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- Jun 5, 2003
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I recently aquired a new Caroni tiller (FL1400) from ASC in NC and
thought a review might be of interest to perspective tiller buyers:
First, Caroni has a very good webite which has a fair
amount of free info available: http://www.caroni-spa.com
Its worth the time to visit.
The unit came unassembled in 4 pieces (tiller, drive line, clutch shield and hitch frame) strapped to a wooden pallet. A packet of documentation (owners manual, parts list and warranty) w/ top link pin was tie wrapped to the tiller. I opted to p/u at the freight depot to save some money. The
pallet fit easily on my 1/2t P/U and was loaded w/ a fork lift. I unloaded on the other end w/ my tractor. The tiller shipping weight was listed at 500lbs. All of the h/w for assembly and use was attached to the tiller frame. ASC also filled the gear boxes prior to shipment.
The first order of business, after unloading, was to move the tiller to a work area closer to the shop. I did this by roughly setting the hitch points and moving it w/ the tractor 3 pt hitch. I set the skid shoes to the deepest depth and set the unit on bricks so only the shoes contacted them. This
allows the tines to rotate freely which is essential to ease installation of the drive line.
Next I removed the hitch frame (necessary) and attached the clutch shield. The shield is rather large and oval, the long side being parallel to the tiller frame. The shield has a rather large access hatch on top which gives plenty of room to secure the drive line and adjust the clutch. Once the shield was installed I set the hitch frame back in place. Doing so deformed the shield somewhat and also covers most of the access hatch. With the hitch frame in place its possible to adjust the clutch but not the drive line/tiller shaft attachement. The deformation though doesn't limit clutch rotate so, for now, I don't see this as a problem.
The next order of business was to attached the drive line -- a Eurocardan unit w/ clutch. The clutch shield is also Eurocardan. The tractor end of the drive line is a push button type connector and the tiller end is a split connector held in place by a pair of bolts. I had to spread the connector a bit before it would fit on the tiller's splined shaft. The tractor was backed into place, connected to the tiller (after replacing the hitch frame) and the drive line was installed and marked. I took the shield off the drive line for trimming, cleanup and grease. I think its best to cut both drive line and shield if theyre apart. It makes for a neater cut job and you can completely clean the old grease off which is now full of metal filings.
With the drive line cut and back together I attached it to the tiller, replaced the hitch frame (again!) and hooked the tiller to tractor. I then adjusted the chain tensioner as per the intructions and checked to make sure the gear boxes really had oil in them.
Assembling/adjusting the machine isn't at all difficult and easily doable in a couple hours. I had never trimmed a drive line before and took extra time to make sure I got it right. Having a stationary cutoff saw to trim the drive line would be very helpful. My drive line had hard spots which I think it would have been difficult to cut w/ a hand held power saw. (I used an abrasive cut off saw.) I trimmed the shield on my table saw. You'll also need some bigger metric size wrenchs and sockets. For my machine I needed 17, 19 and 24mm.
After finishing assembly/adjusting I only had a short amt of time to run a rough check and did a single row on untilled soil. The ground was *very* hard w/ many rocks which made the going SLOW! The slip clutch was too loose and needed to be adjusted a bit tighter. Before trying to till this area again I'm planning to rip it. I think that will help quite a bit not that I can go faster but so the tiller can work on looser ground w/ hopefully fewer rocks.
This past Sat. I was able to nearly finish tilling the main part of the garden. This section has been garden for a number of years and the tiller went thru it easily. The only hitch was hitting a couple basketball size rocks. The tiller doesnt appear to ride up over bigger stones but rather attmepts to dig its way thru...which obviously doesn't work...the tiller JuMpS around w/ great force...the first time wasn't pleasant. From my limited experience I think its best to go very slowly to avoid unnecessary wear to tiller, tractor and operator esp in areas you haven't done before. BTW I had the tines set to half depth. I did experiment a little w/ adjusting the rear gate. The results looked basically the same. Maybe in very rocky soil it will make a difference to have the gate all the way up so rocks don't cylce so long in the tiller. Otherwise the bed didn't look different w/ gate up or down.
I'm planning to use this attachment for gardening and restoring my lawn. I think its going to be a huge time saver! I'm sure the Caroni isn't radically different than any other tiller in its class and this write up should apply in part or whole to others as well.
thought a review might be of interest to perspective tiller buyers:
First, Caroni has a very good webite which has a fair
amount of free info available: http://www.caroni-spa.com
Its worth the time to visit.
The unit came unassembled in 4 pieces (tiller, drive line, clutch shield and hitch frame) strapped to a wooden pallet. A packet of documentation (owners manual, parts list and warranty) w/ top link pin was tie wrapped to the tiller. I opted to p/u at the freight depot to save some money. The
pallet fit easily on my 1/2t P/U and was loaded w/ a fork lift. I unloaded on the other end w/ my tractor. The tiller shipping weight was listed at 500lbs. All of the h/w for assembly and use was attached to the tiller frame. ASC also filled the gear boxes prior to shipment.
The first order of business, after unloading, was to move the tiller to a work area closer to the shop. I did this by roughly setting the hitch points and moving it w/ the tractor 3 pt hitch. I set the skid shoes to the deepest depth and set the unit on bricks so only the shoes contacted them. This
allows the tines to rotate freely which is essential to ease installation of the drive line.
Next I removed the hitch frame (necessary) and attached the clutch shield. The shield is rather large and oval, the long side being parallel to the tiller frame. The shield has a rather large access hatch on top which gives plenty of room to secure the drive line and adjust the clutch. Once the shield was installed I set the hitch frame back in place. Doing so deformed the shield somewhat and also covers most of the access hatch. With the hitch frame in place its possible to adjust the clutch but not the drive line/tiller shaft attachement. The deformation though doesn't limit clutch rotate so, for now, I don't see this as a problem.
The next order of business was to attached the drive line -- a Eurocardan unit w/ clutch. The clutch shield is also Eurocardan. The tractor end of the drive line is a push button type connector and the tiller end is a split connector held in place by a pair of bolts. I had to spread the connector a bit before it would fit on the tiller's splined shaft. The tractor was backed into place, connected to the tiller (after replacing the hitch frame) and the drive line was installed and marked. I took the shield off the drive line for trimming, cleanup and grease. I think its best to cut both drive line and shield if theyre apart. It makes for a neater cut job and you can completely clean the old grease off which is now full of metal filings.
With the drive line cut and back together I attached it to the tiller, replaced the hitch frame (again!) and hooked the tiller to tractor. I then adjusted the chain tensioner as per the intructions and checked to make sure the gear boxes really had oil in them.
Assembling/adjusting the machine isn't at all difficult and easily doable in a couple hours. I had never trimmed a drive line before and took extra time to make sure I got it right. Having a stationary cutoff saw to trim the drive line would be very helpful. My drive line had hard spots which I think it would have been difficult to cut w/ a hand held power saw. (I used an abrasive cut off saw.) I trimmed the shield on my table saw. You'll also need some bigger metric size wrenchs and sockets. For my machine I needed 17, 19 and 24mm.
After finishing assembly/adjusting I only had a short amt of time to run a rough check and did a single row on untilled soil. The ground was *very* hard w/ many rocks which made the going SLOW! The slip clutch was too loose and needed to be adjusted a bit tighter. Before trying to till this area again I'm planning to rip it. I think that will help quite a bit not that I can go faster but so the tiller can work on looser ground w/ hopefully fewer rocks.
This past Sat. I was able to nearly finish tilling the main part of the garden. This section has been garden for a number of years and the tiller went thru it easily. The only hitch was hitting a couple basketball size rocks. The tiller doesnt appear to ride up over bigger stones but rather attmepts to dig its way thru...which obviously doesn't work...the tiller JuMpS around w/ great force...the first time wasn't pleasant. From my limited experience I think its best to go very slowly to avoid unnecessary wear to tiller, tractor and operator esp in areas you haven't done before. BTW I had the tines set to half depth. I did experiment a little w/ adjusting the rear gate. The results looked basically the same. Maybe in very rocky soil it will make a difference to have the gate all the way up so rocks don't cylce so long in the tiller. Otherwise the bed didn't look different w/ gate up or down.
I'm planning to use this attachment for gardening and restoring my lawn. I think its going to be a huge time saver! I'm sure the Caroni isn't radically different than any other tiller in its class and this write up should apply in part or whole to others as well.