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"Made-It-Myself" Pull-Type Tile Plow
"It pulls much easier than a 3-pt. mounted tile plow and has paid for itself many times over," says Kenny Brandt, Hubbard, Iowa, who built his own "big wheeled", pull-type tile plow using the front wheels and axle off a Massey Ferguson combine.
  The tile plow has a 12-ft. long tongue. It's raised or lowered by two 3-ft. long, 4-in. dia. hydraulic cylinders and is equipped with a 5-in. wide boot. Brandt uses his Deere 4630, 180 hp, 2-WD tractor to pull the rig.
  "It looks like it was factory-built but I spent only about $1,200 to build it," says Brandt. "Commercial tile plows of comparable capacity cost at least $8,000 and about twice that much if they're equipped with a laser. The advantage of a pull-type unit ū versus a 3-pt. mounted unit - is that even if the rear tractor wheels do spin and dig into the ground, depth of the tile being laid won't be affected.
  "I use it a lot to drain wet spots on ground that has old tile in bad condition. When I pull it with my 2-WD tractor I usually make six passes, going six inches farther down each time. I lay the tile in on the last pass. Because I drive slow and go down only six inches at a time, if the boot hits a rock it'll go right around it instead of trying to dig it out. Most of my farm has a natural slope so I don't need a laser. However, I did make a water level and installed it on the rig.
  "I generally use 4-in. tile which costs about 28 cents a foot. I can buy 1,000 ft. of 4-in. tile for a little more than $200. Some of the places I drain need only about 200 ft. of tile so it isn't very expensive.
  "I bought the combine axle and wheels cheap at a junkyard. I used 1-in. thick by 8-in. wide plate steel to make the boot. The blade on front of the boot is 3 inches wider than the boot to prevent ęside dragging', which makes the plow pull easier."
  Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Kenny Brandt, 32748 I Ave., Hubbard, Iowa 50122 (ph 515 864-3283).


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2000 - Volume #24, Issue #3