Double furrow mounted tine plough at Rannoch
Photographs courtesy of Abbie Gordon, Banchory.
Tine ploughing in Rannoch Forest. The tractor appears to be a Fiat 100 (possibly a Fiat Allis combination as the Italian and American companies combined to produce tractors about 1972) registration No GFS192T.
The ‘mounted’ tine plough (called mounted because it was fixed directly on to the back chassis of the crawler tractor by a series of plates and heavy bolts) is a double furrow model. The beam of the plough is hinged at the point of junction with the tractor and the action of the hydraulic ram pulls the beam and head of the plough upwards and out of the ground. The ram was double acting and could also push the head downwards thus plough deeper. Sometimes this facility was handy to lift the rear of the tractor upwards and clear of the ground.
Note how the plough head is held on to the beam by 6 bolts (1 inch diam by 10 or12 inches long) and 3 plates. These bolts suffered from the extreme shocks of the plough hitting rocks and boulders and as they were mild steel, stretched and loosened fairly often. Latterly the bolts were often made of harder steel and although much more expensive, lasted longer.
Not seen clearly in this photograph but the beam near the hinge end has a wing on either side to which long bolts and heavy springs were fixed on to the tractor frame plate to prevent the whole assembly swinging sideways and hold it on the centreline of the tractor. The heavy springs allowed the plough to move sideways a fair bit if the head came into contact with a rock or boulder. The coulter disc arm is also spring loaded.
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Groups: Forestry Areas, Forestry in Action, Tractors Ploughs and Drainage Machines