Nice ripper Mr. Skinner, and an equally nice crumbler to go behind it. Your D8 probably runs away with that unit. A long time ago, I met a guy that drove a D8 with a mounted ripper for a farmer friend of mine. His did not have a stereo; said he about went insane driving it 4 months. We had another buddy here that drove the same D7F since it was new, open ROPS; it was his machine to operate and nobody else. One day he "lost it" and they found him in the middle of the field on his knees sobbing and praying. Poor guy had to be put away for some time. Just goes to tell you, that doing the same routine too much can make one go off the deep end! Hope the grandson or whoever was driving could keep himself amused, as it can be somewhat slow and boring.
Deas: There used to be several old school blacksmith/machine shops nearby that specialized in plowshares, etc. As 17AFarmer said, the replacement parts cost more than what the plow is worth. Perhaps the reason why so many get used up and parked. I might experiment and re-purpose some used grader blade edges and extend the shares on a bottom or two. If I had to use plows regularly, I would do things properly, instead of a patch job. Plows don't get used around here much by anyone. I made a mess using the CASE 600 disk plow at my mother's downtown farm, and some criticized my lack of talent. They now noticed that there is hardly any "Johnson grass" anymore. That thing flipped up that nasty weed and exposed the roots, where they dried up and died. (A CASE 800 is a whopper; see them pulled with D7s and D8s still)
Neil should be glad he doesn't own a Marvin 10 bottom plow! Talk about a pain to move! See them offered for sale via auctions here, same deal; hardly anyone uses plows and its so massive to work with.
8C 361: I usually break the tip before wearing one out. If I am lucky, I can reverse it and get some miles out of what is left. JM

Dave Tiura in Modesto was the last really GOOD blacksmith left, him and his dad George were artists with a piece of steel, they used to do Stockton Gang Plowshares, regular shares, ripper points which we used old CAT springs for the steel and pounded them out to a nice point with some suck, they also did a lot of bean knives which when done were hard faced with Tube Borium with the cutting edge ground smoth and sharp you could damm near shave with them!! I had heard several years ago there was still a shop in Woodland don’t know if it is still there or not. I had the pleasure of being around several Blacksmiths in my time all good people that never overcharged and you always got your moneys worth a class of people we will never see again. 17afarmer

Thanks Mr. Juiceman yes that’s a grandson operating the D8. That job is finished and the 8 is back resting in the barn and let’s just say he is happy about that. As far as a stereo I never turn them on. It’s just me and the voices in head 🤣 I enjoy the alone time.    Skinner 

17A: I have heard of Tiura; Yolo Blacksmith might be who you were referring to from Woodland area. I will ask around, perhaps Dixon "Y" Machine is still around for suggestions.
Skinner: Voices? I think our friend on the D7F heard, except TOO MANY in his poor head!
Stay cool everyone, its gonna be another toasty day today. If this keeps up, I might have to take up drinking beer. JM

Hi, Folks.
A contractor for whom I worked back in the late 'sixties' used to weld old Cat D7 equalizer spring sections to the front face of his worn D8H ripper boots to 'rebuild' them - worked pretty well too.

Just his 0.02.

    The two jobs where they went through drivers and when they were done they would never set foot on the caterpillar again were deep ripping and the furrow out (listing) drivers.

Here is a Marvin plow brochure that I found

Thank you CR; Several Marvin's still out in the berry vines in this part of the country next to rice fields. Massive! JM

juiceman wrote:

JustThank you CR; Several MJarvin 's still out in the berry vines in this part of the country next to rice fields. Massive! JM

Just curious JM- -what types of berries?  I sure wish  there were fewer wine grapes and more berries and fruit trees.

Daron
 

Two different years in the late 70s we rented 10 bottom 16 inch Marvin Plows, the first year they sent a D6C 17R which had been pumped up and the second year with a D7G 9V, both fast easy handling outfits got ALOT done and I thought for a big plow it handled very nice and way more compact than three 5 bottom Stockton Gang Plows hooked together being pulled with a Bridle. 17afarmer
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I have only personally seen the Marvin Plow on the side of rice fields or at Auctions near Rice production, Mulrooney had one at their Ripon auction about 25 years ago, here is on at a former Rice field in Escalon.