Plow won't pull straight, wants to head into the land

I've been trying to get some plowing done, working in
established sod, my plow will work fairly well when the furrows
are rolling downhill, makes a mess when trying to roll them up
hill, the first furrow won't turn over, the other 2 look ok except
the 2nd furrow where it joins the first.

Plow is all level, wear parts good, everything looks well aligned
body to body. When the land is downhill it just immediately heads left into the land shortly
after starting until the check chain limits it.

Any ideas? Landslides are good, steering seems ok. It pulls hard
when its pushing to the side, of course the first furrow width is
wrong when it swings.

Best use for a moldboard plow is a lawn ornament.

Are you using a pull type plow on wheels or a 3pt semi mounted plow?

What brand and model of plow. It still sounds like a land slide issue or tail wheel issue.

IS the plow pulling real hard??? Could the draft control on your tractor be pulling the plows out of the ground??

I bought a set of JD 1250 3 x 16 inch plow from a fellow that bought them new. He said they where junk and would not plow. He was trying to use them on a JD 2520 on clay hills. He did not have enough tractor on the plows. The draft control on the JD 2520 was pulling them out of the ground. I put the plows on my JD 2640 and they plowed fine. They did pull harder than heck.

So get us some more information or even better a picture of you trying to use the plows. Also remember that the ground is still dry and harder than concrete in places. We have been chisel plowing corn stalks with the same tractors and chisels. We are using a full gear or two slower than we usually pull them.

Kvnerland ab85 plow, fully mounted 3 bottom with a tailwheel and coulters. Coulters are off in case they were masking the issue. Its no 8 or 9 bottoms, can't remember. Set to about 18", its variable width.

The hitch is in position control mode, the tractor is a 100 hp on 3 bottoms, I've seen the same model pulling up to 5 bottoms.

Re-install the rolling coulters.
Adjust the right wheel spacing and hitch to Center the plough draft to the Center of the tractor.
Install sway bars.
Is there a "land" adjustment to swing the plough right uphill and left downhill?
Trash boards and moldboard extensions will improve turnover.
Higher ground speed will improve turnover.

My SIL has a 3 bottom Knervland plow pulls it with a JD 5410 and it does a real good job. You have to make sure it is level front to back and side to side when its in the ground. The plow has a long lever on the right side which is used to adjust the width of cut of the front bottom. The other two just follow along. If your front bottom is plowing to wide move the lever so it points the plow more to the right rear tire or furrow. If the front bottom is not cutting wide enough move the lever to point the front bottom away from the furrow.. Your tractor should be set in draft control not position control.

I've had the same problem and not yet solved it.... I notice it's worse in hard ground which leads me to believe that the land sides on mine are mabey the problem as they're worn. Second on my list is wheel width. I know they give a 'range' for wheel spacing but I think when you get in tough going the range evaporates... What I see happening with mine is that the plow is drafting hard to one side.... it's not pulling straight... and it wants to lay over to the left as a result. You see this present in it wanting to wear the rear tips off the land sides... So I think it's going to take a wheel adjustment to get the tractor placed correctly in the line of draft ahead of the plow. I'm fairly certain of this because I have this problem more prominently on my 7710 than I do on my TS90... and basically the only difference there is the wheel size and spacing. You might be able to beat it somewhat by moving the plow headstock far to the left but if it's real tough going that won't work entirely. The other thing.... narrow her up. I know you probably don't want to do that any more than me... but it generally pulls better at 14-16 in tough going than it does at 18"...

Rod

short answer,roll all your furrows down hill.thats what your plow is designed to do. IF you want to roll sod both ways you need a plow designed to do so. the reason it doees this is simple,plow needs to be hitched different to roll ground up hill,a plow designed to do this takes that into account. you can make your plow work,if you rehitch,or readjust your plow each time you turn around.otherwise you simply get the effect you describe,coulters wont help,landslide wont help,nothing will help except readjusting your plow for the increased side draft ,and that requires rehitching,many many plows out there designed to work on a side hill,you dont have one.unless youve got a hillside plow,your whipping a dead mule or youll have to rehitch,no other solution.

I agree to some extent that the plow needs to be readjusted to plow uphill in extreme situations. I disagree that this plow is not capeable of doing so. Kverneland routinely advocated plowing only uphill with that very plow... as a soil conservation measure.

Rod

If the ground is like concrete which most sod ground is. Especially as dry as it has been this year. It will be especially difficult to roll the ground up hill. Check your coulters to make sure they are all set the same. If it is a pull type plow it is going to be even more difficult to keep the plow from dog trailing on the side if a hill. Also make sure the line of pull on the plow is in line with center of pull of the tractor.

absolutly true!! wasnt that what i just said?maybe i didnt explain it correctly .trouble is you need it hitched differently to turn sod up hill,when your trying to turn sod both ways its much easier to have a plow that changes the hitch itself,otherwise you stop at end of each furrow and adjust the hitch.one adjusted properly to turn sod downhill simply wont turn it correctly uphill.adjust it to turn furrow up hill,and it wont work correctly throwing furrow downhill. its much easier to turn sod downhill due to the amount of side draft, when you start turning it uphill ,side draft is greatly increased,tires slip more etc,so you simply have to adjust your hitch differently. i saw a video a while back that showed folks in england plowing straight up and down a hill,if i tried that i would have gullies ten feet deep.

Ground is moist/soft, if you grab a lump you can make a ball.

Due to the side draft, the properly adjusted coulters are cutting about 3" inside the face of the mouldboard.

I did go out and measure more. I found the first bottom point has over an inch less clearance to the beam than the other two bottoms. Its pouring rain out there right now so I abandoned my efforts to get the frog loose from the beam to adjust.

Funny you mention this, I had to figure out the adjustments on my ford 101 2-16 plow, this weekend. Ironically, you know what the results are supposed to be, know how the plow should pull, even after chocking up on side 8" or so, level both ways, then take to the field and something is off when you look back !

It was doing a little of everything wrong, back one tripping on deep round rocks (one area of this field must be some sort of glacial till deposit)instead of gliding over, trailing off a little, not getting trash coverage, like you mention, won't roll it over completely.

So I started further out in the field, so I had a chance of re-adjusting before the area I want to plant. It appeared what I did on flat ground, (pavement) did not work in the furrow, so I changed adjustments, was still tripping, let more out on both the oem top link, level box, and this one has a lever for trailing which I ended up putting to the max on one side pointing it in more to the land, of course I tried different plow depths etc. The worst was it wanted to really suck in this low spot with marshy kind of thick grass, nice thick top soil, darned gauge wheel which does not have all that much range, seemed to still allow that, the sod I pulled up was incredible, tractor would pull it, I'd have to lift up a little, or I would lose traction. Then I got into where I plowed before, last year, a little more gravel to the clay loam and round rocks, it stopped tripping from the last adjustment, both furrows were about the same size and the trash coverage (sod rolling over and under) was good, not perfect yet but was a big difference from where I started, and you could finally see it when I got into some easier soil.

I am certainly no expert, having encountered what you mention and about every other scenario since fooling with an old ferguson 2 bottom, my single bottom ford and 101 ford, the latter having all new wear parts except mold boards. I finished my patch, painted the moldboards and unhooked it, set it up on blocks for storage, as I'm done ! Well the darned tractor without power steering, darned arthritis, sore shoulder joints, and whatever has been ailing me for a month put me out for a day, made me think what Bill(Wis) said is right !

There seems to be a fair amount of variables that will effect the results, maybe its just a trailing issue, soil conditions, add some wear and or operator error, as I thought mine was adjusted right which proved wrong in the field, having to reset everything, even then I still had to keep adjusting but in smaller increments, here I am thinking, gee, new wear parts, adjusted right, soil is not hard etc.

Funny thing is I did the same adjustment on the 1 bottom, chocked the tractor up 8" on flat ground, leveled it both ways, took it to my garden and the field, it worked perfectly, or almost, did not have to touch a thing and the share is worn, needs a shin too, but it pulled so easy, and over those rocks, did not want to trip, but having a worn share, not wore out, but not far off, seemed to help, not being so aggressive. Now that 101 with new 16" shares, and with the level box lift arm almost all the way out and the top link so far out, I could not transport the plow even though its mounted, is what it took to get half way decent results. When done I had to shorten the top link or I'd plow a shallow furrow all the way to the house! It sure is puzzling sometimes especially for a dummy like me LOL !!!

Hi Rod, I'd hoped you'd see this, yes the tips of the landslides are worn. I've been out in the rain measuring and the first bottom point has over an inch less clearance to the beam than the others. I'm trying to figure out if something is bent or what. The previous owner had the boards off the 2nd and 3rd bottom to repair them.

From a distance you can see the 2nd bottom isn't quite inline with the others, I found the first bolt for the vari-width linkage to the headstock is a bit loose, will replace that before adjusting more.

I loaned the plow out this summer and the fellow used it behind an orchard tractor without too many problems, but the ground had been plowed recently, he was just turning over a cover crop.

Its isn't the old style round shaft, although I do have an overum that adjusts that way. The overum works quite well but only 2 bottom and the worn out shares can't be bought anywhere it seems.

I don't know what an Overum is . My SIL can get parts from an IH dealer they used the same bottom on one of their plows
IH Kverneland plow

Here's a manual for your plough
kverneland plough AB85 manual

I took your statement to mean that in no way could an AB85 be set to turn uphill... because it certainly can be.

Rod

Ken... when you go out and try it again... get to a spot where it is turning reasonably well then stop dead in the furrow, get out your tape and measure the width of your first furrow. I suspect you'll find it quite wide. If so you'll probably need to widen the right wheel out and then pull the plow back over on the headstock to narrow it up.

Rod

Can someone explain to this midwest farmer what you mean by plowing uphill or downhill?

I think he means that he's running perpendicular to the slope, and depending in which way you plow, you can certainly have problems with the plow completely rolling over, covering the trash etc., like he said, one does not flip, just stands up, next one holds it, domino effect. It appears to me when everything is adjusted correctly, shares are good, it sucks in, it should do a good job when running across, not up and down, a slope. We have a lot of rolling hills here and its nice to plow in the direction where gravity helps, but you are supposed to alternate directions so when going the other way, if something is off, you won't get the results you want.

My question is, because even on the flat, rolling over thick moist topsoil with marsh like grasses, it either sucks in too far or maybe its your ground speed, or what about cover boards, don't they help with this, give it that extra nudge so it rolls completely and nothing live is up top, now under resulting in a good kill ?

Don't plough as deep it does help, also check your wheel settings.
Sam