Iowa farmer Tom Miller, of Burlington, made his older model Bush Hog "Soil Hog" chisel plow virtually "plug proof" equipping it with "made  it myself" setback brackets.

Originally, the seven-shank model was equipped with two rows of shanks -- three in front and four in back, with 16 in. of lateral space between them. At three locations, the upper end of the shanks' mold-boards curved towards each other, with only about 12 in. of clearance between. It was here that trash converged and caused plug-up problems. By setting back three shanks -- two in back and one in front -- Miller, in effect, added two "offset" rows of shanks.

The modification has been a 100% cure-all for my machine," says Miller, who purchased his Soil Hog (8 ft., 9 in. wide) 3 years ago. "I couldn't even use it in heavy corn stalks. It would choke up every 50 to 100 ft. I had so much grief with it that, after about a half hour, I went home, got out the drawing board and started figuring out how to offset the shanks."

In three years of use, his modified chisel plow has yet to plug up, says Miller. "I've even operated in heavy corn stalks in the rain without a single plug up. Heavy trash flows through it evenly without bunching up."

Each setback (16 in. long, 14 in. wide) is equipped with a yoke-type clamp for attaching to the main frame. "Yoke clamps are much stronger than flange types, in which the U-shaped bolt must stand 100% of the strain," says Miller.

"The plug-up problems I had with my Soil Hog are common to many older chisel plow models," says Miller. "There are skads of chisel plows out there built just like mine. Manufacturers could make setbacks like I did, but I guess they'd rather sell 'somewhat improved' new models at jewelry store prices. Most newer chisel plows now come equipped with offset shanks."