Looking at either a D7H or a D8N to pull a tile plow. Kind of leaning towards the 7 because of weight... the 8 might be a pain when I add a 9000# plow on the back. I guess my question is how fast/slow do they go in first gear? I'm looking for slow speed....slower the better!! Will they pull good within the power band at less than 1.5 mph? Any help would be much appreciated!!
Hey Nelsonag Poke around on the dozer forum and you will find several recent tile plow dozer setups. I have one. As far as speed goes, you will find that either of them will slow down as load increases. My 6rIII hangs around 1.3 mph doing laterals, but drops down to .5 or even .3 mph doing deep hard stuff. They go plenty slow for any GPS gear i know of. Good luck, Ken
Thank You!!!! After talking to my dad earlier today he brought up the exact same point as you. It is not like a direct drive tractor where as the load increases the rpm's/ power drops. Never thought of this(too used to thinking in terms of farm tractors). I've run dozers for a few years and after that was stated it makes sense!! I'm just trying to find a good option without spending $500,000+ on a Wolfe, Bron, or Interdrain. Been tiling for years with tractors... time to step up to something a little better. Thank you for your input!! What brand of plow do you have on your 6R?
Here are a few numbers I've pulled from data sheets that may give you an idea. Because of the torque converter the maximum drawbar pull of a tractor like a 7H or an 8N occurs when the tractor is actually not moving at all ....... Typically the drawbar pull of a 7H in 1st gear would be around 33,000 pounds at stall dropping to 25,000 pounds at 0.75mph and to 14,000 pounds at 1.5mph. For a D8N in similar circumstances you would be looking at around 55,000 pounds at stall dropping to 40,000 pounds at 0.75mph and to 22,000 pounds at 1.5mph. The caveat about all the above numbers is that they will depend of the ground conditions and the traction available.
Yair . . . Probably a stupid notion but I see ongoing references to folks needing to set up tractors for low speed high rim-pull as needed for tiling and my first though is that it would be an application for a winch on a smaller tractor and some sort of mobile sprag anchor . . . I'm ducking for cover. (he grins) Cheers.
lotta truth there scrub; I spent 2 really lazy days once with my old D4D 'leaning' on a vibrating wheeled type mole plough laying fibre optic cable through some wet ground with my winch. my winch is very low geared and was only pulling at a speed of probably 30 feet per minute at about 1000rpm. Had to dig a bit with her to hold her but she can break 3/4 rope if she wants to. Never used much diesel on that job; and once plough was on hard clay he could do job on his own
Maybe for tiling the same method as the old steam ploughing engines - one at each side of the field winching the plough on a cable back and forth across the field - had its merits.
Yair . . . D6 Merv . Good one mate, I don't feel so bad for posting odd-ball notions now. I checked the numbers way back when I first came here to HEF and became aware of this "tiling" application. As Nige confirms above they are not really that impressive and, from my days of sucking stuff around the oilfields concluded they are well within the capabilities of even a quite modest powered winch. It would need to be a special build with a high capacity drum for cable but it would use very little horsepower . . . way beyond my pay-grade though to do the final calculations The more I think about it the gut feeling is that the most effective way would maybe to use (say) a Six or Seven and have the winch mounted on the blade which could be modified for spragging. You'd run the rope right through under the other tractor that would be just big enough to carry the plough . . . . . better shut up now before our US friends start giving give me a hard time. (he grins) Cheers.
Yair . . . Good morning Nige . You posted while I was typing . . . the steam plough set up is a good example of what I had in mind. Cheers.