Tractor Disc

Just wondering how you determine the proper size disc for the particular tractor you'll be pulling it with. I have a very old disc at my house that I'm wanting to use to plant food plots this summer and next fall with and I hooked to it last weekend and tried it out in the small garden at my house and it done a great job in my opinion but did get kinda bogged down after about 2 passes which is understandable since the ground was pretty soft. The tractor I have is a 2016 Kubota MX4800 48hp and the disc measures exactly 8ft wide. I asked my dad if this tractor was capable of pulling this disc and he told me that I did not need to try it because the disc was too big for the tractor and I would break something using it. Today I had somebody else at my house and we were talking about the tractor and they told me it would be fine to use the tractor with that disc as long as I didn't cut too deep and really bog it down.

Can you adjust the angle of the disc? If so you can just straighten them up some to make it easier to pull.

I would think it's how much your rear lift arms can lift. I would use that as my indication and get an idea of how heavy the disc is. The heavier the disc the better it works right? Put it in 4 wheel drive and go. I have a 7 foot brown manufacturing disc that is 1100ish pounds and I pull it with a JD 5045 no problem.

Yes I can adjust the angle of the front and back set of disc by cranking the hand crank that each set has. From what I saw after trying it out in the garden if I'm just planting food plots with it about 2 passes and I should be good because my yard is hard packed clay but where I hunt is kinda soft. After the third pass testing it it was cutting really deep which I don't think is needed for just a food plot. The particular tractor that I have is not 4 wheel drive. When I lift the disc off of the ground it does seem to struggle a little bit but the set that I have is pretty heavy.

That size tractor would do the best with a 6 foot disc.

My Kubota manual lists the sizes and weights of implements recommended for my model. If you have the manual you might could look it up. It might save you some $$ later.

8' is pretty dang big for 48hp.

That's kinda what I was thinking because to me it just looks to big for it hooked up to it. The original tractor that it was bought for was a 60hp Massey Ferguson which had no problem pulling it but unfortunately my dad had to sell it when he got his last divorce and about a year ago he went and got the 48hp Kubota. About how much would a good 6ft disc cost new?

I haven't priced one in a long time, and it depends on which one you get, but I would guess somewhere between one and two thousand. Typically the higher the price the heavier built the disk is, which is a good thing.

If its still in good shape just take a disc off the outside of each row and try that. Much cheaper than buying another one. 6 ft usually have 20 disc. 8 ft usually have 24.

The disc sounds like it's too big for your tractor, but that doesn't mean you can't make it work. The one thing that would make it unusable is if the lift won't pick it up, but it sounds like you have already figured out that it will, so you oughta be able to use it.

Several ideas have already been mentioned, but there are a couple other I've used in the past. One is to just gear the tractor down, slow it up, and don't let the disc all the way down. You can afford to go slower since you are making such a wide pass each trip. As long as you don't put the tractor in a strain you won't be damaging anything.

If it is a 4 gang style disc, another possibility is to just remove the 2 rear gangs. That will cut the weight almost in half and the disc will still work fine. I've used one in this manner when I had a damaged gang and the only drawback is that it takes more passes.

Planting deer plots ain't production agriculture where you need every advantage to make a profit. Unless you have more money than time, you are better off to adapt what you have than to spend a lot of money to get the ideal.

I have a little 26 HP Yanmar at my house that I use in my garden. I had a 2 bottom breaking plow at the farm that will strain a 50 HP tractor, but I brought it home and use it to break my garden. I have to put the tractor in first gear and poke along, but I still can break the garden in less than an hour with no strain on the tractor. It would be crazy for me to go spend $1000 on a single bottom plow that would fit the tractor but only get used for an hour each year. There is nothing wrong with redneck engineering.

Or you could trade it for a smaller disc. I have an old Atlas 6' disc that I don't need anymore. Send me a pm if you think you might wanna trade.

Good luck!

I still haven't bought a 3 point disk but I pull several sets of hydraulic disk all the time.

Here's kinda how pulling disks works.... If the tractor will pick up the disk then you are left with the safety aspect, so if you are on relatively flat ground probably should be good to go. 1) You can put weights on the front to help with the load on the rear hitch. 2) And/or you should load ( put in calcium chloride or other mix) the tires including the front tires. 3) If it has R4 tires on it swap for some R1 Ag tires to get more traction if that is a problem.

If it won't pull it then it won't pull it. If it bogs down all the time I guess you'll figure out how tough your model tractor is. Watch the temperature gauge and roll coal till something breaks. It might never break. In this particular case the disk is likely too big for the tractor but I let the machine tell me that. All disk are not created equal. If traction ain't the problem watch the gauges and they'll let you know.

Then if it won't pull it you can either buy a smaller disk or do like I would do.... go get an older tractor for a few thousand that will pull it.

6-1/2 ' disc $1400.00

I appreciate the trade offer but I guess I will just keep it since it's really not mine to be selling or trading since it's my dad's. I'm glad you mentioned removing the 2 rear gangs off of the disc because I was studying on it again the other day and was wondering how well it would work if I did that and I really need to remove them anyway because where they bolt up to the hand crank where you can adjust the angle are really worn pretty bad and have a lot of play in them. Another thing I noticed is that this particular disc looks it's a 2 piece disc because on the frame right in between the front set and rear set of disc is that it appears to only be held together with 2 pretty big bolts and looks like if I took those 2 bolts out the whole back of the disc would just come off and then I could just use the front set.

That is definitely too much disc for your tractor. Spend the money and buy you a smaller disc or you will be spending a lot more to repair your tractor

Rule of thumb is about 6 to 7 horsepower per foot of double gang disc. Even then disc weights are all over the place based on their construction.

If the 3 point hitch can lift it and you don't bog down completely when you hit the ground with it, then it's fine. You definitely need front weights or a loader and filled tires for safety purposes. Just don't sink it to the hilt and be easy letting it down and you'll be fine. Keep an eye on your temperature gauge, too.

You could go run around trying to buy another disc, trade, etc, but you've got a tool that works just fine and won't break your tractor as long as you are careful. Only issue I see with an 8 foot disc is transporting it as that takes up an entire lane. Most folks these days complain that discs aren't built HD enough and it's generally true. Sounds like you got one of them old school, built-right discs from yesteryear.

If you are able to break it down in half like you think that may help some.

I used to occasionally pull a 10' heavy disc with a 53 hp mf 165. It would handle it, no problem lifting it, but it was scary going up hills. The front wheels would come off the ground, it's hard to steer a tractor with the front wheels in the air. Bought a 6' 8" tuffline that I now pull with a mf 2615 that has 42 pto hp