Last week I was looking for pins that we need to restore our Oliver 4441 plow. I knew what we needed & it seemed it would be easy enough to find them....they're laying around on most farm sheds/shops somewhere. I thought they were called "lynch pins", so did a lot of other people. Seems lynch pins have a flat head, not round like we needed. I want as original as we can get on this plow. It will live as a working plow, but we want to do it right...not just go in the field with whatever. Once again, I wanted ROUND-HEAD pins! So, our friend Larry (owns the super-immaculate "show plow" 4441 pictured below) has been helping us & making some parts for us that are not available. I first met the Oliver 4441 back in 1960 or so. We had one for our piggy-back. Our plow won't have the show appearance of Larry's, but it will look better than new, I'm sure. By the way, ours was bought as a 5 bottom (4+1), but we're only going to pull it as a 4 bottom. We're rebuilding the 5th bottom in case it's ever needed in the future.

So anyway, I thought it would be simple to get new pins. It actually seemed almost impossible to find 3/4" dia x 4" length pins. Found a couple shorter, but none long enough. Tried all the big-name on-line places everyone recommended on NAT. Strikeout every time. Then my good friend Von Bondemiller (Von WC OH) came thru. He had researched & found a JD part # for pins that were used on older equipment. I called our local parts man the next day & he said it was a good number.....BUT...it showed as "discontinued". OK...reported back to Von & he went back to work. Then he found the description of a JD pin used on later model JD plows. Description showed 3/4" x 4" pin, looking like one of the "rivet" pins we were looking for. Called JD parts guy again & SUCCESS! I had 2 of them delivered to our shop 2 days later. No problem. Actually, we found we needed another & had a 3rd delivered on the day after that. Thank you very much Von! Thanks for your persistence & your time to research.

Photo below shows one of the places the pin is used. I left the JD parts sticker on it for this photo, but it's been since removed. Oliver used a few of these pins on their plows. I've included a couple other photos of the 4441 plow. It's nearing completion. All.....I mean ALL!! hardware has been replaced. My friend Larry did the same w/his 4441, but we're going to have our hardware painted with the plow, so I'm using black hardware (not coated). We're using hardware as specified from the Oliver parts & setup book for the 4441 plow which probably came out in 1959-60. Lots of NF threads and big bolts! Hopefully we'll be ready for paint in a couple of weeks. Entire plow will get sandblasted. Rims are removed for sandblasting now...they'll get new tires also. Thanks to Billy & Kurt for all the time spent thus far on the plow & thanks to Larry Duda for help locating old parts & mfg replacements when old ones are gone!

Again, if anyone needs 3/4" pins...call your JD parts man. It is too bad that one of JD parts book calls the pin obsolete, yet it's available in another of their books. They need to look into that. Might help their sale of pins!

Here's our friend,  Larry Duda's show plow:

Next is our plow in 1965. It had just been replaced by that red thing behind it...I'm in the red thing...brother is on the JD110.

Now, fast-forward 50 yrs  & here's the 5 btm I found in WI:

Now...that hard-to-find famous pin. It attaches the plow drawbar to the plow frame. Plus, several other applicatons on the plow for similar pins.

and...also a big thanks to our long-long-long time internet friend, Rober Greif for supplying thoughts, rememberances, encouragement, and an entire Oliver sales brochure for the 4441 plow! Thanks Bob!

Ron,

Your quite welcome and thanks so much for the follow up and history.

I'm more than glad to help out anyone when I am able. 

I'm just glad my knowledge of old and obsolete JD equipment and hardware was useful in this situation :-) 

Also have to give kudos to JD parts site for the ability to enter dimensions of various bolts springs pins etc and come up with valid part numbers and descriptions.

In fact, after thinking about it I was able to come up with another application where a similar pin was used. Not sure on diameter it may have actually been larger than 3/4" but was used to hold the pipe tongue in on a JD RWA disk.

Looking forward to the finished project and to see it being pulled in the field.

Thanks for restoring and keeping these unique pieces of history in top working order.

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There were various numbers with the rectangular backbone. This is a 565 and a lot of them had the same option as the pipe versions being able to add or remove 1 or 2 bottom extensions by unbolting the rear tail wheel and adding or subtracting the bottoms you needed. It was actually a really neat idea as you could custom match a plow to your conditions and if you got a different tractor you did not have to trade plows too.

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Von

I'm no Oliver expert. I think Bobby Greif should chime in if he's got an operable computer....he knows Oliver stuff. But, I think the Oliver "pipe" plows (Models 4440, then later 4441) were earlier than the plow you show. I don't believe the pipe plows were even offered in a semi-mount condition. There wasn't much with 3pt back then (early '60s & before) that had the hp to pull 4+ bottoms......here. That 1206 pictured was the 1st 3pt hitch tractor we owned....1965. So, I'm not sure Oliver made conventional frame plows in the 4+ bottom configurations before the mid-60s. Of course, the pipe was not really pipe, it was steel tubing, open on the ends.

Again, only surmising. Here's brochure for the 4441 model, which is what Larry Duda & I have. The model before was the 4440 & from 100' away looked about the same. Slight differences in lift-cylinder bracketing etc. If one wants to enlarge these photos to read them more easily or examine the photo quicker, then just go to my album & click on ORIGINAL size. You'll be able to count the threads on the bolts...almost. Here:

http://imageevent.com/lukowphotos/oliverplows?n=0

Last photo is original order our Dad signed for the 6 btm we had. Sadly I'll note....I paid more for that rusted 50+ yr old plow from WI than the brand new one from the factory cost in 1960.

Thanks!

I should've kept the pins out of the plow that "Little 51" is hooked to w/the 110. Then I wouldn't have needed more pins. I believe pins are kept on the WEST side of the Quonset however.

OK....in fact, we should've kept the entire plow 51 is hooked to & then I wouldn't have had to pay more for a rusted 55 yr old plow then we paid for the brand new one when it was brand new!