only lost 1 expander, temporarily! found it sticking out the end of the drain into the ditch, chain broke just as it pulled into the ground. bit of digging later, a new D shackle and we were off again! until the next time i was stuck!

Interesting, never heard of this before!
How many hp does the pulling tractor need? or is it dependant on the mole itself?
Also, how long do the drains last before they need re-mole'ing?

As you can guess I have a vested interest, I have a very very boggy acre of "garden" that takes all the water from the tarmac road/neighbors gutters/fosse outflows etc as the easiest path to a stream at the bottom, and this summer when it dries out enough to not sink the jcb around mid august we were planning to trench it and put land drains in, but life would be easier if I could just get it mole'd for this year and sort it next since Im mad busy with other stuff...

I can see a discussion with my farmer neighbor and his big valtra 4x4 occuring...

Both of these depend on the nature of the soil, or to be more accurate, the subsoil.
In stiff Clay, my 1940 cat D7 (80 drawbar HP), weight 10 tonnes. would pull the mole with 4 inch expander at 22 inches deep, whereas a 120 HP Fiat 4 wheel drive tractor with double wheels all round wouldn't look at it. The Fiat simply dug itself in as soon as the Mole got down to depth. It had the engine HP, but not the weight / traction of the crawler. The wheeled tractor would have done better, perhaps with a mounted mole plough where weight transfer through the linkage would have helped traction.

How long do the mole drains last ?, well, that depends on the (sub)soil.
In stiff clay they should last a few years, probably 3 - 5 years, in sandier soil less, maybe only 1-2 years.

I just spotted this thread, I was doing a bit of pan busting on a horsey pasture yesterday, I got this old mole drainer cheap. I discovered that the point was so warn that it wouldn't dig in properly, so I purchased a new chisel cutter for £15 and welded it on and it now works really well raising the ground about 18 inches either side of the slit. I'm not in that deep with it and my trusty Massey 575 copes just fine at about 1000 revs in 5th gear (walking speed)

What do you think? The impliment is made by Rodingham, England, but I can't find much out about it, I think it's one of these blacksmith made jobbies!

Cheers Julian.

tidy little 575 there Julian....always been a fan of the 500 series

Hi Julian,
That's a nice outfit you have there, Julian.
Being pedantic though, that's not a mole plough but a subsoiler.
A mole plough has a round 'share' at the bottom, with a 'hook' so that an expander (also round but slightly bigger diameter than the 'share') can be attatched. It is designed to create lasting round ducts through the ground for drainage. A mole plough is usually operated deeper than a subsoiler.
A subsoiler has a chisel shaped share, usually with 'wings' either side, and is used to break up a 'pan' or layer of hard packed ground, usually just below the level of normal cultivations.

Yes, it's a good honest little tractor and the loader is worth its weight in gold for me. The cast iron PAVT wheels make loader work less traumatic and I'm sure help a lot with grip in other situations. The Massey's Perkins engine was better than the Ford engines with their porous block problems I think. Only one door on the cab can be a minor irritation at times

But for me, where I couldn't possibly justify the expense of a new tractor, it does the job OK. Also spares are cheap and there's no computers to go wrong!

Julian.

I'm learning these things now It came cheap on the e-bay and beggars can't be choosers!
Now that I put that chisel point on it really does lift the turf well so I'm guessing that I'm doing good with it. My problem is some horse pasture that has got pretty hard surface panning that prevents natural drainage during the winter months. We try and keep the horses out as much as possible over winter (they tend to get behavioral problems if shut in stables for too long) so improving drainage on the heavyish land is important.

I won't really know how successful I've been until the wet arrives at the start of winter!

Julian.

here is another mole digging
[/url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQ_DQYcD11w[/url]