Pipe laying plow

A pipe laying plow, for operating use by moving it forward while pipe is fed therethrough from above ground to be laid at a pipe laying depth below ground level, the pipe laying plow characterized by:

• a boom held by an above-ground support structure having a forward, front end;
• the boom characterized by a substantially linear pipe feeding tube defining a longitudinal axis in a vertical plane;
• and a plurality of substantially identically shaped, planar blades attached at regular intervals along the tube;
• a blade length line intersecting the longitudinal axis at a blade attachment angle relative to the longitudinal axis, and blade width lines extending laterally perpendicular to a longitudinal vertical plane;
• wherein, when the boom is held in operating position, the tube extends longitudinally downward and rearward at a boom angle relative to ground level, and the blades extend lengthwise downward and forward at a plowing angle relative to ground level;
• the pipe laying plow further characterized by:
• a pivot joint between the support structure and the tube near a tube front end;
• and a depth adjustment mechanism attached to the tube for raising or lowering a rear end of the tube thereby pivotingly adjusting the pipe laying depth;
• and
• the pipe laying plow being constructed to pivotingly adjust the pipe laying depths in a depth adjustment range equal to a design center depth plus or minus a depth adjustment increment, wherein:
• blade lengths from a bottom edge to a top edge are predetermined such that for all pipe laying depths in the depth adjustment range:
• no blades extend below the pivotingly adjusted pipe laying depth, and a blade lift distance is greater than or equal to a lifting depth, where the blade lift distance is the vertical component of the blade length, and the lifting depth is the vertical depth difference between subsequent blade bottom edges.