As close to the dream property as I am going to get, at least for now

You need a spring tooth chisel plow...

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You need a spring tooth chisel plow...

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I have enjoyed watching some Youtube vids by an older fella named Don Mealey (Sp) and he uses some type of V-plow or bottom plow which works the soil really well.
How many HP would you need to run the spring tooth chisel plow? My Kubota is around 30hp.
 
Sept 1 Field 2 has been hogged and is ready for tilling. I decided to open this one up a little more so now it is approx 2acres. I also hogged Field 1 that is approx 1 acre.
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Well after 5.5 hours on the little Evil Orange tractor I heard a noise coming from the tiller and my day was done.
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It seems the two top bolts that hold the oil reservoir on failed. Interesting find now that I am posting pics, apparently one was missing before I even started tilling as it is missing in the other picture on page 8. Yep, I failed to check it over before I started.
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Sept 2nd
So I put two new bolts in and I was off to till more. After just three passes I looked back and noticed that one of the bolts was already gone so it was back over to Field 3 where I keep the tools etc and I am not only out of bolts, but I noticed that the four bolts that sheered off last year when I was tilling rocks where about to let go and my day was over.

Took the weekend off to visit my old competitive shooting buddies .
Sept 5th. I was back at Tractor Supply to get some new bolts.
Well it took about 30 minutes to change out the bent bolts on the tiller shaft and I was back at it
No more messing around, so it was double lock nuts on the bolts for the oil reservoir.
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Well CTM1 Strikes again.
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RIP Tiller
The rocks won and the shaft split right in half.
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Instead of letting it get me down I took it off and put the disc back on.
Tomorrow is another day.
 
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Sept 6th did not get off to the start I had hoped as it had major delays along with a side trip to the taxidermist. It ended at a local medical clinic.
My 2014 Bear is done and it looks great. 387 lbs but the taxidermist thinks the butcher made a mistake when he weighed it as he thinks it was heavier.
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That is my taxidermist behind the bear. But for a period of time when he moved to NC he has been doing work for me for 22 years. He really is a talented man and has an incredible eye for detail.
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After a few hours running the disc around the EVIL ORANGE Tractor suddenly went dead and I rolled back into some trees, Hawthorn trees, and they let me know they did not appreciate it. I got three thorns in the back, one went in about 3/4 of an inch and broke off as I pulled myself away. So my day ended with a trip to a walk in medical clinic. Twenty minutes with a Nurse and tweezers gets me a $135 bill, but it was money well spent as that thing might have festered, or worse, it might have made its way in deeper and taken out a lung. We all know I have enough on my plate and plots to get in so we can't be having infections etc. Just glad I did not go to the ER as I am sure it would have been triple that.
 
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Sept 7th
With the tractor DOA at the "66" I have no way of loading the cultipacker onto my small trailer so I have to wait for my neighbor to run over with his shiny new Blue Tractor from my favorite Hog repairing dealer.:mad:

In the mean time another friend who helped fix the tractor last year made his way over to the property and we looked it over. It seemed like it was not getting fuel, so we played around a while and did not have any luck. Then he turned some little blue dial and said try it now, and magically it started and all seems fine. Neither of us have any idea what the blue dial does, perhaps an air intake dial. Wondering if all of the rough riding somehow made it turn. The good news it is now running and if all goes well I will be back on the Evil Orange Tractor and running the disc to finish Filed 2 and then onto Field 1 and then onto fertilizing, cultipacking, seeding, and more cultipacking.
 
Great looking bear mount!!! As much as I love my orange tractor I think you need to change to green, blue or red:D Orange does not seem to be your color.
 
I have enjoyed watching some Youtube vids by an older fella named Don Mealey (Sp) and he uses some type of V-plow or bottom plow which works the soil really well.
How many HP would you need to run the spring tooth chisel plow? My Kubota is around 30hp.

30 HP Kubota 4wd will pull my 9 shank chisel plow (cultivator) with no problem. The sharks are spring loaded and when you come upon an immovable rock, stump, or root they pull back and ride over the object without breaking and stopping you dead in your tracks. Best tool I have ever bought...tiller is worthless in Rocky ground...
 
30 HP Kubota 4wd will pull my 9 shank chisel plow (cultivator) with no problem. The sharks are spring loaded and when you come upon an immovable rock, stump, or root they pull back and ride over the object without breaking and stopping you dead in your tracks. Best tool I have ever bought...tiller is worthless in Rocky ground...
I've read the chisel plows are only good on previously tilled ground. Is that true ? Will they break thru virgin ground ?
 
Man, If I didnt see the pictures I would think you were writing a comedy
x2! You should rename this thread "The Results Proving Murphy's Law..."
Joking aside, your humble honesty makes me realize I'm not the only one that has troubles afield!
 
Sept 8th.
So I made my way back over to the "66" and proceeded to get down 100lbs of Urea and some other fertilizer along with 100lbs or rye and 50lbs of oats in Field 3 via the quad and a tow behind spreader. I decided to go on rock patrol, after about an hour and half in the heat and humidity picking up every rock that was baseball size or larger I was wiped. It was then time to fire up the tractor and disc it under.

This is a CTM1 thread so we know something is going to go wrong and it did. After the third pass the tractor stalled and went dead. It was not like the other day, this was more like last year as the tractor would not even crank. I checked to see if the same wire had come undone like last year, but it was on. I checked every fuse and looked at every wire that I could see and came up empty.

So I proceeded to hook the mini York Rake to the quad and did my best to cover the fert/seed and to break up some of the clumps left by the disc. The kicker was with only a few passes of the disc before the Evil Orange Tractor died it was like I did not spend all that time picking up rocks as there was a new crop that sprouted every place the disc touched.:mad:

Some Urea and Rye and Oats waiting to be covered over
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Here sits the "Evil Orange" Tractor. She will make a nice rusted out field ornament one day if she keeps up here nonsense.
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Sept 9th
Forgot the camera today :oops:

My friend made the mistake of calling me this am to see how I was making out. I hesitated to tell him of the latest saga, but he hear it in my voice that something had gone wrong yet again. He said how soon are we headed over to take a look. You have to love this guy as he is 84 and still wanting to tackle things. He is actually headed out in the am for our early bear hunt.

Well we made our way over and he as a former electrician checked the battery and every connection to see that power was flowing.
The same wire that gave me an issue last year that runs from the starter back to the command center aka the key and console area was not showing any juice. We proceeded to take the console apart to see what we could see. I was happy when I found a small socket that I dropped in there last year, and we also discovered a large mouse nest (little bastards get into everything). Sadly we had no luck in figuring out what the cause of this issue is, so my next step is to see if a local mechanic can make a "field call" and see if it is something simple that we are missing.

My friend departed so it was time to get some red clover, white clover along with some rape down. I inoculated the seed and proceeded to walk
the 3/4 acre plot. Humping the seeder while walking the slope tuckers me out especially in the heat we had today.

Tomorrow is do or die day and I am going to try to smooth out Field 2 as half of it is a mess from the disc and get down rye and oats, and I will follow up with clover and rape. I will have to fill the 25 gallon sprayer and figure out how to muscle it back onto the rear of the quad so I can spray Field 1. I should have done that yesterday, but since the tractor was back up I figured I would disc it so I emptied it, bad move.

Until tomorrow fellas.
 
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x2! You should rename this thread "The Results Proving Murphy's Law..."
Joking aside, your humble honesty makes me realize I'm not the only one that has troubles afield!

Yep, this guy name Murphy and I should have met.
For someone like me who lacks any real mechanical experience old equipment is obviously not the way to go.
In my next life there will be a shiny new Green or Red tractor, no more Orange and most likely no Blue.
 
Always enjoy reading your updates. Brings both a smile and a tear to my face.

I love my Orange tractor but I was fortunate to get her new and she has been barn kept most of her life.

keep us updated on tell Evil Orange she is in my thoughts for a quick recovery.

todd
 
I bought my orange tractor used and have had zero issues with it and I use mine commercially almost every day! I bet it's a mouse problem...they don't care what color tractor you have...
 
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