Independent rear cultivators not digging in.

[matthewtdell@gmail.com]

Hello,

New cub owner and first time poster. Thanks for your patience in advance. Still learning all the right vocabulary for parts and such.

Just bought a 1978 long stripe cub in great condition, and I have some questions about my independent rear hitch.

Rear lift was disconnected from hydraulics, and now lifts manually with a long handle and a button on top.

I'm having trouble getting those rear cultivators to dig in the way I want - and it takes a lot of elbow grease on the long handle, multiple passes, and the *just-so* conditions shortly after a rain to get good results. Once the handle is in position and I'm cultivating, I have to fight with the handle again at the end of the row to get them back up.

I'm not trying to go that deep - just 1-2" for some weeds that got ahead of me. But often these scratchers are just scraping the surface, not getting under much of anything. Sometimes one side bites in nicely and fractures the top 1-2", the other side scratches around on top. Seems to vary with soil hardness.

Wondering where to start - new sweeps? Different sweeps? Different cultivators?

And for the handle - adjust the spring tension on the lift handle? Adjustments to the rear hitch?

Thanks again

[tmays]

Might help to have good points. The rears are usually used to clear the middle out and remove the tracks. Personally, id remove what you have and put a good size sweep behind each tire. The shank will need to be adjusted to give results you want.

[Clemsonfor]

Why not get the bar that attaches the lift to the rears so that it will use downward force on them. Those king scratchers I don't think will go as deep in hard soils like sweeps would. I would trade those out for some shanks and sweeps and keep the point pointed more downward so that the Foward movement digs them in.

[SamsFarm]

A lot depends on your field conditions.

On some good loose soil, they should work fine.

But they probably will not work up last years seed bed that is all overgrown this year!

I see your tread setting is real wide, what is it that your cultivating?

[Matt Kirsch]

As stated those are not really "rear cultivators." They're basically "tire mark erasers."

The front gangs are what do the primary loosening of soil. Are you lowering the front gangs?

[Glen]

Hi,
If you don't want to use the hand lever, you could remove it, and buy the regular rear lift for use with the Touch Control.

Below is the Cub 144 Cultivator operator's manual, the rear lift for use with the Touch Control is shown on page 13.
I don't know which cultivator you have, but the manual shows the rear lift.

http://farmallcub.com/rudi_cub/www.clea ... index.html

[Waif]

Cultivators don't like hard ground or dense weed root mats. And don't really like healthy weeds. They're not for breaking ground or decent thatch.
More for breaking up clods on well tilled or plowed (maybe even twice plowed) high friability soil.

A harrow run prior might help. I pull a spring toothed cultivator with harrow teeth on the rear of it and it still doesn't do much in a single pass. Or several passes on dense stuff.
I'd add weight; but like adding weight to your rear bars , if the spring teeth did dig in a couple inches I'd need a tall rear deflector and umbrella on the Cub when the springs began to fling due to the resistance of what is being pulled through Vs. loose soil.

Can't see what yours is doing. Dull tips can ride on root/weed clots and by having both greater weight distribution and lubrication...Just slide on the surface. With taller stuff I've worn out by going over and over and over it , I'm getting off to clean out all the clotted grass weed and thatch. Bushels and bushels of it one day.. Otherwise the teeth just ride along on top of the loose debris.

The time to cultivate is before you need to cultivate. So says the guy who gets so far behind ; a plow or single row buster might be more effective. L.o.l..

[Ole Timey Farmin]

I agree with what others have said, I'd swap out those king cultivators and get sweeps instead. They make em from 4-16 inches. Also you mentioned it's hard lifting them? That hand lift should allow even a woman to lift 500+ pound implement if it's adjusted right. I no longer have any cubs but the one I had planter and cultivators on did n it would lift rear cultivators with 2 fingers n a simple push. Try cleaning it, oil it n then adjust it n it should lift easily.

[matthewtdell@gmail.com]

A lot depends on your field conditions.

On some good loose soil, they should work fine.

But they probably will not work up last years seed bed that is all overgrown this year!

I see your tread setting is real wide, what is it that your cultivating?

Yeah that good loose soil doesn't last long for us! We transplant with a tractor pulled transplanter so compact the aisles straight away. After a couple good rains we can say goodbye to loose soil. But maybe a more aggressive aisle cultivation schedule is part of the solution?

We're cultivating field grown cut-flowers on 4' bed tops.

[matthewtdell@gmail.com]

As stated those are not really "rear cultivators." They're basically "tire mark erasers."

The front gangs are what do the primary loosening of soil. Are you lowering the front gangs?

I gotcha, that makes sense. I use the front gangs very little - only for the last cultivation passes on some two row crops. On the belly mount I mostly use a 4 row basket weeder and a torsion weeder.

[matthewtdell@gmail.com]

Hi,
If you don't want to use the hand lever, you could remove it, and buy the regular rear lift for use with the Touch Control.

Below is the Cub 144 Cultivator operator's manual, the rear lift for use with the Touch Control is shown on page 13.
I don't know which cultivator you have, but the manual shows the rear lift.

http://farmallcub.com/rudi_cub/www.clea ... index.html

I like the independent rear cultivators because sometimes I cultivate perennial crops with sod aisles and don't want to tear it up with the rear cultivators.

[matthewtdell@gmail.com]

Cultivators don't like hard ground or dense weed root mats. And don't really like healthy weeds. They're not for breaking ground or decent thatch.
More for breaking up clods on well tilled or plowed (maybe even twice plowed) high friability soil.

A harrow run prior might help. I pull a spring toothed cultivator with harrow teeth on the rear of it and it still doesn't do much in a single pass. Or several passes on dense stuff.
I'd add weight; but like adding weight to your rear bars , if the spring teeth did dig in a couple inches I'd need a tall rear deflector and umbrella on the Cub when the springs began to fling due to the resistance of what is being pulled through Vs. loose soil.

Can't see what yours is doing. Dull tips can ride on root/weed clots and by having both greater weight distribution and lubrication...Just slide on the surface. With taller stuff I've worn out by going over and over and over it , I'm getting off to clean out all the clotted grass weed and thatch. Bushels and bushels of it one day.. Otherwise the teeth just ride along on top of the loose debris.

The time to cultivate is before you need to cultivate. So says the guy who gets so far behind ; a plow or single row buster might be more effective. L.o.l..

Well last year was our first year with the machine, and we improved over the course of the season. But I hear ya on the timely cultivation practice - it's a hard habit to get into when you're also planting and harvesting and doing a million other things at the same time of year.

[matthewtdell@gmail.com]

I agree with what others have said, I'd swap out those king cultivators and get sweeps instead. They make em from 4-16 inches. Also you mentioned it's hard lifting them? That hand lift should allow even a woman to lift 500+ pound implement if it's adjusted right. I no longer have any cubs but the one I had planter and cultivators on did n it would lift rear cultivators with 2 fingers n a simple push. Try cleaning it, oil it n then adjust it n it should lift easily.

I'm thinking I'll go sweeps, thanks for the *tips*.

You're right, whatever's on the rear lifts easily - my problem I think was that, when I got to the end of a pass, any cultivator tips that didn't bite in were squeezing against the ground and that upward pressure made releasing the handle bar a real tough maneuver - no matter the gender of the tractor operator.

[matthewtdell@gmail.com]

Might help to have good points. The rears are usually used to clear the middle out and remove the tracks. Personally, id remove what you have and put a good size sweep behind each tire. The shank will need to be adjusted to give results you want.

Thanks, I think you and others are right about the sweeps. These scratchers are just the wrong tool for when aisle weeds get ahead of me.

[SamsFarm]

Sounds like you might wait too long after planting to get cultivating. Or you are on the ground when it is too damp / wet!

I use a 4000# tractor for most tillage and planting, then cultivate with the Cub.

But then again, I have sweeps on my cultivators.

I believe those spring shanks would do the job (maybe even better than my sweeps) in my heavy clay soil, but I dont like them because they take up too much room behind the tractor vs the sweeps!

I stay out of the fields when it is damp, unless it is harvest time, or in the extreme instance where it is raining all season (rare) after planting.