Why a plough won't go into the ground, and how to set it up

Why a plough won't go into the ground#

First check the plough on level ground: is the frame level, and do all the share points touch? Then find the sign in the table: the cause lies in the top link, the shares, the gauge wheel or the soil:

Under the Uman National University of Horticulture guide (2020), the chisel-shaped share ensures the plough penetrates: its long nose is bent 10 mm down and to the left.

If the plough goes in, then comes out#

A frame tilted back brings the plough up out of the ground (Kirovohrad National Technical University guide, 2015). A top link set too long does the same: the front body runs out and the heel marks the furrow bottom (South West Farmer). With a slotted top link, Kverneland advises the fixed hole in very hard ground.

The parts you will adjust#

A plough undercuts the slice, crumbles and turns it, and drops it into the furrow. Everything below is about a plough on a tractor's three-point linkage; walk-behind tractor ploughs hitch differently. The tractor's hydraulic cylinder lifts the plough, and the plough lowers into work under its own weight (Kirovohrad guide, 2015).

The top link is two screws, one with a left-hand thread and one with a right-hand thread, joined by a hollow nut: turn the nut and the link gets longer or shorter. The lift rods are built the same way (Kirovohrad guide, 2015). The parts of the body are described after the Uman guide (2020).

Before you go out: tyres, lift rods, shares#

Tyre pressures on the same axle must match, above all with a reversible plough: in the furrow a softer tyre makes the tractor sit lower on one side (Kverneland, 2023). Set the left and right lift rods to the same length first. Take the rear wheel track and the skimmer depth from your plough's manual: different makers and sizes give different figures. Then check the plough against the Uman guide's limits (2020):

Checking a new or rebuilt plough#

After assembly, check how the bodies sit on the frame. Mark out the ground: lines lengthwise spaced at the body's working width (35 cm, for example) and lines across spaced at the distance between bodies (70 cm, for example). Stand the plough so the share points sit on the crossings. Where one does not, its position is corrected with shims, washers or straightening (Uman guide, 2020).

Depth on level ground: which wheels go on a block#

The level ground here stands for the furrow bottom. While ploughing, the tractor's right wheels run in the furrow, lower than the left ones by the ploughing depth. Hence, under the Kirovohrad guide (2015), only the left wheels drive onto a block as high as the ploughing depth. In November 2026, Google's automatic answer to the Ukrainian search «як настроїти плуг до мінітрактора» put the block under the right wheel: the wrong way.

For ploughing at 20 cm, that is a 20 cm block under the left wheels and 18-19 cm under the gauge wheel. Both university guides, Kirovohrad's and Uman's (2020), give the 1-2 cm allowance. Lower the plough with the wheel's screw until the share edges of the front and rear bodies lie tight on the ground; chisel-shaped shares touch it with their points, edges parallel. Depth is finished in the field from the first readings (Kirovohrad guide).

Levelling the frame: right lift rod and top link#

Lowered onto level ground, the plough's frame should stand parallel to it (Uman guide, 2020). Tilt across is corrected by the length of the right lift rod, set with its screw handle (South West Farmer); the left lift rod is changed rarely (Kirovohrad guide, 2015). Pitch is set by the top link: a shorter link tips the frame forward, a longer one back (South West Farmer). A frame tipped forward drives the front bodies deeper and the plough runs on its toes (Uman guide); a frame tipped back brings the plough up out of the ground (Kirovohrad guide). In the field the signs read like this:

At work the rule is the same: the frame parallel to the field's surface, levelled across with the right lift rod and lengthwise with the top link (Uman guide).

Hydraulics: float, position or draft#

The sources advise different modes, and part of the difference comes from the type of plough:

The Belarus 921.6 tractor manual calls draft control the ideal mode for mounted implements working in the soil. For a reversible plough the Kirovohrad guide adds three settings: the top link rises slightly towards the plough, the front of the plough stands 1-3 cm higher than its rear on level ground, and the tractor's rear wheels are 1.3-1.5 m apart. Check the mode in both the tractor's and the plough's manuals. For the automatic systems that watch wheel slip, see the glossary: slip controllera.

The first furrow and the front body's width#

The front body must take the same width as the others. On a mounted plough this is corrected by shifting the plough sideways with the linkage check chains or by moving the plough's axle (Uman guide, 2020). Kverneland advises measuring the width of the front furrow and comparing it with the body's. The width depends largely on the wheel track, and small corrections are made by turning the plough's cross shaft (South West Farmer). Some ploughs have a separate width spindle for the first body (Pöttinger manual).

Left and right skew#

At work the frame's beams must run parallel to the direction of travel. Otherwise the plough runs skewed and the quality of the ploughing drops sharply. Under the Uman guide (2020), left and right skew do different harm:

On three-body mounted ploughs, skew is corrected with special bolts on the plough's hitch axle, where the plough has them.

Skimmers and the disc coulter#

The skimmer cuts a small slice from the field side and drops it into the furrow bottom, so the main body turns its slice better; the disc coulter cuts the slice vertically. The Uman guide (2020) gives their positions for 30 and 35 cm bodies:

The skimmer's depth is set with the upright rule of a square: for ploughing at 26 cm with the skimmer working 10 cm deep, its share point should touch the 16th mark. For 20 and 25 cm bodies neither university guide gives figures, and makers advise differently, so take the figures from your plough's manual:

When the slice is not turned over#

The standard is a slice turned over completely (Uman guide, 2020). If the plough leaves it short, check three things that, under the guide, affect how the slice turns. First, left skew, which disturbs the turning of the slice (see above). Second, the skimmer. One goes ahead of every body, and a general-purpose mouldboard turns the slice well precisely when working with it. Third, the mouldboard's shape. For sod the guide advises the semi-digger mouldboard, whose wing is bent further towards the slice.

PLN-3-35 on an MTZ-80/82 or YuMZ-6#

The three-body PLN-3-35 is set up with the same steps, and it is the very plough the Kirovohrad guide (2015) uses for its setup exercise on a test stand: the left wheels on a block as high as the ploughing depth, the gauge wheel 1-2 cm lower, the frame levelled with the right lift rod and the top link.

With tractors of drawbar class 1.4, mounted ploughs work on the three-point scheme (Uman guide, 2020). The same university's practice guide (2019) puts the MTZ-82, YuMZ-8280 and YuMZ-6AKL in that class; the MTZ-80 is not named in the list. Take the hydraulic mode from your own tractor's manual.

The PLN-3-35's bodies are 35 cm wide, so the skimmer goes 30-35 cm ahead of the body's share point, and the other positions come from the table above. Skew on this plough is corrected with the bolts on its hitch axle.

Marking out the field and the first pass#

Before ploughing, clear foreign objects from the field or mark them with poles, choose the direction of travel and divide the field into lands, marking the centre line of each with poles. A land's width should be a multiple of the unit's working width, or missed strips are left. A land is ploughed by gathering or by casting:

Divide the field into an odd number of lands, gather the odd ones and cast the even ones, and there are half as many furrows and ridges. The headlands are marked first, with a pass of the plough that turns the soil towards the middle of the field. For the first working pass, set the front body to half the depth with the right lift rod, plough the first furrow, then return the lift rod to its working position. Over the next few passes pick the working speed, and if the ploughing is poor, stop and adjust the plough (Uman guide, 2020).

How to check the ploughing#

The Uman guide (2020) gives quality indicators for ploughing. Depth is measured with a ruler, a straight bar or a furrow gauge in at least ten places along the field's diagonal, and the evenness of the surface with a rail laid across the slices.

If the depth is out of tolerance, go back to level ground and check the frame and the wheel again. Depth that differs between bodies points to a tilted frame, and a front body that digs in points to a short top link. How to choose the plough for your tractor is covered in Plough for a compact tractor: sizes, power and hitcha.

Safety when hitching and adjusting#

Back up to the plough slowly, so the pins of the plough's axle meet the holes in the lower links. Lock the lower links with their latches, then fit the top link and secure it with its pin, and only then connect the hydraulics (Kirovohrad guide, 2015, for a reversible plough). Use pins of the proper size, with clips (University of Maine, 2018).

• Nobody stands between the tractor and the plough while hitching, and the engine is shut off whenever someone is attaching the plough or working between them (University of Maine, 2018).
• The rules on labour safety in agricultural production, as the State Labour Service's leaflet restates them (March 2024), require the working parts of a raised mounted implement to be changed, cleaned or adjusted only with the unit stopped and braked and the engine off, using special scrapers and wearing gloves.
• Under the same rules, nobody stays within the swing of a mounted machine while the unit turns.
• When checking the shares, make sure the plough is supported and cannot be lowered by accident (South West Farmer).