Wheel spacing for plowing

When I pull my Oliver 4240 3 bottom plow I have to move the drawbar 2 holes to the land side to make the plow run in the furrow, I am trying to move the furrow wheel on my Oliver 1550 in so I dont have to move the drawbar when plowing. I have operators manual but it doesnt say anything about where to set rear tractor wheel. When the drawbar is straight it measures 30 inches from center of drawbar to inside edge of the tire

When I move the drawbar 2 holes to the right, it measures 25 1/2 inches to the tire.

The plow measures 28 inches from center of drawbar to the furrow wheel



I think I need to move the tractor wheel in about 5 inches to make everything line up. Anyone know where the furrow wheel should be set to line everything up? The wheel hub U bolts are rusted in tight and dont want to loosen up so I can move the hub.



I got the wheel off tonight and will try heat and beat again tomorrow .

The center line of draft of a moldboard plow is located at a point one fourth of the cutting width of one bottom left of the center of the total cut of the plow. Your drawbar should be aligned with this point. Set wheels accordingly to run in the furrow. This info came from my operator's manual for my John Deere 60. I hope this helps you.

A 3/14 would be 24 1/2 inches. A 3/16 would be 28 inches

for the u bolts, heat the nuts cherry red and quench them with cold water. that usually works for me sometimes i need to do it twice

was reading on an other post about using oven cleaner as a rust / bolt / nut releaser. Haven't tried it yet but the reasoning sounded good since the compound in the oven cleaner is the rust releaser.

I've seen where getting the u-bolts out can be a major struggle. Careful with the heat and beat. Those bolts can easily get "riveted" into the casting even worse than they already are, and will need to be cut out and replaced with new bolts. Good luck and use lots of never-seize putting them back together.

The reason so many wheels work loose after bring moved . And most other parts and components of any machine working loose . Is because the old fasteners are ruined with time, fatigue ,metallurgical changes , heating and stretching .
Much time, equipment and money would be saved . If the old fasteners were tossed and replaced with new .

This post was edited by buickanddeere on 10/27/2023 at 04:22 am.

To me,it looks like the end of your drawbar on the plow is too far to the left. On a 3 bottom plow, the end of it should be about in perfect line with about the middle of the second point or share. Yours is way to the left of it. Our 880 with a 3 bottom 14 inch semi mount is set at 60 inches. If you would move the drawbar on the plow over you probably wouldn't have to move the tractor wheels plus, because you are kind of pulling sideways on the plow because of the angle of the drawbar, it might pull easier and do a better job.

Response below for 28'' on 3X16 and 24 1/2'' on 3X14 is correct. The centre of draft for each BOARD is 1/4 the way across the board, measured from the cutting/coulter edge. The centre of draft for the entire PLOW is the mid-point between the first & last board's centre of draft. For an odd number of boards it's easy: The centre of draft for the plow works out to be is the centre of draft for the middle board - 1/4 the way across the middle board. For an even number of boards, the centre of draft for the plow is the half way point between the centres of draft for the two centre boards. The plow's drawbar should be aligned with the plow's centre of draft.

So for a 3X16 plow, lets say we're measuring from the cutting edge of the right-most board: The centre of draft for the plow (where the drawbar should be) is 16'' over (to the left) minus 4'' (4'' = 1/4 the cutting width of a board), so the plow's line of draft is 12'' from the cutting edge of the right-most board, and the plow's drawbar should be set to this. Add 16'' (board cut width) to that to account for the first board's pass, and that gets where the inside of your tractor's (and plow's) furrow tire should be: 12'' + 16'' = 28''. Thus: The inner edge of the furrow tires should 28'' from the drawbar/plow centre of draft for a 3X16 plow (as the other poster noted below). In the ideal world you have the tractor's drawbar centred and the tractor's tires evenly spaced from this, so inside-to-inside of the tractor tires would be 2X 28'' = 56''.

Similarly for a 3X14: If we measure from the cutting edge of the right-most board, plow centre of draft is 14'' minus 3.5'' = 10.5'' from the right-most board's cutting edge (3.5 is one quarter of 14) . That's where the plow's drawbar should be set. Inside of furrow wheels should be 10.5'' plus 14'' cut width = 24 1/2'' from the plow's drawbar/centre of draft (as other poster noted). If drawbar on tractor is to be centred and tractor tires equally spaced from drawbar, inside-to-inside of tractor tires should be 2X 24 1/2'' = 49''.

For a 4X16: The plow's centre of draft is half way between the centre of draft of the second and third board, which if you draw/work it out, is 20'' from the cutting edge of the right-most board. That's where your plow's drawbar should be. Add 16'' cut width to that, and you'll find the the inner edge of the furrow tires should be 36'' from the drawbar/plow centre of draft.

Of course, lots of folks (including myself) don't bother to set things perfectly. There are lots of 4X16 trail type plows out there for instance, but few people have 72 between their tractor tires. It might pull a little harder or offset, but as long as you're not too far off, you can make it work good enough for field plowing. You'd want to get it perfect if going to a plowing match, however (that Oliver plow of yours would be great at a match).

Have not been around an Oliver plow such as yours, but it shouldn't make a difference. you did not say if that was a 3/14 or 3/16 plow. On Case CHT, GT or A series plows for a 3-16 plow wheels should be set at 60 from inside to inside or 30 from inside of tire to center of drawbar. 56 on a 3-14 plow. John Deere manuals use a formula which equates to the total width of cut, divided by 2 plus 1/4 of the width of 1 bottom. so on a 3-16 it would be 3 x 16 = 48 / 2 = 24+4= 28. That would be the attachment point of the drawbar on the plow. They then say that if the tractor wheel is set at 30 you would take 30-28 =2. Then 2 divided by 3 = .666 and subtract that from 30 which means the drawbar should be set at 29.3 form the inside of tire. Use a string from the center moldboard of 3 bottom plow, measure in from the landside 4 on a 16 or 3.5 on 14 and attach sting to that point. Vertical line of draft is 1/2 of the depth of cut, so if plowing 6 measure up 3 from share for string attachment point. pull that sting to the front drawbar pull pin on tractor, and then align the plow hitch and tractor drawbar along that line.
John Deere manuals are available to read for free on their website. Just look up a 666, 777, 3100 or 3200 and its all there.

Definitely need to move the hitch on your plow. Do you have a manual?

Oliver plows you cannot move the hitch like that on them. I had one and could not set it wide enough for the wheel tread we had tractor set at for other reasons. Row crop A John Deere, now the AR standard tread it worked on. 60 inch tread OK, 72 inch NO.

Not correct. There's a clamp on the frame that you loosen.

I.ve also adjusted them on Oliver plows. 2 and 3 bottoms.

I know the hitch can be moved mine is as close to center as I can get.

You can only move it just soo far and that is all and ours would have had to go past the no more spot.