Plows

If both plows were designed for animal power the length of the beam should not make much difference. The more important thing would be to maintain a straight line of draft from the point of pull at the yoke to the center of resistance of the plow. If it is a single bottom plow that will probably be on the moldboard about 1/2 the plow depth up from the bottom of the plow and about 1/4 of the distance in from the landside. You should have a vertical adjustment at the hitch point of the plow that allows you to adjust this line of draft.

A 16 inch cut is pretty big for a single bottom plow, 12-inch and 14-inch were more common. If you have not plowed with this team before you might want to take some time to make sure they are well conditioned to do that level of work. Take a look at this thread:
http://www.draftanimalpower.com/showthread.php?t=2969
Other things like sharp cutting edges of the plow share and other parts will have a big impact on how well the plow works and how difficult it is to pull.

If the team is not prepared to pull that load you can expect problems when you get to the field.

The landside is the part of the plow that runs along the side of the furrow as the moldboard turns the soil over. The share is the angled cutting surface that cuts the soil at the bottom of the moldboard. The share probably wings out past the moldboard a few inches. Measure at a right angle from landside to the point of the wing of the share. That is the width that the plow cuts as it moves forward. Usually, moldboard plows are designed to run at a depth one-half of the width of cut, so a 12 inch plow would run at 6 inches. You can run shallower though and it will be easier on your team, it just won’t look as nice. But, who cares as long at you get the weed control and seedbed you want?

If you are doing some restoration on these plows remember that worn shares and cutting parts will make the plow pull harder and generally perform poorly. About 50% of the power needed to pull the plow is used in cutting the furrow slice loose. The other 50% is used to lift and turn the furrow. So keep the cutting edges near their original shape. Worn shares not only pull harder, they are much more likely to contribute to the formation of a plow pan, a layer of compacted soil that can restrict water infiltration and root growth right below the depth of plowing. You might want to buff the rust off the landside, share and moldboard before plowing as well.

this weekend we will start our plowing efforts again, I have an idea our accomplishments will hardly look any better 😀
so for now we just plan to turn some soil ……and have fun

@PhilG 26999 wrote:

I finally found a plow, it has a lot of holes in the beam and I was wondering if they were for bolting on a wheel of some kind ? or if I need a wheel? it is a 16″ ih p&o, which seams a little big for my single horse, but I have been reading about the “skim” plowing which would be plenty deep for what I need- any advice on what would be different for hitching up for this? any advice on this would be greatly appreciated, Thanks

phil,
your plow looks like a trip plow or a roll over. it might have a dog behind the share. you trip it with your toe and the ploe flips over to the other side making it a two way walking plow. if thats true, then you may be measuring it wrong, and it could be a smaller plow easier on your single horse. the advantage of the plow was you could plow two ways. the disadvantage was the moldboard doesn’t turn soil as well as a conventional plow. more good news is there is a pile of points twenty feet deep that fit your plow out in ohio, if your plow is what i think it is.
mitch

That looks like what we call a sidehill plow around here. Lets you plow all the furrows downhill on a contour even if you have to pass back and forth on the hillside. Like Mitch said, there should be a latch you can release with your toe that frees the plow to swing under the handles and set up a “mirror image” on the other side. The latch is missing obviously, replaced by that wire. In the picture it doesn’t look like the point will find its level the way the share is held by the wire.

I’m far from an expert, but for what it’s worth you could try this. Before you use the plow on a loose hitch with the horses, pull it with a forecart or a tractor to see how it behaves. Hitch it low and very short to begin with. It should enter the earth pretty much on its own and plow shallow. Get it so it will do that and then see if it needs a depth wheel by playing with the height and length of the hitch.