Hello frens, so no photos this time, but I have 2 quick questions:

when using the discs i know no right turns, but can i still steer a bit to the right to sort of keep straight ahead because the dozer sometimes wants to go slightly to the side i think because of the tilt of the land and also sometimes i dont turn exactly where i need to so it sort of wants to advance in the direction of previously tilled soil instead of straight.

What im doing is to lower the speed and pull the right hand lever and sort of feather the right brake pedal and it steers slowly using "little bumps"

Second question: there are random screeching sounds you can hear from time to time like every minute or so but not always, not too loud, i thought it was bare metal parts rubbing against metal but, could just be parts of the soil that are more compacted and the discs are making the noise when cutting thru the hard soil?,

There are no rocks under the soil here fortunatley, its just clay, sand, silt and roots from old grass and parthenium, weeds, etc, this ranch is located on both sides of a dry river (it used to be running 50 years ago or so but now it is dry most of the year) so there is a lot of silt and clay deposits on the soil, its a river valley i think its called in english (sounds fancy but its practically turning into a desert because it hasnt rained enough in the last 7 years or so and most of the rain just runs off) the soil is nice and soft except for the crust on the surface.

It is very intersting that on this type of soils the surface is a crust that is some sort of adobe brick thing, the silt and sand prevent the clay from cracking and the cows walking sort of knead the soil surface when its wet then with the sun at 100 degrees F or more for several weeks the soil bakes into a huge adobe and most of the water runs off down to the creek and a couple gulleys and some stock tanks that were made a couple decades ago,

it still remains a mistery how the spiny shrub managed to invade the land even with this so called crust i am telling you about. One theory I read somewhere that i think its a bit hard to believe but apparently its that woodpeckers, rabbits and deer like to eat at the berries from these shrubs and poop seeds everywhere and the poop serves as potting soil then the seeds germinate and the roots penetrate the crust and establish there. These mesquite trees are "attacked" by two types of maggots every year: the cabbage looper and the mesquite cutworms, especially the old trees, the woodpeckers love eating the maggots and poop everywhere around the trees and it is true that there are shrubs popping out of the ground around the trees where the damn birds poop, however the whole property is invaded with spiny shrub, some of them are 2 meters tall so I am guessing its not just woodpeckers.

Thanks for the info guys! Ill upload more photos when I have something interesting to share here

so finally now after 7 years water will infiltrate into the soil thanks to the dozer and the discs!

Gradual right adjustment is okay, not HARD right turns unless the disk is closed. The noise you hear occasionally could be the scrapers rubbing on the blade from time to time. Me? I adjust scrapers to eliminate that dreaded sound. You should consider purchasing a chisel to break the soil up and uproot some of the brush first.
***you should not have to bump brakes, but then again, your disk is small and not a lot of load against tractor...Your D4D is more suited for 8-12' of disk.***
Keep us posted! JM

Look the bearing housing over very carefully there may have been grease fitting on them. Not all discs have greaseable bearing but some do. And they get broke and forgotten.

Disc,
You can make some adjustments to the drawbar and tongue in the disc so the disc runs with the left side of the tractor or to the right as you choose.
As JM stated, you can make adjustments to keep your machine in a straight line.
The noises, if the scrapers are adjusted properly, I would be watching for loose axle shaft/bearings or bent blades. Blades can be bent by striking stumps, rocks, concrete, etc and sometimes they just break from hitting solid objects.

Grease is cheap insurance.

Once you have the ground broken, you can then make additional passes across the field at another angle. You may find you want to reduce the "kink" in the disc so the distance is less between the frames of the front and rear gang. It will pull easier and tends to break up the big chunks (clods) much better. Many of us pulled a piece or Railroad track or heavy timbers, etc behind the disc to help flatten the ground and break the big clods.

As you gain experience with the machine, you will find you spend nearly as much time watching the disc as you do where the machine is headed.
Time in the seat will make you more aware of what is happening as you operate the machine. Much like driving your pickup, you know when a tire is going flat by sound and feel.

CTS

It looks like your disc is doing a great job where the land is clear. What is your annual rainfall?

Swinging Drawbar -
I can not recall ever using a free swinging drawbar, always pinned in position. Open Field Work, Orchard, tracklayer or wheel engine.
Working orchards, one can not allow the chance for the disc to run out of line, doing so will create a real threat to machine and tree.
Offsetting the drawbar, yes. Offsetting the tongue, yes.
CTS

ctsnowfighter wrote:

Swinging Drawbar -
I can not recall ever using a free swinging drawbar, always pinned in position. Open Field Work, Orchard, tracklayer or wheel engine.
Working orchards, one can not allow the chance for the disc to run out of line, doing so will create a real threat to machine and tree.
Offsetting the drawbar, yes. Offsetting the tongue, yes.
CTS

I grew up with the drawbar always pinned.  Just open field crops.  I got traded out to a landlord by my dad to work 75 acres of walnuts to keep a pasture lease going 50 years ago. Found it was not that bad of work. Twenty years ago I got to doing 150 to 300 acres a year. A mentor in this convinced me to unpin the drawbar . I hit no more trees than I had before. I helped a lot on uphill turns on the real steep stuff. But I did have hydraulic rams on all my discs so I could make the right hand turns if needed. A lot of little tricks to working that steep and loose ground, such as pulling the opposite steering clutch to cross steer going down hill and not needing to use the brake. As well as turning into the tree to throw the disc the opposite way in the short turn to save from barking a tree. Well walnuts not making any money here for 3 years, it's been 2 years with out discing any walnuts.


So for the questions asked about things in this thread, ether way pinned or unpinned works.  Pluses to both ways as well as minuses. Just which ever way you want to do things.
 

He is not working in an orchard, so let the drawbar swing, it is much easier on both machine and operator. In Australia most tractors have rollers on the drawbars to allow them to swing freely, it is the best way to pull in open fields.

Wombat