Tiller Gear Drive or Chain drive Tillers

[Anonymous Poster]

It looks like the light duty ones are Chain Drive and the Heavy Duty tillers are Gear drive. Who are the MFG's and models that are either?

 

[Darren]

Kuhn with the exception of the smallest rated hp unit uses a gear drive running in an oil bath on all their tillers.

 

[nicklan]

Hayking
I think all King Kutter tillers are gear drive and are not that expensive

Nick

 

[northcreek2624]

HAYKING,I'm not so sure that gear tillers are superior to chain driven units.If you think about it chain/sprocket arrangements spread the load over a much larger area than a typical gear arrangement where as few as three teeth are in contact at any time.....Mike

 

[JimMc]

I've given this some thought also. How about it? How many of you have replaced chains or sprockets vs how many gears have been damaged. Or is it really just one of those "we have a gear drive so we're better deals"? I see some mighty big digging equipment in the mining industry which is chain drive.

 

[ScottAR]

I personally wouldn't worry much about chain drives... Some of the old Case tractors had a chain drive tranmission... My JD tiller is chain drive and I think the pto shaft would give way before that chain did.

 

[Hydraman]

Also on the issue of chain drive vs. gear drive, a chain drive will have a spring tensioner that will also act as a 'shock absorber' when you hit a rock or root or other immovable object, whereas a gear drive would not have this capability, other than a slip clutch, or shear pin.
As mentioned earlier,Case made chain drive tractors, also oil drilling rigs(even the largest) are chain drive. Conventional cranes are chain drive, as well as many other types of HEAVY machinery. So as far as one being superior to the other, who knows. I have repaired the cchain drive on a 84" Farm King tiller for a few dollars, where gears would probably have been expensive!!

 

[HayDR]

ScottAR your JD tiller is made by Howard

 

[HayDR]

Some low-end tillers like King Kutter are gear drive but most of their components are from China. Take the FC tillers their light duty tillers are chain drive and as the price goes up to the commercial tillers they are all gear drive. The same is also true with LP, Maschio, Howard (JD), Muratori, Agric, Befco, & others. It is all down to maintenance and down time. IMO a chain drive in commercial use situations is 3 times more likely to fail. If a chain breaks it often damages the outer side gearbox cover causing expensive repairs. Chain drive tillers are fine for small compact tractor applications for weekenders.

 

[ScottAR]

I disagree. Years ago, my grandfather had a new holland baler that nearly everything was gear driven. They were often taking gears down to the machine shop to have them built up and filed. The chain drive Case 730 never left them in the field. just my $1.50