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SW IN | Anyone using a Farm Drainage Plow built in Waverly Iowa? We have had one for a few years. What kind of grade control system are you using ?
Edited by bandsaw 8/25/2009 06:54
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Blue Grass (Eastern IA) | The all the way down grade control. Put it all the way in and go up hill. Ours is a 3 pt and only goes in about 3 ft. Not ideal, but works for us. |
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NE Iowa | After looking over there website briefly it almost seems to me they are behind... They've been around for 25 years but have no dealers and offer no delivery.... Doesn't make sense to me.. Another quote from their site.. One plow owner was able to put in 15,000 ft. in a day with his large 4" plow. At least 150 of our customers have mounted lasers on their plows. Several owners have laid as much as 800,000 feet. I don't know what your land is like but 15,000 feet doesn't seem like its a lot especially when they make it sound like most customers don't have lasers or GPS for controlling the grade...
What kind of land will you be tiling? I'm only 45 minutes from Waverly and a lot of the land would require grade control with either a laser or GPS in our area.. We ended up purchasing a Johnson tile plow, if we had to do it over again we would go with the Gold Digger tile plow http://www.soilmax.com/, we also ended up putting the Intellislope grade control system on our plow also made by the same company and both products seem very well developed....
I couldn't find any pricing information on the wurdinger plow but it would have to be pretty cheap to even have me interested but it may work for certain situations. |
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Eastern Iowa | We've got one of the old ones with the 6" boot on it. Works well, but pulls hard. We usually have to pull the MFWD tractor with the CAT D7 to keep it moving. We built a carriage for it several years ago after we damage the tractor's top link pulling it through a rut. It has a large hydarulic cylinder in place of the top link, which enables us to push it quite a bit deeper.
If you'd ever seen our farm, you'd know why a laser would be unnecessary, but we added a little sight guage, similar to the ones on self-leveling loaders, to show us when we are running it parallel to the ground.
The large boot makes it tougher to pull, and we seldom use that large diameter tile anyway. If I had to do it over again, I'd get one of Don's plows for 4" tile, and save a lot of extra effort. Definitely a well built plow.
Edited by GangGreen 8/25/2009 08:48
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Leesburg, Ohio | Why do you like the Gold digger over the Johnson? |
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Cullom, Illinois | Bought a three point plow with four inch boot from Don ten years ago. Put in over 30,000 feet of tile with no laser going up hill. Paid $3500 back then. Paid for itself many, many,many times. |
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NE Iowa | The two mains things I've noticed between the two is that the wheels on the Johnson settle backwards where as the Gold Digger they settle forward. The performance issue we see with the Johnson is the when you drop in make your connection and initially begin cutting ground the plow itself begins to pivot on the hitch itself which with what I've seen can damage the tile or possibly pull it from the main itself.. If your careful, take your time, and blind the tile well and possibly stand on it, it normally doesn't cause any issues.. From what I've heard from the guys at soil max, having the wheels extend forward when lowering the plow corrects this problem.. It's one of those thing's you don't notice right away and hard to describe it could be something we are possibly doing wrong.. After you see it happen I'm convinced the wheels settling forward would correct the problem.. The second thing I like about the Gold Digger is the down pressure valve they have available for your plow wheels. The Johnson doesn't have this option so when you lower the plow into a hole and it's a fairly soft bottom you put the tractor into float then the plow weighs enough to were it settles into the dirt itself then you may or may not have to shovel in dirt under the tile to keep your grade in spec..
One thing I'd like to see in a test is a pull comparison between the two similar size models from each company, we pull our Johnston with a 9270 fully weighted and have to put a pull tractor on the front from time to time..
I'm sure they both have there pro's and con's but in my opinion I prefer the Gold Digger. |
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Eastern Iowa | Wurdinger plow modified to accept a two wheel cart built from an old JD 54 manure spreader frame. Large cylinder enables easy depth adjustment on the go. Level indicator for bottom of boot.
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NW Iowa | Only get a Wurdinger if your plowing up hills! Had one, now own a Gold Digger. Love the Gold Digger. With a plow you can't control grade buy lifting or dropping the plow only. At least not with a rubber tired tractor on dirt. Grade is better controlled by the pitch of the shank. |
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SW IN | We have the single axle pull type plow. I wouldn't mind having the tandem axle. Although we have hilly ground, we also have some creek bottoms that are pretty flat. In fact, on several fields, the creek has been straightened, and the old creek filled. That means sometimes we have a low place in the middle and have to allow for that when tiling. As small farmers, we hated to lay out the substantial cost of an automatic laser control for our plow, that will only be used a few days or weeks a year. We came up with a workable solution, at least for us. We bought a pretty good contractor's grade laser. It will adjust grade up or down, as well as tilt left or right. We mounted a seat and hydraulic valve on the plow. The receiver that came with the laser mounts to a square mast, that I can rotate if needed. My brother drives the old Allis Chalmers 440 and I ride the plow. We often need another tractor on the front. The downside is it does take an extra man. We feel we can tile as accurately as any other system. We have had to lay lines with as little as a half inch in 100 feet rise in order to tile a hole. We had water coming out by the time we finished the run, so felt pretty good about it. Don has changed his design since we bought ours. His plow now pulls a boot for all sizes of tile, and is narrower. My neighbor has a small three point hitch model, and I can see his pulls easier than ours. Nothing at all wrong with a Gold Digger plow, but we bought our plow for about half what the Gold Digger would have cost. |
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| I have a Wolfe plow it pulls really easy. Its made for drainage. Tractors are made for farming. |
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NW central IL | yeah, we get it, you dont like tile plows for tractors...heaven forbid a farmer increase productivity on his own farms... have anything else to say other then cry about farmers and their tile plows. in the two year waiting list to get work down around here, i can pay for the tile plow, already had the hoe.... two year waiting list, yet i drive by and his tile machine sits for weeks at a time. got tired of it. have plenty of ground to keep me busy. he stopped by the other guy when i was running and said if i needed any mains in just let him know. class act....two other commercial guys bought the "demon" plows to help with the work load...pull them with "tractors for farming"
Edited by tj_farmer 8/26/2009 10:09
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NW central IL | ill try something objective. before i purchased mine, earlier this year, i looked at most the plows out there, including an older wolfe plow... did not like the design on the wurdingger, thought the gold digger was alittle light, liked the johnson's overkill in built, and design was good...now wolfe is a hell of a unit, but the idea of trailering it everywhere, initial cost, and being able to use my tractors in offseason. i bought a johnson. i have two 50000 lbs 4wd's and 2 30000lbs mfds to help out....my dirt is black deep. that will make a difference, clay is some tough pulling shoot for a tractor. if i pulled pipe in clay all the time, id of bought a wolfe plow. but for me, my 50k tractors will play with it, at 1.0-1.5 mph, 5-6.5 deep....havent had to go deeper yet. i pull mostly 4" and 6" tile, bought 8" but havent used it yet....grade is not a problem, checked with laser, im a happy buyer...p.s. havent had anything bigger then the backhoe to help me through a spot 100 ft long yet.....
Edited by tj_farmer 8/26/2009 10:13
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NW central IL | yeah, the down pressure valve would be nice. dont think it would be too hard to put in a johnson. |
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NE Iowa | The down pressure valve will be on our Johnson before any tiling this fall, hopefully corrects the settling issue in soft bottom conditions. |
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NW central IL | let me know how it goes getting it. are you building your own? |
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SW IN | That is an issue for us. When we want tile, we tile instead of waiting for a custom operator until it rains. |
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| I have a "DEMON" plow. My best customers don't wait! I put in 800.000 ft with the DEMON in the last year pulled it twice. 8 inch tube thru an overcut six and a half foot deep the other time foot and a half of frost to finish the job before freeze up. both times with a backhoe. You guys keep asking questions to each other about tiling it makes me laugh. A lot of the people you guys deal with for your tiling supplies get a good laugh at this web site also. |
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SW IN | Farmers tiling must make everyone laugh. I know I smile when I see my yields increase after I have tiled a field. I laugh when I realize that installation cost is in my pocket instead of yours. My supplier always smiles when I get out my checkbook for a load of tile. He seems happy enough he delivers a load over 70 miles away for $50. And I have checked prices. I am buying tile for the same and sometimes less than the contractors around here want to charge. |
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| The installation cost is in your pocket not mine? You can put tile in the ground for free? when you tile for your landlord or your neighbor you just charge for the tubing and the fittings?
Here in the real world of business I have a fixed expense for every foot of tubing. I'm sure this might blow your mind, but when I send out a bill its not all profit.
If your combine is paid for does this mean that it doesn't cost you anything to harvest? I'f I ran my business like some farmer's run theirs I would have been broke a long time a go.
My tile salesman smiled when I purchased 20 loads of tubing last month too. The farmer that I quoted 60 cents a foot to pattern tile 80 acres had a real big smile too! Every ones happy! |
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NW central IL | i figure i got - .13-.16ft with all expenses. at 100k a year thats 18-20k/year....not pocket change....im sure you quote 60 cents to all your customers, but even at 60 cents, you should be making .20-.25 cents a foot pretty easy, which is a fair price, just adds up for someone wanting to do alot....i love how you bash people on here, tring to learn your profession, your a real class act. i only bought 7 loads last month, but im just a farmer...if your big time, im surprised you didnt buy more, with prices starting to rise.....yes, many farmers will tile there landlords ground, for cost of tile, for an extended contract, couple days work for 5-10 years of pattern tiled farms, no brainer for the farmer.... guys rent farms around me from landlords cause they know they can get there farm tiled over the next guy...seen it happen and heard them say it many times
Edited by tj_farmer 8/29/2009 09:15
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| The reason I get on here to "bash" farmer plows is that 99% of the farmers that have plows put in 3 rolls of tubing and act like they are an expert on drainage. When someone on here says I dont have a laser because my ground is too hilly that is B.S. We run laser or GPS on everything no matter what what grade it is because we do things right the first time. I've noticed over the years that farmer's with plows always seem to be the guys that never wanted to spend more than a couple thousand dollars on a tile job with a contractor then 0000 later that it didn't make much difference. Yet a couple years later he buys $50000 WORTH OF TILING EQUIPMENT now he's at the coffee shop telling all the locals that he gonna run all the tiler's out of business. That same guy came and asked me to run a 8 inch main for him because his Johnson pulls to hard. You guys are a joke. Farmer plow guys are so afraid that someone is making a dollar of you that you just can't stand it. You guys just keep plowing in tile. The more water that runs over the top of the ground after a farmer gets done with his job from a cut old tile, or when a sprayer gets stuck on pattern tile job done by a farmer makes me look just that much better. The reason I only got 20 loads is because I would rather have the loads delivered to the job site. Hey TJ Farmer dont tell your customers that you are making money. If they are hiring you to tile I'm sure they would be pissed off to know you are making a profit. The little farmer's around here that hire farmer plows do it more out of charity because the farmer plow guys usually broke or a drunk.
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NW central IL | well i spent 20000 on a contractor and was just getting started eariler this year, id go broke with him, no plows in this territory. everyone around here has wheel machines and getting 1.1 to 1.20 just to cut. i dont claim to be any kind of expert, i check my lanes at end of job, then week later, to make sure i dont need to fix old ones up. havent so far. i tile for myself and landlords only, at this point anyway. we run g.p.s. and checked first three lanes with laser. havnt had any problems....yet.
i guess what im saying is dont classify all farmer plow guys together, same as i dont classify all contractors out there. theres good ones and bad... just like the guy who dont use guidence to plow tile in.....im in the process on trying to tile 2000 acres over time that we own, let alone that we rent, i feel it was a very good investment, really i need a old chain or wheel down the road, but till then ill use my local guy. im that guy that lets you install in season when he gets close, so i can get it done. im not a drunk and hope to not go broke anytime soon, but ya never know with this ecomomy. cant stand the coffee shop, dont go much, too much gossip.
Edited by tj_farmer 8/29/2009 20:07
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SW IN | Another load of tile coming in the morning. Money in the bank! |
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NW central IL | where ya from and who did you get it from from? i'd like to know if it went up from last month. email open if youd rather email.
Edited by tj_farmer 9/2/2009 09:14
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SW IN | Valley Tile in Sullivan, Indiana. I am from around Petersburg, In. 4" is $.245 a foot, and 5" is $.57. |
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Wurdinger tile plow
