I have a Case IH 2500 and a Great Plains ripper from my experience with both of them I would spend the extra money and get a Great Plains. I know a few guys with the unverferts and the points wear real fast.
Anywhere from 20 to 24 inches. Had to do a little work to it when local dealer delivered it to make it go that deep but you can see it lift and shatter the ground behind you. But I would run it on a field that just had to have it in the spring. I ran it a lot one winter and had a hard time getting into those fields to plant corn the next spring.
Seems like my best luck with ripping ground is ripping it at an angle in the spring then coming back in and no till it. It can make it hard to get the crop out during a wet fall. I used to be a big believer in ripping ground very often but seems like there is no real big yield gain from it unless the ground is very hard.
When we raised tobacco we ripped those few acres every year. You absolutely don't want to see tobacco drowns out. Since I've started grain farming i think every few years is good enough, according to conditions.
