Tiller New King Kutter 6' Tiller

[Todd_C]

I went yesterday and got a new King Kutter II Tiller at my local TSC. I haven't had much time to use it but I did try it out and it seems to be the cats meow.

I wasn't so happy with Tractor Supply Company. It took a great deal of effort to get the thing loaded in my pickup, but four of us and a fork lift managed to get it in the bed of the pickup. I got home and I immediately noticed that I had the wrong PTO shaft. I was given a PTO shaft for a brush hog and it didn't have the slip clutch, so back to TSC (30 minutes one way). They took the PTO shaft from another King Kutter Tiller and gave it to me, so I hope the next person doesn't encounter the same problem.

I get back home and I fill the tiller with gear oil and grease the zerks and darn if the zerk on the opposite side of the gearbox isn't missing. I looked closer and the darn zerk was broken off. I had another one and I replaced it within a few minutes. I saved a few hundred dollars at TSC when I compared a few other tillers at the tractor dealer, but I found that the people working at my local TSC didn't know much about their own products. The guy didn't even know how much gear oil I needed for the tiller. I'll try to get some pics on here soon.

 

[Farmwithjunk]

I'm glad you didn't associate the service at TSC with the quality and performance of the tiller. You ran in to what I see as "typical" TSC service for the most part. I've dealt with a total of 5 stores, with 4 out of 5 being a little short on employee training, knowledge of product, and customer satisfaction. I don't expect much from them and they meet my lack of expectations almost every time. If they weren't "the only game in town" with most of their product lines, I doubt their over-all success would be at it's current level. They need competition.

On to the tiller! I've owned a KK 6' tiller for 6 years now. It's been put to the litmus test on more than a few occasions. It ALWAYS comes shining through. I've used mine enough to wear out one full set of tines and I'm well on the way to wearing out a 2nd set. And NO mechanical issues, EXCEPT for smoking a slip clutch when I got the bright idea to use it with ever-so-slightly less preload to experiment. Dollar for dollar, pound for pound, there isn't a better tiller on the market. Some folks have issues with the paint, but this is a TILLER, and not a new Corvette. I don't expect a show car paint job. With heavy use, the paint takes a thrashing anyway, so it's a non-issue as far as I'm concerned. As you start using your new tiller, experiment with the lenght of the top link. I've found that in various soil conditions lengthening or shortening the top link can have a dramatic effect on how deep it will dig.

Good luck and happy tilling!

 

[BamaRob]

I have a fairly new 5' KK II tiller. I've used it once to till my dad's garden and it performed perfectly. We have lots of landscaping projects planned for it this summer.

FWJ... you mentioned experimenting with the preload on the slip clutch. I didn't adjust mine at all when I used it the first time. I just put it on the tractor and hit the ground running. It worked very well, but this was in a previously worked garden spot with no roots and relatively few rocks. How do you determine the proper preload? When I start some of my projects, I'm going to be working in areas with roots and rocks (mostly flat sandstone rocks smaller than 1 sq. ft. and 1" - 2" thick).

Thanks,

BR

 

[Farmwithjunk]

I have a fairly new 5' KK II tiller. I've used it once to till my dad's garden and it performed perfectly. We have lots of landscaping projects planned for it this summer.

FWJ... you mentioned experimenting with the preload on the slip clutch. I didn't adjust mine at all when I used it the first time. I just put it on the tractor and hit the ground running. It worked very well, but this was in a previously worked garden spot with no roots and relatively few rocks. How do you determine the proper preload? When I start some of my projects, I'm going to be working in areas with roots and rocks (mostly flat sandstone rocks smaller than 1 sq. ft. and 1" - 2" thick).

Thanks,

BR

I found a new slip clutch on EBAY. The original was 3 years old and had a bit of slack in the u-joint attached to it. I decided to try an experiment and see just how much I could back off the preload. 1/4-turn on the bolts did the trick. The clutch went up in smoke. Even by cranking down the pre-load bolts several turns tighter wouldn't make it "grab" again. It was trashed. I wouldn't recommend experimenting with a slip clutch you intend on keeping. Manufacturers of these slip clutches have a spring "height" for proper loading of the springs.

 

[Todd_C]

I took the day off and took my daughter fishing and my dad, who is retired, decided to play with the tiller. When I got home, he was headed back to TSC. He said he was tilling dirt when he heard a noise. The Yoke on the PTO shaft broke. He said he had the slip clutch set and working. He said he lifted the arms up while the tiller was operating. He then said the tiller started making a different sound and when he lowered the tiller the tiller quit. As I said, one of the arms broke off the Yoke.

He went back to TSC and they told him that the part is $121. Has anyone else had a similar problem?

 

[Farmwithjunk]

I took the day off and took my daughter fishing and my dad, who is retired, decided to play with the tiller. When I got home, he was headed back to TSC. He said he was tilling dirt when he heard a noise. The Yoke on the PTO shaft broke. He said he had the slip clutch set and working. He said he lifted the arms up while the tiller was operating. He then said the tiller started making a different sound and when he lowered the tiller the tiller quit. As I said, one of the arms broke off the Yoke.

He went back to TSC and they told him that the part is $121. Has anyone else had a similar problem?

I beat the life out of the rearmost u-joint in no time flat. On one of my tractors, I can't raise the lift all the way without the u-joint getting in a bind. I raise it just far enough to let the tines clear the ground when I lift it with pto still engaged. Works fine on other tractors. Make certain the pto shaft has enough "slack". (Not too long)

 

[Todd_C]

Another update on the saga. Dad and I found one of the two missing pieces off the female tube end yoke. Upon inspection, most of the broken area is void of metal. There is a large fissure in the area where the break happened. Dad is going to take the PTO shaft and pieces back to TSC. The Bondioli Pavesi PTO shaft is at fault. I hope TSC gives us another PTO shaft when they see the defect in the metal.

If you look at the attachments you will see that most of the inner metal is covered with black paint.

 

[jinman]

Todd, I think you are getting "TSC'd" in this deal.

My KK 6' tiller came with a PTO driveshaft that was painted yellow like the rest of the tiller. I've tilled my 1/3 acre garden with it at least 8 times and no problems with the slipclutch or any other problem. I know you said that they took the PTO shaft off another tiller, but it seems your TSC is PTO challenged.

 

[john_bud]

Todd,

Since they were already doing the PTO switcheroo, you may have some issues with TSC. Maybe not, but who knows?

On lifting the tiller while in operation, you can break the u-joints pretty fast by raising it too high. Do like FWJ said, just enough to clear the dirt.

Did you find your owners manual on the tiller? Mine was in a bag on the underside of the back tailgate. I found it across 5 acres as it slowly was tilled off !

jb

 

[Todd_C]

I went back to TSC today and I showed the manager the two pieces that broke off the yoke and the yoke. He shook his head and within a few minutes, I had a new PTO/slip clutch that was yellow. The manager said he was going to send the broken PTO back to King Kutter and he agreed that this PTO was defective. When I purchased the tiller, the now broken PTO shaft came from a 5' King Kutter Tiller that was next to the 6' tiller I bought.

I got home today and put the new PTO on and I tilled several areas with no problems. I'm just glad this is over.