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Is This Deep Enough????

super99

super99

Well-known Member
Last spring I bought a 9 shank V-Ripper at a sale. This fall I finally cut it down to size for my 1850 and started ripping the places that drowned out this year. I have 3 shanks on it, power not a problem, traction is good but probably could use duals, NEED more weight on the front end!!! I found it works best by going over the field 2 times, first time about 16" deep, then stick it in as far as it will go. Many times it picks the front end up and just goes where it wants to. Sometimes it sucks in and the front end gets 4' or so off the ground, then it starts spinning and I have to stop and back up to be able to raise the ripper out of the ground. Wish I had someone to take pictures or movie when it's doing that. I hope this helps, or else I've wasted a lot of time and fuel just screwing around.
Chris
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For some reason, this site will only let me upload 2 pictures, so here is the other one. Around 25" deep, is that good enough? Oh, there are no tiles on the farm to dig out, so don't worry about that, but I did raise it up when I went over the pipeline just in case. Chris
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Here in NY a lot of old drain tiles would be cut up with that machine. We would gain wet spots not dry them up. Maybe there aren't any where you are.
 
Chris are you getting much lifting action out of that type of shank? Or is it just slicing through the ground?

By lifting it loosens the soil to sides of the shank more, to allow better water and root penatration in a wider zone.

I have a 5 shank behind a 180hp tractor and can barly pull it at 18". I run 14" to 15" most of the time.
 
Not only that but Cornell does not recommend going much past the top soil layer which 95 percent of the time runs 8 to 12 inches deep in NYS. We have the Unverferth zone till tool which provides the lifting action that others talk about and are currently running at about 13 to 14 inches deep.
 
Water doesn't sit on the surface of my clay fields any more after V-ripping.
Single shank but the tip is 10" wide. It will really rip and lift mounds with an open channel if the top link is adjusted too short. There is a moleball on there too which leaves an open drain channel at the base of the furrow.
 
You say there are no tiles in the farm to dig out... my thought is, under that circumstance the first big rain next year you're right back with the flooded low spots regardless how deep you dug the year before.
 
The places with deep compaction that drown out constantly might be helped by deep ripping. I've sunk it "down to China" in a few small wet places here at home and the next year the water did go down quicker. Then I ripped a wet 60 acre field 17" deep and ended up knocking holes in the top of a tile in one spot. It was rented land and I stood the cost of replacing the tile. Jim
 
16" is deep enough. You could have the other shanks on it and do a better job.We don't rip any deeper than 13". Alot of space between those shanks that the ground isn't fractured.
 
You can see the soil lifting about 1' on each side of the shank, looks like 3 to 4". It has places to put on 2 more shanks, about 20" spacing, but I doubt I could pull it very deep. All the other land around me is higher, the only way to tile it is thru the neighbors and then you would have to dig thru some hills to get the depth need to drain. We will see what happens next year, if I helped it or wasted time and fuel. Chris
 
Contary to what some others have said I think its good to chisel as deep as you can fracturing the hardpan as much as possible is always a good idea it lets in oxygen and water also gives deep rooted plants more places to send their roots.
 
(quoted from post at 09:33:26 11/21/10) It has places to put on 2 more shanks, about 20" spacing, but I doubt I could pull it very deep.
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I think since you have removed 2 shanks you have actually made the "V" ripper harder to pull. You have spread out the soil fracturing that the engineers built into the plow with the "V". Years ago I pulled a 7 shank "V" ripper with a JD 4020.
 
Around here rule of thumb is 40-50hp per shank.

I ran 3 shanks at 20-24" and it would bring my AC7000 to a stop, like dropping an anchor. I had duals, inner tires loaded, rear weights and front weights. Lift it to 16", and it would pull all day, except a few tough spots. Always wondered if I was really getting into the hardpan at 16 inches since the tractor seemed to just cruise right along.

A set of gauge wheels whould help, unless you are trying to run that deep. You might try moving those outside rippers into the inner positions, then you are not trying to fracture so wide of chunk of hardpan, might pull easier too.

Good luck
Rick
 
Most compaction zones are at 16". You would only need to run at 17" to break up the hard pan. Looks like you need to shorten the top link to level it up. Try leveling it and set at 17" and see how it pulls then. I would run it a bit shallower once then set a little deeper and run the other diretion. No use gutting the tractor and making it spin.
 
When you are deep ripping wet spots. Rip the way the water should drain if possible. Even if you just do that on the last pass or first pass. Example: If you are in a low draw. If you plant across the draw to prevent erosion then rip it up the draw first then go back and forth the way you would plant it. The reason you want to rip it like it would drain in that the bottom of the ripped soil will act like a ditch and drain the water away. I rented a farm many years ago that had been ripped across the drainage paths. The ground was alway wet. We had a dry fall one year and I ripped it the way it should drain and it made a big difference in how wet the field stayed after that. It helped two ways:1) the ground drained better because the hard pan was gone. 2) The internal drainage channels where opened up it the direction the water should go.
 
Now that's how ya mess up a groundhogs day, farmer near here makes a round through his fields once in awhile, First time I saw it I ask if he was starting to rent garden plots to the city folk.
 
I think working your tractor like that is a good way to seriously shorten its life.
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Seriously? Tractors are made to work. Last fall we borrowed a neighbors 7 shank Brillion v-ripper, dropped 2 shanks, and then pulled it on our 1855 all the way to the guage wheels. Was a very wet spring this year but I think the feild we ripped was a little bit drier than it would have been otherwise. Would've borrowed it again this year but it was a bit wetter this fall so it wouldn't have done as much good.

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Donovan from Wisconsin
 
There's a difference between working hard and over working a tractor. Even on a big Cat designed for it, a ripper can tear it apart. Most knowledgeable buyers shy away from Cats that have rippers on the back if they can find a bare back one. Dave
 
OK, curiosity got the best of me. I finished ripping what I did the other day the 2nd time and decided to put the other 2 shanks on and try it. I was running in 3rd direct about 18-20" deep. If I do very much of this, I need to weld the guage wheels back onto this(they were on the part I cut off) and get a good set of duals. It pulled it OK, but even when crossing where I had ripped it before it would suck in and raise the front end to where I had to stop and back up to raise it out of the ground. I did a strip thru the field about 6 rounds wide to see if it made any difference next year. Chris
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I've always read you want to rip just a couple/few of inches below the compaction area. You need to know where any compaction area is located. I've ripped and it has helped but I now relying on cover crops that will loosen up the soil. This seems to be a better way in that it takes less fuel and will improve the soil.
 
Hi JDSeller: That was what I was thinking also. I had two wet areas and I ripped 2 foot deep in a FAN shaped pattern down towards the lowest place this Fall. I did that to a 5 acre low spot when I was a kid back about 1955, on the home farm, and it worked good. So I'll see next year if it works the same here even tho this area has a somewhat different soil layers.. water still has to run down hill to allow the soil to dry out. ag.
 
I once used a 5 shank v-ripper with a 1085 fergeson. Based on experiance get a 3 to 4 ft 3/8in rod and push it into the ground to see how deep your hard pan is. This will let you know how deep you need to pull the ripper. Try ripping at different depth until you can push the rod down without hitting the hard pan.
 
It doesn't matter what kind of machine it is. Running something on the ragged edge without any reserve is beyond most machines design specs.
Lugging and overloading equipment continuously is abuse. And will require unnecessary service and expense in the long term.
 
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