Thread: Plow Parts FWJ

Not long after that thread was originally posted, Cresent Forge ran on to hard times. The owner tried to keep up the business, but for reasons I'll never quite understand, even with a good volume of business, he just couldn't keep the doors open any longer. Last I heard, the business, lock, stock, and barrel, was for sale.

I managed to piece together all the parts to build a "new" plow for myself a few years ago. Under normal conditions, I expect 150 to 175 acres worth of good service before any wear parts will need to be replaced. I've salted away a second change of wear parts just in case I live long enough to wear out the first set. Plows from "back in the day" are getting more and more difficult to find in good condition.

Plowing is returning to vogue on farms again. Todays "BT" corn leaves huge amounts of residue. Stalks build up over a few years and cause problems for even the best no-till planters. Chisel plows have a hard time "digesting" the surface trash. So many farmers who're doing "corn on corn" (growing corn on the same field(s) in successive years) are being forced to bury some of the residue. Plows are the best answer. The new breed of plows are EXPENSIVE and they are GIANTS. Those of us that just plow an occasional garden won't have much use for a 12 bottom, 20" semi-mounted plow.

Kverneland markets a few smaller plows, but they are REALLY expensive. Many of their designs are intended for specialty markets such as tournament match plowing. Not uncommon to see these plows selling in excess of $5000 for a USED 3-bottom model.

That leaves us to find older 2 or 3 bottom plows and "restore" them. (Or, buy the newer "generic" plows such as Lienbach, ect)

I've got an extensive collection of plow data, brochures, sales literature, parts manuals, and such. Most of what I've got is on plows built from the mid 50's through the early 80's. If anyone decides to re-hab a plow, let me know. I'll be more'n happy to help identify and locate parts where I can.

In case you can't already tell, I LOVE flipping dirt with a plow. Gotta keep those old plows on the job.

Originally Posted by Farmwithjunk

In case you can't already tell, I LOVE flipping dirt with a plow. Gotta keep those old plows on the job.

I know you like "flipping the dirt," and I would like to see you & the Massey in action.

Farmwithjunk, I don't know if you see this in your area.... But in my my area I've seen people take good looking 2 & 3 bottom plows, and weld them to a metal 4x4 tubing and put a mailbox on top the plows.

Do you have a link where you can get plow parts ??

Originally Posted by JohnDeere4300_KY

I know you like "flipping the dirt," and I would like to see you & the Massey in action.

Farmwithjunk, I don't know if you see this in your area.... But in my my area I've seen people take good looking 2 & 3 bottom plows, and weld them to a metal 4x4 tubing and put a mailbox on top the plows.

Do you have a link where you can get plow parts ??

The closest I'll get to plowing for a while is plowing SNOW

And I'm hoping that doesn't happen.


The postmaster at our local office, in conjunction with the local county highway supt. are trying to enforce restrictions on what we can or cannot use as a mailbox base. They want break-a-way mailboxes in the event someone runs off the road and hits them. Otherwise, I'd have a stack of anvils around mine. (It's been run over repeatedly, ironicly 3 times by county road dept trucks....)

At some point, I'll get together all the possibilities for plow parts and post links. When I did my last one, a Massey Ferguson model #66, I bought parts from AGCO/MF, Shoup, Valu-Bilt, Agri-Supply, TSC, and used 2 "donor plows". No one place seems to have everything in stock anymore. Many plows use retro-fit parts with numbers not listed in original parts manuals. Older Deere plows as a for instance, often use landslides that aren't anything like originals. They require plenty of trial and error fittings. With most Massey and Ford plows, parts are somewhat interchangable from model to model. Massey uses many of the same parts on 12", 14" and 16" bottoms. I keep a pile of 16" MF shares in my own personal stock. They can be shortened for 12" and 14" bottoms. All their "light draft" models use the same 3 bolt pattern on shares.

Shares aren't hard to find. Shins are fairly common. Moldboards are getting hard to find for some models/brands. Landslides are downright impossible to locate for many plows. Coverboards, tailwheel parts, and coulter parts have been scarce for years now. And that's on popular models. Some of the more obscure plows are even more difficult to re-fit.

When I rebuilt my #66 MF plow (3 years ago????) I spent over $700 on parts. That doesn't include the value of the plow itself. Steel prices were right in the midst of the run-away price increases at that time. No telling what it would cost now. And shipping can eat you alive. All those bulky, odd shaped heavy pieces won't exactly fit in the mailbox.

Morning, if a fellow were thinking of finding a small plow, used of course, old, sitting in a yard and hasn't seen a days worth of work in years, what do you think it would be worth at fair market value.

Doug