I have an old Ford 2n. SOmeone at work has an old 6 foot John Deer
pull disc for 200 bucks. It is a 6 foot. I would use it mostly on my
80x40 garden after using a single plow. Willmy tractor comfortably
pull this? Is it a good deal?

On Apr 2, 8:46*am, stryped wrote:
I have an old Ford 2n. SOmeone at work has an old 6 foot John Deer
pull disc for 200 bucks. It is a 6 foot. I would use it mostly on my
80x40 garden after using a single plow. Willmy tractor comfortably
pull this? Is it a good deal?

Try alt.fan.tractors but my first thought is "yes...depending". My
dad used to skip plowing and just harrow with a 2-gang 6' harrow,
pulled by an AC-B (smaller than your 2N). But the harrow was an old
horse-drawn unit that had adjustable gang angles, which allowed you to
adjust the amount of drag on the tractor. It also depends on the type
of soil you have, how wet it is, how much weight you have to add to
the top of the harrow to get it to dig in the amount you need, and
whether you need to use a drag (board, piece of fencing) to smooth out
behind it as well.
Since you're plowing first, you probably don't need to run as harsh an
angle on the harrow to get it to smooth out.

As for cost, 200 sounds reasonable, depending on condition. If it has
a bunch of broken disks and the axles won't turn (or wobble like
crazy), it's probably too much. If it works, it's probably ok.

Just my $0.02,
--Glenn Lyford

stryped wrote:
I have an old Ford 2n. SOmeone at work has an old 6 foot John Deer
pull disc for 200 bucks. It is a 6 foot. I would use it mostly on my
80x40 garden after using a single plow. Willmy tractor comfortably
pull this? Is it a good deal?

What Glenn said, plus,

All you are asking will depend on a number of things that you have not
included here.
There were many styles and models of discs carrying the John Deere brand.
Are all the disc axles turning free, and, all the disc blades tight and
secure, on the axles?

Will you be able to do anything with them?

It will depend on the weight of the disc assembly, the size diameter of
the disc blades and their condition, the angle of the blades, set, to
your direction of travel. As well as, the composition of the soil and
how deep you are trying to disc.
The general answer is, "yes", your tractor can probably pull the discs,
however, will it be strong enough to cultivate while you are pulling them.

Generally you pull the discs as shallow as possible to accomplish the
form of cultivation you need. They do add compaction to the soil while
they are turning it, "not" a good thing, when you are trying to grow
things.
I have several disc sets that size and a couple of them only require
about 12 to 15 horsepower or less to pull them. There were also ones
that size that only required one ox or horse to pull them. On the flip
side, I have one 6 foot set which requires a minimum of 50 horsepower to
move them once they are in the ground, however, I do not think you could
find a used set like that for $200.

The price does not seem bad, if, the blades are on tight and will turn
the dirt, but you have given no indication of what your set of discs
actually are, or, your market.
I have given away discs that size, as well as, purchased other used 6
foot sets for thousands of dollars.

My 2 cents:
If you plowed last fall, the clods will break up easier than if you
are plowing and disking right away.
If your "old" 2N has a strong engine, that's one thing, but if "old"
means worn-out, that's another.

I had (and still have) a 1947 8N and used it to work 40 acres for a
while. It did the job, but soooo slow.

You will be able to pull the disk if it's not set too aggressively, or
weighted too heavily.
You really do need some speed to do a good job, because "throwing"
the soil helps to break it up. I believe they talk about going 6 miles
per hour.

Check the bearings. And check that the grease zerks work.

I think you main problem will be turning around on a piece that small.
Before you buy the disk, just imagine driving around your garden plot.
If you go too far toward one corner (if there;s a fence or obstacle),
you may "paint yourself into a corner" and have to get another machine
to pull the disk backwards so you can get it out of the way of the
tractor because YOU CAN'T BACK A DISK UP!
Even it you don't have a "corner" problem, you will find yourself
driving all over the place to get squared-up for another run at the
garden. And, you don't want to be doing all that driving ON the garden,
because you will be compacting the soil more with every pass.

If you really want to use the tractor to disk the garden, then check
into a 3 point 5' or 6' disk that's for sale at farm stores. That way
you can back right up to a fence, drop the disk and go forward. It'll
cost more than $200, of course.

I think $200 is too high.
I was gonna suggest that you check craiglist, but I forgot that right
now everyone wants to BUY one. Wait till fall or winter to shop.

Pete Stanaitis
---------------

stryped wrote:
I have an old Ford 2n. SOmeone at work has an old 6 foot John Deer
pull disc for 200 bucks. It is a 6 foot. I would use it mostly on my
80x40 garden after using a single plow. Willmy tractor comfortably
pull this? Is it a good deal?

"R" wrote in message
...
stryped wrote:
I have an old Ford 2n. SOmeone at work has an old 6 foot John Deer
pull disc for 200 bucks. It is a 6 foot. I would use it mostly on my
80x40 garden after using a single plow. Willmy tractor comfortably
pull this? Is it a good deal?

What Glenn said, plus,

All you are asking will depend on a number of things that you have not
included here.
There were many styles and models of discs carrying the John Deere brand.

Until recent years none of them were made by John Deere. Then they brought
in the Frontier line.

The general answer is, "yes", your tractor can probably pull the discs,
however, will it be strong enough to cultivate while you are pulling them.

If you really want to use the tractor to disk the garden, then check
into a 3 point 5' or 6' disk that's for sale at farm stores. That way you
can back right up to a fence, drop the disk and go forward. It'll cost
more than $200, of course.

I think $200 is too high.
I was gonna suggest that you check craiglist, but I forgot that right
now everyone wants to BUY one. Wait till fall or winter to shop.

Ditto, what Pete said.

i use a 5' three point mount disk in my market garden on an 8N, very similar
tractor. This is an extremely handy setup. Great for spring work and
cultivation of vine crops.

That pull type disk is an antique, and very likely a total POS.

Karl

On Thu, 2 Apr 2009 05:46:14 -0700 (PDT), stryped
wrote:

I have an old Ford 2n. SOmeone at work has an old 6 foot John Deer
pull disc for 200 bucks. It is a 6 foot. I would use it mostly on my
80x40 garden after using a single plow. Willmy tractor comfortably
pull this? Is it a good deal?


80x40?

What units? Surely not feet, since you'd do that with a digging fork...


Mark Rand
TFM

On Fri, 03 Apr 2009 23:38:41 +0100, the infamous Mark Rand
scrawled the following:

On Thu, 2 Apr 2009 05:46:14 -0700 (PDT), stryped
wrote:

I have an old Ford 2n. SOmeone at work has an old 6 foot John Deer
pull disc for 200 bucks. It is a 6 foot. I would use it mostly on my
80x40 garden after using a single plow. Willmy tractor comfortably
pull this? Is it a good deal?

80x40?

What units? Surely not feet, since you'd do that with a digging fork...

Why do people reply to the known troll known as "stryped"? sigh

Please hit the IGNORE button.

--
You can't do anything about the length of your life,
but you _can_ do something about its width and depth.
-- Evan Esar

On Fri, 03 Apr 2009 20:35:01 -0700, Larry Jaques
wrote:



80x40?

What units? Surely not feet, since you'd do that with a digging fork...

Why do people reply to the known troll known as "stryped"? sigh

Please hit the IGNORE button.


I was honestly confused at the apparent size of the vegetable patch.
Significantly bigger than my back garden BTW.


I guess the correct advice would be:- Don't bother getting a disk harrow or
plough. Build a workshop on it :-)

regards
Mark Rand
RTFM