle it easily. As far as tire
width not sure how wide your tractor is but I just move my drawbar if it doesn't follow properly. I think you'll have to go back to ebay for a manual and parts
are available through different sources. Good luck! Tom in Mn.

Thanks for the feedback.

Also, as a general comment. The old fashioned field plough seems to be the odd man out, when it comes to equipment nowadays. I actually could buy WAY more plough than the Mahindra could handle for a few hundred bucks. I saw a nice set of four bottoms for 500 bucks on Craigslist.

Must be that the good old extension service and the DHIA (Dairy Herd Indebtedness Association) is talking up some other technology to get farmers to scrap the ploughs that they own to go out and buy a 20k or 30k set of whatever is zeitgeist now.

 

[Jim.ME]

Operator's manual is a free pdf download at https://techpubs.deere.com/ . Just click on download, once downloaded you can save it.

 

[lastcowboy32]

That is extremely helpful!

Thanks

 

[lastcowboy32]

(quoted from post at 05:25:03 04/08/21) Operator's manual is a free pdf download at https://techpubs.deere.com/ . Just click on download, once downloaded you can save it.

Setup manual was free.

Parts manual was 25 bucks for the download. Still worth it, because I would probably have to get parts online; and I would need a reference.

 

[David from Kansas]

Yes, parts are still available, but not cheap. I have bought parts a few times from Tyler the Plow Guy (mrbtractors.com) and he is a great guy to
deal with. I pull a 2-16 JD trailer plow which I think is a model 52 with my 1936 John Deere model A tractor so you should have not problem if you
have enough weight. If you have any problems with the lift, there are several great videos available on youtube that will help you tremendously.
Good luck with your plowing. Show us some pics when you get going.

 

[lastcowboy32]

(quoted from post at 18:47:56 04/08/21) Yes, parts are still available, but not cheap. I have bought parts a few times from Tyler the Plow Guy (mrbtractors.com) and he is a great guy to
deal with. I pull a 2-16 JD trailer plow which I think is a model 52 with my 1936 John Deere model A tractor so you should have not problem if you
have enough weight. If you have any problems with the lift, there are several great videos available on youtube that will help you tremendously.
Good luck with your plowing. Show us some pics when you get going.

Thanks, I will. Good news is, it already has coulters. I couldn't see them clearly in the craigslist pics. I was getting ready to add them. But... already there.

I'm liking this plow more and more already.

I was just spreading manure on the field that I'm going to use it on this morning. It's a five acre lot (I'm going to do half of it, or so this spring) that used to be pasture/woods. It was cleared and had a bunch of fill brought in. It was then leveled and let go to weeds, for about three years now.

The weeds and wild grass are greening up and sprouting, even more with some manure put on. I plan on hitting it once or twice with the finish mower over the next month to keep everything green and vegetative... soaking up the nutrients from that manure and making a tender, green, hi protein (Nitrogen) sod.

And then I'm going to flip that over with the plow.

It should retain that "green manure" way better than if I hit it with the seven foot tiller and just chopped it up without flipping the sod over.

 

[lastcowboy32]

And... in the end, it might not be faster than just using the tiller... but... man... three passes with the tiller at 1.98 miles per hour... or whatever... is stultifying (five dollar word).

The two bottom plow isn't as wide as the tiller, but at least you move and feel like you're doing something.

If it saves one or two passes with the tiller... it might make tilling a little easier on my psyche...

 

[gmcdeadhead]

here's what an original operators manual looks like

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