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East Central Iowa | Do's and Don't with in-line rippers:
Do's
- need a LOT of horsepower. 50 hp per shank is not an overestimate
- inspect unit and keep bolts where shanks mount to the frame tight
- if you have rocks keep a spare set of shank shear pins in the tractor (or get the model with spring reset shanks)
- replace the wear parts (ripper points, wear bars on the shanks) when needed otherwise could wear down your shank
- run it deep enough to do some good. Yeah, can run them 12" or less but then won't get soil fracture and you may as well just run your chisel
- if you want more soil fracture you can get 4" wings to add to the ripper points (need more HP again then)
Don'ts
- skimp out on horsepower or weight/traction
- rip when soil is not dry, you will just smear the soil instead of fracture it
- try to turn a corner with the ripper in the ground. They like to go pretty much straight
- rip cornstalks immediately after harvest. Thick stalks can sometimes plug the unit. We run coulters every 15" to help with that and stalks which have sat for a while run through better. Some guys rip their beanground instead to avoid this (just be sure its flat though otherwise you created mini-gullies for the water over winter to rip down the hill). You can add rolling baskets on back to help a bit.
If never ripped before you may need to rip at a more shallow depth in one direction first and then take a deeper pass another direction initially. The 110 model pictures can do 18" or more in depth. Does not like rocks.
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How much hp to pull it? & Other ripper questions
