Moline plow issues

Finally got some tires on it. The plow will not lift off the ground to move it. Are these tires too small? What size should they be?

What size tires did you put on? It probably came with 7.00 or close to that size tires on it. I wouldn't think that difference in tire profile would be enough to be be the problem. Variation would probably be in the 1 inch range. Those plows don't lift very high, just a few inches off the ground. Shooting in the dark here but I would suspect wear or damage to the lift mechanism is more likely the issue.

IF it is sliding put a tire chain on it or a more aggressive lug tire on. Like ADB said they barely lift off the ground.

Hey, Minnie mo Mick's dad here, when we pull the rope the plow wheel rotates about 1/4 turn then skids along. Plow bottoms are about an inch off the ground. I guess it should rotate around and raise up? Or drop down? I don't know where we are with it. It's missing a share and before we spend money on that we want to be sure it works. Any suggestions welcome. Thanks

I had problems with one once and had to pull the hub apart. All the old grease was hard and didn't allow much movement.

It looks like a 16" wheel in picture so a 6:00 or 6:50 x 16" tire would have been normal and with used car tires mounted at the time it was new. The spokes to rim say it came from factory on rubber and is not a wheel changed from steel to rubber, if that would have been then any size wheel and tire laying in junk pile could have been pit on. That is on the land wheel, the furrow wheel might have been a 5:50x16 as that was also a common car size tire when plow was new or if bought with new implement tires a 5:00 on furrow and 6:00 on land wheel. My 3 bottom had the 5:00 on furrow wheel and land wheel was a 4:50x21" tire. If tire sliding then you have problems in the clutch making it lock up or someplace in frame-lift mechanisem binding you. Some plows have different settings on lift arm for deeper or shallower lifting and it could be set for deeper plowing if it hardly clears te ground.I cannot tell from picture if the back end of plow a furrow tail wheel carries the plow when out of ground or not but on some that is adjustable and plow should ride level when out of ground. If that was factory rubber it would have been a 3:50x12" tapered tire but a 4:80x12" used well trailer tire works good. Now if it does not have the wheel to carry the back end then there would be a connecting link from hitch to frame to lift and carry the back end of plow. And that can be verry hard to get set correctly as that all depends on height of tractor drawbar to depth you are trying to plow, and setting of hitch plates on frame that holds the drawbar, usually at least 3 different settings avaible ther with possibly up to 5 different positions. I had a Moline 3 bottom clutch lift for a time back in the 60's so do not remember a lot of the details how it was made but on any 3 bottom or larger they have to have the tail wheel to carry the back end of plow when out of ground. And in my ground the R would not pull that plow. What size rear tires do you have as I have seen the R with 34", 36" and 38" rear wheels, I think with the larger wheels the drawbar would also be higher off the ground so make a difference in hitching.

The rtu has 34 inch rears. So one of the tires should be bigger?

The 34" rears would mean the drawbar of the tractor would set lower to the ground than if it had the bigger tires. Bigger tires would mean it just had more traction to pull the plow and from what I have seen at shows is what I am going by but I think the bigger tires are later model tractors. The only thing a higher drawbar is would just mean a different set of holes used in the drawbar mounting plates to get plow to pull level. Too low on those mounting plates would mean it is trying to lift the front of plow out of ground and too high would want to tip plow forward too much same as too short a top link on your Fords. I have only saw a 10"-11.2 tire in the 34" size and the 38" was 11-12.4 so that would set the back axle of tractor 3" higher off of the ground and unless they changed the hitch it would also make the hitch 3" higher meaning a different setting on those hich mounting plates to adjust for that. Putting a 7:00 tire on the plow would just make it so it could not go as deep. But you should not have any wheel slippage no mater style of tire unless ground is whet enough your foot could slide from the moisture.

I've never had a Moline plow apart, but if it's like the others the mechanism should rotate a full half turn when you pull the lever and raise the plow all the way up. when you pull it again it should again rotate a half turn and drop the plow into the ground. You'll probably have to dig into it and find out why it's not doing that.
Good luck! Let us know what you find out.

I believe the plow is in the plowing position judging by the position of the right hand lever. The plate by the wheel with the notch should rotate around onto a roller connected to the trip arm when raised. I'll go take a picture of mine.

It was fairly dry. Actually tried to move it on gravel driveway. That's when we realized it wasn't raising.

Never fear, pictures would be great! Thanks

the question about tractor tire size was mostly curiosity on my part but it can have a efect on how to set the hitch on the plow. The ones I have seen with the 34" rear had a 5:00x15 on front, the 38" rear had a 5:50-6:00x16" on front. But taller tire would mean a higher hitch usually. And to get it to pull corectly once you get it in ground to depth you want and take a shovel and uncover the front of share on front bottom. Then take a straight edge and hold up in line with the front tip of the share of the front bottom to the hitch pin hole of the drawbar of the tractor. Now look at the piviot bolts that hold the hitch on to those plates on side of front end of beams. That piviot bolt should line up with that straight edge from share to hitch. If that piviot bolt is too low it will want to lift front of plow out of ground, to high it will want to tip plow on its nose like shortining the top link on your Fords does. At times it will help a plow with bad shares go into hard ground but makes plow pull harded than if it sat level like it should. The left lever on the plow sets the depth and the right lever sets the tilt same as the adjustment crank on your Fords hitch. The tractor I had for my Moline plow was a 44 model U row crop that had oversizex 13" now would be 14.9 tires from the orignal 12-13.6 tire and the drawbar was not adjustable that we could find and it sat so high up we could not hook the hay baler to that tractor. I think your plow is one that the tail wheel carries the back end when out of ground as I could see nothing that would carry the front if it was designed for that. So I will not go into that adjustment now as it would not be acaplicated to what I am thinking your plow is. A picture of the back end would tell me for sure. And they say you cannot pull a plow like your Moline with rour Ford 640 or 8N but I have done that. Mine was a Ferguson TO30. Think I started plowing about 57 and am now 75. Have not plowed or farmed since about 2000 but have not forgotten how to do it. Used all pull type with both clutch lift and cylinder lift, semi-mounted and 3 point hitch in both 2 & 3 bottom sizes. I think you had a broken nose on one of the shares. I could tell you how to rebuild that.

Heres how it should look raised,