Who makes Agri Supply's "Tillovator" tillers

[georgia jeff]

Does anyone know? I was there Friday and today comparing them to King Kutters and Caronis. The guy who puts them together says that they are identical to the King Kutters except they are not American made. He said he thought they were made in China.
I read on one of the threads on this site that King Kutters are assembled in the USA but most of the parts are made in China. Does anyone know who makes these red "tillovators"? Here is the link
TILLOVATOR 5' - Agri Supply

 

[georgia jeff]

They have a 56 inch Caroni that will just cover my tire tracks for about $50 more money but it doesn't appear to be as heavy duty of a unit. Here is why...
The Caroni has a smaller diameter shaft.
The Caoni has thinner tines
The Caroni is chain driven and the "Tillovator" is gear
The Caroni is about 150lbs lighter
I'm not sure if the Caroni has a slip clutch but I think it does. Does anyone know?

Which would you get?

 

[georgia jeff]

The "Tillovators" arrive only half assembled. The guy at Agri Supply was putting one together when I arrived. He has to assembe the 3 pt. hitch A-frame and fill with grease. He did say that the King Kutters come with a welded 3 pt hitch A-frame whereas these were bolted together. I said "heck for $400 I could weld the sucker together If I ever noticed it made a difference for less than $40". Do you think that this is Agri-supply's house brand of tillers?

 

[bp fick]

Frankly, at the price listed, it could almost ONLY be made in China. A comparable KK or better is simply more money. The price alone leads me to this conclusion, and I freely admit no other information. I'll just follow along now.

 

[Baby Grand]

Does anyone know? I was there Friday and today comparing them to King Kutters and Caronis. The guy who puts them together says that they are identical to the King Kutters except they are not American made. He said he thought they were made in China.
I read on one of the threads on this site that King Kutters are assembled in the USA but most of the parts are made in China. Does anyone know who makes these red "tillovators"? Here is the link
TILLOVATOR 5' - Agri Supply

Is "Tillovator" a generic name or is it Caroni's brand name?

 

[Ford850]

Does anyone know? I was there Friday and today comparing them to King Kutters and Caronis. The guy who puts them together says that they are identical to the King Kutters except they are not American made. He said he thought they were made in China.
I read on one of the threads on this site that King Kutters are assembled in the USA but most of the parts are made in China. Does anyone know who makes these red "tillovators"? Here is the link
TILLOVATOR 5' - Agri Supply

King Kutter Rep (member here) was questioned on the origin of KK and Taylor-Way a couple months ago, and I pulled together some of his answers into one thread when this was brought up after that. Below are some of his quotes.

"Of course I work for King Kutter, which is the parent company of Taylor Pittsburgh Mfg., who makes the Taylor-Way brand of equipment.
These tillers are MADE IN THE USA. King Kutter has three manufacturing facilities in the US, one of which is in Galliopolis, OH, and that is where most of the tillers are made.
The Taylor Way tillers use the same gear driven gearboxes as what you will find on King Kutter tillers."

"King Kutter products are MADE in the USA. Tiller rotor bars are made here. The flanges are made here and welded onto the rotor bar. The top of the deck of the rotary tiller is formed in our plant. The deck for the rotary kutter is cut and formed in our plant, as are the side rails. We manufacture the stump jumper in our plant. The box frame for our discs are cut, punched, and welded together in our plant. The three-point frame is bent, and punched, and put together in our plant in the USA. To me... that's MADE IN THE USA."

"99.9% of the King Kutter equipment is made in the US, in three different factories. Only a few items like spin spreaders, cement mixers, and drag harrows are actually outsourced from overseas (not china).
Like all of the other big implement manufacturing companies, we buy gearboxes from China. King Kutter has extremely good luck with these gearboxes and have an extremely low failure rate. Extremely low."

"I want to address a couple issues in this thread which I beleive have been mis-represented.
1 - Unless something has changed recently the Woods machine also has a chinese gearbox. Woods, Land Pride, Bush Hog, Rhino, and King Kutter, all use gearboxes made in China.
2 - King Kutter has a failure rate of about 1 in 10,000 on gearboxes. I'm speaking of actual manufacturers defects here. So to whomever stated that the gearbox has been the weak spot of the King Kutter Finish Mowers, I'm sorry if you had an issue with one."

 

[Leejohn]

I know what a 3pt tiller is, what is a Tillovators?

 

[georgia jeff]

Is "Tillovator" a generic name or is it Caroni's brand name?

I don't think it is made by Caroni. I looked at them side by side and they use different shaped tines for one thing. The Caroni's are "C" shaped I guess you could say and the "Tillovators" have a closer to a 90 degree bend in them and are "L" shaped. I don't think a company would produce two diffeent tines. they also didn't look anything alike. Caroni's are chain driven and these "tillovators" are gear.

 

[georgia jeff]

It is a rotary tiller. They are called "tillovators" on the website. See TILLOVATOR 5' - Agri Supply

 

[georgia jeff]

King Kutter Rep (member here) was questioned on the origin of KK and Taylor-Way a couple months ago, and I pulled together some of his answers into one thread when this was brought up after that. Below are some of his quotes.

"Of course I work for King Kutter, which is the parent company of Taylor Pittsburgh Mfg., who makes the Taylor-Way brand of equipment.
These tillers are MADE IN THE USA. King Kutter has three manufacturing facilities in the US, one of which is in Galliopolis, OH, and that is where most of the tillers are made.
The Taylor Way tillers use the same gear driven gearboxes as what you will find on King Kutter tillers."

"King Kutter products are MADE in the USA. Tiller rotor bars are made here. The flanges are made here and welded onto the rotor bar. The top of the deck of the rotary tiller is formed in our plant. The deck for the rotary kutter is cut and formed in our plant, as are the side rails. We manufacture the stump jumper in our plant. The box frame for our discs are cut, punched, and welded together in our plant. The three-point frame is bent, and punched, and put together in our plant in the USA. To me... that's MADE IN THE USA."

"99.9% of the King Kutter equipment is made in the US, in three different factories. Only a few items like spin spreaders, cement mixers, and drag harrows are actually outsourced from overseas (not china).
Like all of the other big implement manufacturing companies, we buy gearboxes from China. King Kutter has extremely good luck with these gearboxes and have an extremely low failure rate. Extremely low."

"I want to address a couple issues in this thread which I beleive have been mis-represented.
1 - Unless something has changed recently the Woods machine also has a chinese gearbox. Woods, Land Pride, Bush Hog, Rhino, and King Kutter, all use gearboxes made in China.
2 - King Kutter has a failure rate of about 1 in 10,000 on gearboxes. I'm speaking of actual manufacturers defects here. So to whomever stated that the gearbox has been the weak spot of the King Kutter Finish Mowers, I'm sorry if you had an issue with one."

Thanks for the clarification. Since Tarter tillers are also made in the USA are they and King Kutter a similar unit. I swear the more I look at pictures of the Tarters and physically looking at the King Kutters these Agrisupply units look almost identical.