Double furrow mounted tine plough at Rannoch
Photographs courtesy of Abbie Gordon, Banchory.
The business end of a ‘mounted’ tine plough at Rannoch Forest. It is called mounted because it was fixed directly on to the back chassis of the crawler tractor by a series of plates and heavy bolts. The beam of the plough was hinged at the point of junction and the action of the hydraulic ram pulled 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 the replaceable tine sock in front of the mould board. The sock was fixed on to the metal toe by means of a short pin driven in by hammer. The sock worked at a level below the mould boards with the purpose of breaking up the compacted soil and hard impenetrable iron pan if there was one. In later years the plough heads were known by a code eg D45/T60 which describes the head in this case being a Double furrow 45cms deep with a Tine which reached up to 60cms deep. This is the same plough as shown behind the tractor in photograph No 60.
Note how the plough head was 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 in this photograph but the beam near the hinge end had 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 was also spring loaded.
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Groups: Forestry Areas, Tractors Ploughs and Drainage Machines