Tiller for L3830

[napabavarian]

I have the beast home and the time to choose a tiller is coming, I don't like the KingKutter's inexpensive design since I might use it for light comercial work, I have looked at the CCM MR-175/190 tillers (66", 72") and need at least 66" to cover my tracks, I'm interested in the beefiest and more importantly deepest tilling implement that I can get my hands on I have 32 PTH HP to play with.

 

[john_bud]

I have the beast home and the time to choose a tiller is coming, I don't like the KingKutter's inexpensive design since I might use it for light comercial work, I have looked at the CCM MR-175/190 tillers (66", 72") and need at least 66" to cover my tracks, I'm interested in the beefiest and more importantly deepest tilling implement that I can get my hands on I have 32 PTH HP to play with.

Well, the King's 72 inch gear drive tiller is about $1400. That will weigh about 700-725 pounds. (I have the 60" version and it is 650 or so). The 60" is very tough, having been bounced off of buried rocks the size of the tractor. It has ejected rocks the size of bowling balls. Roots too numerous to mention. Stumps and bumps have been sucked up without complaint.

After 4 seasons and about 200 hours of operation, here are the issues found to date:

The bolts on the gear cover were rotated out by the action of the dirt. ~$2.00 to replace them
Cleaned the gear housing and put in new fluid.
Clevis for the rear hinged back plate that smooths the dirt out was lost in use. I just have it full down all the time - no biggie to me.
I broke 2 tines. I (ahem) tied it down to the trailer and got it a wee bit too tight.
There are about a dozen dings and dents from the inside to the outside and some of the mounting welds for the 3pt hook up are starting to crack.

All in all a decent unit.

I hear you on wanting a better one for comercial use. Just wanted to ground you on the KK, so you would know.

If you are going to get a commercial grade one get the Landpride RTR25 in 70" width. http://www.landpride.com/ari/attach/lp/public/specs/311-251s.pdf

For commercial work, don't even bother with forward rotation. Only look at reverse rotation. It will save you a pass on the seed bed. Especially for sod bound soils. Reverse also gets you deeper and acts like you are tilling at a greater tine speed. Tine speed on a reverse unit is the actual rotational speed PLUS the ground speed. Forward till subtracts the ground speed. At 5mph that's a difference of 14.6 ft/sec. It's a huge difference.

You also want reliability - that means more weight. Aim for 900# in a 6' unit. Higher is better. Lower is thinner metals. Thinner dents, bends and cracks.



Of course, all that comes at a cost. Last time I checked it was over $3500. And that was a few years back.

Enjoy the hunt!
jb

 

[jbrumberg]

napabavarian:

I have a CCM MR-160 tiller and aside from the fact that I had to cut each PTO driveline 5 times in order to get it to attach to my 3PH I really like it. It is a heavy duty unit. It handles my heavy clay and rocky NE soil and it will "throw" the pretty large size rocks my garden produces each Spring. It is a beast in prepared beds. It breaks up sod well, but I do need to make a second pass when preparing a new bed. I have "bogged" the RPM's down when preparing new garden beds but that is a function of my PTO's 23+ HP and being too aggressive in depth. jb is usually correct in his advise and his technical analysis is always accurate IMHO, but I read somewhere in my research on tillers that a reverse rotation tiller would be more likely to jam on big rocks and roots whereas a forward rotation tiller would tend to bounce over and/or "throw" rocks/roots. I will say that the Land Pride and CCM tillers appear to be better "finished" (i.e. paint and welds) than the KK and the KK literature gave me the impression of requiring more PTO HP than the other tillers (which would not be an issue for your larger tractor). Good luck on the search ! Jay

 

[napabavarian]

Thanks, I wasn't trying to knock KK, but those little problems don't look good when they happen at a customers house, and include the fact that I have older trucks because I don't want to make payments, taxes, and insurance on a newer truck (money much better spent on tractor stuff ) and I already have plenty to fix arround here, if I'm buying new I want it to just work. Peroid. The KK looks like the ticket for a home owner, but I am willing to spend a few hundred more to know that it will work when I hook it up.

As far as rotation direction, this one will be foreward, we have too many rocks in some of the newer locations to deal with reverse rotation throwing them ahead of the tines and then chomping them again, but maby in a few years I'll need to get a reverse rotation "tax writeoff"

 

[GaryE]

If you are looking for a "beefy" tiller, take a look at the Kuhn EL-42 series. I picked up one last year for my L3710. I have been real happy with it.

My soil is also very rocky, it handles it with out a problem. It cost a little more than it's competitors, but it seems worth it.

Kuhn Equipment

 

[john_bud]

but I read somewhere in my research on tillers that a reverse rotation tiller would be more likely to jam on big rocks and roots whereas a forward rotation tiller would tend to bounce over and/or "throw" rocks/roots.

True, and it sounds like Napa has more rocks than not. Still, being able to get in, till once and get out is better than having to till twice -- for the same money. In seriously sod bound soils I have triple tilled, N-S, then E-W, then on a 45 degree slant to get it really worked up well. A reverse till would have needed 1 or at most 2 passes. Doing 3.5 acres, that's some time saved.

Since I don't know the area's conditions, I can't give any meaningful advice on which way to go. But, calling the dealers and asking for references that are using the two types may yield some light on how well each works and holds up. It's much cheaper to learn from others than take a class at the school of hard knocks.

There is an old thread about adding a scarifier bar (like from a box blade) to the front of a tiller to protect it from rocks and such. If you have a lot of rocks, that may be a worth while modification. I think it was a McChalkey (sp?) thread? Also sounds like a HD rock rake to clean out the rocks may be needed too?

jb

 

[LoneCowboy]

So, I use mine commercially.
It was some cheap made in Mexico 60", it was only about $1800.
Tillers ain't cheap.
It weighs about 800lbs and has a slip clutch (that's huge BTW, don't buy any tiller with a shear bolt, what PITA)
It's probably got a good solid 25 hours of tilling on it already.
And it's still going good. It's got dings and dents (it's rocky out here), but it works fine.

Besides the slip clutch and the weight, the #1 thing you need to do to get a ripper of some type.
Either use a box blade scarifier, get a real scarifier or a plow or something.
Do not EVER use a tiller on virgin ground. Rip it up first, then till it. Your tiller will thank you and last much much longer and it will get much deeper.

BTW, I don't have a reverse one (I wanted one, too much money), but honestly I've done whole yards, I go thru, rip it, then till it and there is NOTHING left of the sod or anything. It's so heavy and going so fast compared to a hand tiller that it's just great.

I do think Landpride, Rhino, all those make fine tillers.

 

[napabavarian]

I have my eye on a single shank ripper, and I'm thinking of a 5 or 6 bar scarifier, the box just dosn't get deep enough I'd like to have the scarifier for top stuff and a single shank ripper to go down 18"+, as long as I can do it I plan to do some farmin

 

[LoneCowboy]

I've got that Landpride scarifier (6 shank) 5' wide
it's bleeping awesome
Waayyyy better than the box blade scarifiers
and, it gets deeper than teh tiller can go, so it really pulls it up
You definately go slow with it on.

 

[napabavarian]

Mind if I ask how much that scarifier set you back?

Thanks!