fitting a plough to a garden tractor

[vhgmcbuddy]

Just a Thought… I have seen ploughs fitted to Wheelhorse tractors, I have a Westwood that I use for Grass cutting, 42″ Deck, and does the job well, it has a 14 HP Briggs twin engine, and as far as I can make out, is at least as heavy as an Anzani Iron Horse or a trusty, Question is, Has anyone fitted a plough to something like a Westwood? any problems to look out for? the machine has a manual lifting device for the grass collector, I was wondering if I could adapt that to lift the plough? I assume the plough would need some kind of weight on it to keep it engaged when ploughing? any suggestions?

[alan]

We adapted a Merry Tiller plough to go on the diesel John Deere which actually worked although I only played with it a couple of times to see. I’ve never tried anything on a Westwood or similar yet.

For weight comparison my 10hp 1965 Cub Cadet 100 has a standard Brinley plough. The tractor weighs 347Kg and the plough weighs 31Kg. It has manual implement lift and at present I haven’t tried ploughing with it but as it’s a standard set up and in the brochure it should be perfect!

The Cub was built to take a range of implements and is suitably built to do so, is this Westwood more of a mowing machine?

The plough is: Brinley Plough

[alan]

A couple of brochure images for reference:

I have all the Westwood brochures showing all the attachments. There isn’t a plough shown, which possibly means it wasn’t suitable to pulling one. There is though the Rotodynamic Cultivator on an 11hp tractor so looking at the photos it is capable of pulling something through easy allotment ground.

For some sort of tractor comparison I have the Roper tractor brochures and the 18hp garden tractor can have either an 18hp twin Briggs or a 18hp Kohler Magnum engine. Tractor has a range of implements including a 10″ plough. Also has manual implement lift.

The Roper tractor is a stronger built machine than a Westwood and therefore can take a plough as intended.

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[andyfrost]

I’m not convinced that a “ride on mower” transmission is suitable for draught work , many of the standard ride ons had transmission reliability issues just cutting grass.

Andy.

[alan]

Andy,

I think you are correct. The Westwood machine brochure shows a tractor pulling an implement through cultivated easy allotment ground and nothing tougher.

It certainly tells a lot that there isn’t a plough anywhere in the numerous Westwood brochures I have.

Westwood probably thought folk may wish to do some cultivating and introduced the tiller attachment in the above brochure photo to try and expand the tractors capabilities and appeal somewhat.

[vhgmcbuddy]

Thanks for the advise chaps, I must admit I had,nt thought of the potential transmission problems, I like the rotervator idea, but it looks very expensive bit of kit, back to the drawing board i think!.

[wristpin]

Only just picked up on this thread but the advice given re Westwood transmissions is good. The Peerless transaxles used in the majority of Westwoods and many other ride-on mowers is only rated for rolling loads (small trailers) and not ground engaging implements. Smaller Wheelhorses have similar transaxles but the larger ones have the much stronger cast iron cased units that will cope with reasonable draught loading.
US model ranges often distinguish between “Yard tractors” and Garden tractors, the latter often having draught capability eg the older Ariens ranges where the YT models were ride-on lawnmowers and the GT models were built to a much higher spec with some draught capability.

Unfortunately tractor shape doesn’t necessarily mean tractor capabilities!

[vhgmcbuddy]

Useful information thank you, Some time ago I replied to an advert in the “Cultivator” for a Merry tiller truck from a chap who was selling up and moving from Warwickshire, when I got there he showed me his Garden tractor, a german make, it had a plough, cultivator and loads of tools , He assured me that it ploughed as well as any two wheel tractor and a lot easier! He was asking £600 on that well known auction site, wish I had bought it when I had the chance!

[wristpin]

Quite possibly a Gutbrod, imported and sold in the UK by Allen Power Equipment, often under the name Allen Moto Standard. They were a tough, proper miniature tractor quite capable of market garden work etc.

[vhgmcbuddy]

That is exactly what it was, a good machine, I have seen them at shows…one day!

[Author]

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