I'm sure it's obvious the the farm kids. The first one I saw I thought was an anomaly, but now that I have two I'm thinking it must be for a specific implement.

When turning to the right with an offset disk, the chain and cable close the disc so it doesn't fight and turns smoother.

Dick's right. Also Keeps the first blade on the front disk from digging in and prevents bending or breaking the first blade. The first blade does not have the luxury of an adjacent "furrow" to help break loose the dirt. With modern hydraulics on disks one learns to take the disk slightly out of the ground when turning to the right.

Can someone further define "close the disc"? I have only worked with modern hydraulic discs and don't know much about my 'new' old mechanical.
Thanks
CS

This is on offset discs that use two gangs not split like a typical tandem disc. Some of the earlier offset discs had no wheels and the depth and amount of soil one tilled was controlled by the angle between the front and the rear gang. More angle means more soil is moved and less angle means less depth and soil tilled. When turning to the right, it was the same as increasing the angle for the front disk and it would cut much deeper when turning to the right. Conversely, when turning to the left the disk did little tilling. The angle between the disk gangs was controlled by a chain. The more chain let out the deeper the till. I'll see if I can find a picture.

Here is a small 6' disk. Visualize this being about 15' long and the angle between the gangs controlled by a chain. Sorry I couldn't find a better picture.
cgi.ebay.com/John-Deere-6-foot-3pt-Offse...QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Well heck, If I can't find a picture maybe I can take one sometime of an old one we left in the North Pasture!!

Hey Jim I went out and fiddled with the old Towner and see exactly what you mean. I originally thought that the links etc were just to adjust the disc, and wondered what the chain was for. Now I know!

After a turn, does the disc reset itself or is there more i should know?

Thanks
CS

Carl, when the tractor (Cat) turns to the right it effectively shortens the chain and then when you straighten the rig out again the drag from the disk takes up the slack and everything is back to normal. The old Offset disks had a place on the front disk to connect the chain between the front and the back disk gangs. When using the offset on the hitch, however, the chain is connected from the hitch to the back gang, running over the top of the front gang. The chain is not physically connected to the front gang when using the hitch arrangement. I need to get over to take a pic of an old disk to show what I mean. When facing the same direction the tractor is traveling, , the chain runs from the hitch to the far right hand side of the second gang. The hinge between the first and second gangs is on the left.

As kid I spent many hours using an offset disk. Because they had no wheels back then, when it came time to move them to another field, one had to use a carrier that looked like a praying mantis that used a hand wheel and cables to raise the disk off the ground to move to the next field.

Jim

Only recently have wheeled offset discs been made strong enough to stand up to adobe clay. Here are some of the implement carriers we have. The red one was my senior engineering project, the yellow one was made by archer.

The chain works good for the smaller discs, but when you get to the bigger discs you need hydraulics. We have had so many problems over the years breaking stuff that we have the drivers only make LH turns.

Mighty nice pictures there CR!! Saved me from going to the north pasture to take a pic and it would not have had the carrier anyway!! The one you made sure looks like a lot better one than the one like we used. Ours looked like the yellow one!!

No problem Jim... I didn't think they had them back there. My cousins live in the Dokatas and my brother went to Purdue and whenever they brought frends out to the ranch usually the first thing they asked when they got to the yard was what was that.



Annyways here is another style that we have, they are easier to back over and pick something up, but are harder to haul. In Highschool (actually durring class, Back when the teacher could send out around town, because everyone in town knew you and probally had a .22 cal behind the seat at the time, no guards, fences or problem years) I used the yellow single axel carrier and a 1 ton flatbed to haul a 22 and then a IH 300 with full weights and water that was stuck in gear so by buddy could fix it in shop class.