Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire 16" Single Bottom Dearborn/Ford Plow

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll look into them before I buy.

Keep that front end on the ground.

My Dad and I farmed with a 1950 8N Ford and a 1950 B John Deere. We had fluid in the 8N rear tires for more traction. Plowing was mostly in good river bottom soil that had been worked over many years. The 8N pulled 2 14s, while the JD B pulled 2 16s. I always preferred the JD and could plow in 3rd gear while my Dad ran in 2 gear. About once an hour, I'd catch him and he'd lift up and let me pass. That is one of my fondest memories. I can still see that image in my mind. If I could go back and relive a day, that's where I'd go. I told him that right before he passed.

Can you remove one bottom from the JD plow for this use then put it back on later? I did that on a 3 bottom. Some are made to allow that easily.

I don't know. That will be something I look into.

After seeing the link to the JD plow, it looks doable but would be some wrenching. You might find that you can pull the 2 14s and not have to modify. We used to plow corn stalks and residue under pretty successfully. Traction on as much vegetation as you have might be the bigger problem, but you'll have one wheel on dirt in furrow. If you were in the neighborhood, I'd be happy to bring a tractor and plow and help you. I love to plow!

I was just thinking the same thing. Could be a great option.

Have you considered never going outside again?

Looks like 4 bolts will take a plow off. That's 2 minute job with an impact wrench.

I'll say it again. I started driving an 8N in 1961. I was five years old, pulling eight hour days driving for my dad as he bucked bales for almost every farmer in a ten mile radius to support our family. And I still have an 8N. I grew up plowing, discing, planting, cultivating, mowing , raking, baling, hauling, feeding, grading, digging new ditches, cleaning old ditche, cleaning corrals, loading manure, corrugating, pushing snow and pulling the spreader, all with an assortment of Ford 8N tractors. Grandpa had three on eighty acres, an Uncle had three more, two more uncles had one each, and another Uncle had the identical, except for overhead valve engine, Ferguson TO 20.

My Present 8N has new 12.4x28 on the back and new 6.50x16 on the front and all four are filled full of Calcium Chloride. And yes, if the traction control is working, the tractor will kill a freshly rebuilt engine in first gear with a plow or single point ripper.

B is going to have everything his tractor can do to pull that one bottom through matted roots.

Ford used to sell a one bottom two way plow, called a "grasshopper plow". That is all I have ever seen used behind an 8N, because it is all an 8N can handle in heavy soil, pasture grass sod, and alfalfa fields. But then we plow 6" to 8" deep around here.

Typically in this valley it takes 60 HP minimum to pull two 18s. The 95 HP 4020, or Allis Chalmers 190 XT turbo will pull three 18s well.

Seconds on the subsoiler, or ripper, as we call them. I have a single point 30" ripper I pull behind the 8N. It pulls it well in first gear while typically floating the front tires about 4 inches off the ground. It usually runs about 24 inches deep and I turn around and make the next pass with the tractor tire in the tracks of the last ripper pass. That gives me about 2.5 feet between passes.

I use it on the garden and before planting an alfalfa field. It kills the gophers, and nothing will make the ground sub irrigation water like a ripper.

You'll need to move the tail wheel to be trailing the remaining bottom and that bottom needs to be close to your right rear wheel so that the furrow is filled. What ever it take to accomplish that. I think my plow is an F135 and the manual shows how to modify it from 3 to 2 bottoms.

Heavy duty little plow. They definitely don't make 'em like they used to. It'll roll over the prettiest furrow you've ever seen in this Kentucky soil.

The cane patch is a different story,..ugliest plowing you ever *did* see. It's more like doing combat than plowing. It's amazing how strong that cane root structure is. I'm gradually getting it broken up, however.

I also bought a disc. A single section 6' by "Tuffline,...got a heavy duty square tube frame and serrated discs that looks like they were replaced, recently. It's got bracketry for attaching another section. But I'm going to use it as a single,..except I'm going to strap about 300 lbs of sandbags on it.

Anyway,....fun day,..hauled both pieces home from about 50 miles away in the bed of my trusty F-150.

,..probably sounds like drudgery to a lot of you folks,...just like standing in front of a lathe and milling machine seems like drudgery to me.

So.....which plow did you buy?

John Deere or Ford?

I bought the single bottom Dearborn. It was the right decision. It's a very heavy duty plow and it's all I can get by with in the cane patch. I spent a couple of hours treating it pretty rough. I bet I would have wrecked one of those little single bottom plows like they sell at tractor supply doing what I did with this Dearborn.

It's also in excellent condition.

Too big a plow is way worse than too small a plow.

If you posted a pic of it like you did the John Deere, I missed it.

They took the pic down from their webpage.

Nah, just get a bigger tractor!

I have done those things many times!

Tractor is then too big and you must buy a bigger plow!