Power Harrows?

   / Power Harrows? #1  

Dave1066

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Hello Folks,

I'm in the process of doing a deal for a Goldoni My Special 15 two wheel tractor. The place where I'm doing a deal, has some power harrows I've never seen before. There not Rinaldi. I asked some questions about the power harrow and she is going to get back to me on it.

Here is a photo, if anyone can me anything about it I would be grateful.
 

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   / Power Harrows?
  • Thread Starter
#3  
I found out some more information.

Well I spoke with the re seller today. The harrows are made by a company called Tracma in Italy. The harrows are gear driven and in constant oil bath. The sides are metal, but have some spring system in place which allows expansion in case there are big stones. Sounds a decent machine.

For 60cm harrow it's £1380 + Vat.
For 90cm harrow it's £1600 + Vat.
 
   / Power Harrows?
  • Thread Starter
#4  
Hello, had an email from the reseller today with more details about the power harrows. The company is called Tecma. They do two power harrow models, called the Zip or Minigirolit. They have different gearboxes and different tines. The minigirolit model has oil bath gears. The Zip model uses grease for the gears. The two different models have different tines, the round bar tines work the soil into a finer tilth for sowing on. Both of them look decent quality, and both of them are cheaper than the Rinaldi R2 Power Harrows. They do a number of different sizes.

The Zip is the cheaper of the two.
 
   / Power Harrows? #6  
Hey dave...if you think you'll use it a lot, I'd get the oil bath. Having to grease stuff up is a pain! Oil bath is longer lasting lubrication, in fact it's possible you'd be fine doing the initial gear break in oil change, and after that you may never have to change it again for the life of the implement. For cars it's engine oil change every 3,000 miles, transmission is often like every 50-80 thousand miles (and even if you disregard that and don't change it, odds are it keeps working fine anyway)

Link to the minigiroloit didn't seem to be working. However, My opinion of most of this italian two wheel tractor stuff is that it is in fact agricultural / farm tough, built to last. The italians take this stuff very seriously!! Good stuff. It looks and sounds like Tecma power harrows are on par with Rinaldi, if it'll save ya money I wouldn't hesitate.
 
   / Power Harrows?
  • Thread Starter
#7  
Hello, yes there is that advantage of oil bath which you mention. There are other differences as well. The tines on the Minigirolit are round bar and spaced closer together, the Minigirolit also operates at a higher speed compared to the Zip power harrows. When comparing Tecma Zip power harrow photo of the Rinaldi R2 MTL power harrow, they look identical except for use of different screws in certain locations. Which leads me to believe that the Rinaldi might use a grease gearbox like the Tecma Zip power harrows....? I have sent an email to a reseller of the Rinaldi asking if it is indeed has a grease gearbox or if it is oil bath.

The reason behind this is quite simple. The Zip model comes in 30" size and Minigirolit does not come in 30" size. The Minigirolit comes in 33" size. Which makes it a tough decision for me...As I was hoping to standardise my raised beds to 30" which is quite a common width for raised beds in market gardening.

That's the reason why I want to find out if the Rinaldi are oil or grease gearbox...Everyone says the Rinaldi are really good, and I know of some long time users. Grease doesn't really put me off to much, I come from an Agricultural back ground and I am use to working with grease.

Heres the link to the Minigirolit model. Tecma s.r.l. - Minigirolit, finishing power harrows
 
   / Power Harrows? #8  
I wouldn't let 3" stop me. If the 33" was the better unit I'd just standardize at 33" and not lose sleep over it. Let me tell you from experience, 30" beds don't stay 30" for long if they were ever that precisely formed in the first place! Rain and hoeing and a number of things start eroding and rounding off the edges, flattening and widening the bed, etc.

This according to the largest north american bcs dealer on the rinaldi: "Extremely heavy-duty, the hardened steel gearing runs in an oil bath, shafts supported by ball-bearings. Steel Side panels are spring-loaded to allow rocks to be “kicked” around the edges of the rotors without damaging tines, and the steel panels themselves never dry-rot and need replacement. "
 
   / Power Harrows?
  • Thread Starter
#9  
Yes I'm aware working soil isn't an exact science, I currently work on a herb farm..With raised beds. But the harrow and tractor I'm buying is for my own business. Why its also important to have 30" bed is because in the winter when I plant cover crops / green manure to stop soil erosion and nutrients depletion. I need to be able to cut it with a flail mower or stickle mower. Which needs to be 34". Then run over the bed with the power harrows to turn in the cover crop.

The other point that puts me off the Minigirolit model, it the fact it has a fixed coupling. Which means it wont self level from left to right with the soil level. The Zip model does have a floating coupling..So it will level to that of the soil.

Considerations! Time to think.

Thanks for the information on the Rinaldi!
 
   / Power Harrows? #10  
Well the Rinaldi does self level I believe. Is it available for the Goldoni tractor? If the ones you are looking at aren't the right spacing where it throws off your whole cropping system, then even if they're cheaper than Rinaldi they wouldn't be worth it. Frankly the power harrows do the best job at planting bed prep but they cost 3 times as much as a rototiller and are actually less versatile (tillers can do everything power harrows do plus are better at breaking sod and working in fertilizers). That means power harrows are something of a luxury item, meaning you should get what's gonna make you happy and increase workflow efficiency, pricing should probably be a secondary factor.
 
 
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