Slumpbuster, I also have clay soils. I will also say that it takes alot of passes to work up ground that has been idle for years. I started with ALOT of deep thatch, so I bet it took nearly 15 passes for me as well, BUT 15 passes doesn't take all that long if you have an ATV with some muscle. Mine has 500cc. I would guess it took about 2 hours to get my plot the way it is in my first pic. If someone knows of another implement that can be towed behind an ATV that works faster, bring it on. I'm sure you could do it faster with a tractor and a larger, heavier disc set, but that won't work for me because some of my plots are inaccessible to a tractor (trees, etc)

One of the 5 plots that I worked up last year became so overgrown with weeds that I decided to rework it this past Spring. The nice part of that is that it took only a fraction of the time to work it up the second time, since I got all the deep thatch out last year.

Otis...that photo of the Premium Perennial plot was taken in August. Of course the deer haven't touched it. What you see there are brassicas, which are not palatable to deer until after the first few hard frosts. By mid December that plot was mowed to the ground by deer. I would suggest having your friend contact his regional plotmaster sales rep and ask for some tips on using the implement. There are several key adjustments on that machine that can be made to suit different terrain and soils. If your soils are too hard for the plotmaster, than good luck using any other ATV implement. It sounds like you may need to use a tractor rig of some type.

It's obvious to me at this point that I'm in shark infested waters on this plotmaster issue. Being new here, I'm not sure how this overall dislike of the plotmaster has developed. I assure you I have absolutely no connection to the plotmaster people or anyone else who sells them and stand to gain nothing by plugging this machine. Plain and simply, I have had a great experience with the plotmaster the past few years over some very challenging terrain and remain very impressed with it.