Buying Advice Tiller recomendation for B3200; I've narrowed it down to 3 candidates

[Nanook]

Hi,
I finally bought my Kubota B3200 HSD. So far, I am very happy with it, although I have not had a lot of time to work with it. I am now looking for a rototiller for it. Since it only has 23 pto hp, I figure I should not go larger than 48 inches on the tiller. But, since the wheel width is something like 58 inches, that means that I need a tiller that can be offset. I've read the various posts on reverse vs forward and suspect forward might be best for my present soil, but I am not sure. (I do have rocky soil, but the garden area has been previously cleared with an TroyBilt hand held tiller so most of the roots and rocks are probably not an issue. But, I may need to redo lawn or expand the garden area and my soil is very rocky and clay based.)

The three candidates are the Howse Implements RTC48 inch. This is nice because it can be switched from forward to reverse. It is the most expensive of the three, being $400 more than the least expensive and about $200 more than the second most expensive. The next is the Phoenix T4-48. This is only available in forward rotation. It comes highly recommended by one dealer and it is supposedly built in Italy by a manufacturer that builds many name brand tillers. This is the least expensive. The middle candidate, in terms of price, is the King Kutter II 48 inch fixed offset. This, too, is only available in forward rotation.

I have to admit that I lean towards the Howse Implements RTC48 since it gives me the option of forward or reverse, but it is almost $400 more than the Phoenix T4-48. All of these have slip clutches so that is not an issue.

Any suggestions, experience, recommendations, or warnings would be appreciated.

 

[Baby Grand]

I have a 60" KKII and a 40" Phoenix/Sicma - both are very well built, rugged tillers. The Phoenix has some adjustment to the offset, which makes fine tuning it to fit our 48" wheel width machine easier. I believe the KKII offset is fixed - what you see is what you get - at least that's how it is on our 60" unit, which is slightly offset - just enough to work nicely behind our 63" wheel width tractor.

Consider getting a 60" tiller. Unless you are breaking established field grass you should have plenty of power to run it at a decent ground speed. If you need to do real heavy tilling you just slow down, especially with the crawl speed available on your HST tractor. We run the 60" on our 26.5 PTO HP, geared tractor and if it can't go slow enough (about 0.9 - 1.0 mph in 1st @ PTO speed), then I just don't till at full depth and come back for deeper passes until it's worked up to my liking. Another way to handle low power for the tiller is to remove the tines from 1 or 2 outside flanges, effectively making a much narrower tiller out of it for tough work and put them back on when you have lighter tasks to do.

 

[The Fred]

I feel the HST will kill some PTO power.
I ran a Land Pride RTA 1550 50 inch tiller on a 26 hp geared Cub Cadet 7260. It would rip all day long power never being an issue.

I just bought a new Taylor-Way 72 inch tiller which is basically a King Kutter heavy duty unit. I first noticed is has many more tines per foot than the old Land Pride unit . I bought it to use on an L3940 but last weekend tried it on my trustworthy old Cub Cadet. It is very wide and heavy and will rip up turf in just one pass compared to the old unit I had. It does however take more power than the smaller unit. I believe I will run it on the smaller tractor it works so well. It's nice having both wheel tracks covered up in one pass too. I see zero issues running this new 72 inch tiller on a small tractor. I guess you should try one first. I would suggest a 60 inch unit to cover your tracks.

My 2 cents, Fred

 

[beckmurph]

I run a LandPride RTR 1258 behind my B3200.
It does a good job. And covers the tire tracks.
More than ample power.

 

[bilrus61]

Check your Email Nanook. I think you can go a bit wider on the tiller.

 

[MESSMAKER]

5 foot tiller will work just fine. Try to go gear drive if you can.

 

[Nanook]

Thanks to all for the suggestions. It looks like a LandPride RTR1258 will be added to the list since many seem to have it and like it with a B3200 class tractor. My cousin is a farmer and he strongly recommended a reverse tine tiller. I personally liked the idea but was afraid that if I went to 58 inches my tractor would not be strong enough. But, that sounds like it is not the case. Plus, I am not in a big hurry and can always start with a shallow cut and increase the depth over a few passes. The other consideration was that there were not as many reverse tillers available in the smaller size that I thought I needed. I did like the Howse Implements RTC48 because you can set it to either forward or reverse rotation. But, they don't seem to be very popular, or at least I have not gotten much feedback on that model as compared to the KingKutter and LandPride units which seem to be universally applauded.

So, now I am leaning towards the LandPride RTR58 which was the original candidate when I was shopping for the tractor.

 

[Guesseral]

If you go with the 60" unit I would stay with the forward spinning rotation. The reason being is because the reverse rotation tiller will use more HP because it is also pulling against the rotation of the tires. When I use my (forward rotation) tiller it is really easy to tell that the tiller is actually pushing the tractor as it tills the ground, and when I am in really wet ground (I mean really wet) even in 4WD I know I wouldn't even have a chance pulling a reverse rotation tiller. Now if you get a unit that is changeable it won't matter because you can try it either way but if you are locked into one way you may not be happy. This is just my opinion and there is no scientific basis to my statement other that using my tiller and knowing what is going on behind me.

 

[Hillbilly Delux]

Nanook

I bought my Howse 52" last year and if I had to do it all over again I would buy the same one. I wasn't sure what I wanted in features and the Howse can to it all. Forward, Reverse and offset. I pulled mine behind my ford 8n last year which is not an ideal candidate for tilling but it pulled with no problem in forward position and covered both my tracks. I tilled four acres last year in forward on unbroken ground with no problem I just had to make multiple passes as I am in clay soil. After I tilled it forward I set my tiller up for reverse which is not as easy as it sounds but with about 4 hours of time it can be accomplished it's just not something you would want to do all the time IMO. When in reverse tilling mode my little 8n didn't like that so much even in very loose soil and I could only effectively reverse till the top three inches but what a nice bed it leaves. I have since upgraded tractors and it's nice to know that my Howse will offset to it and still till in reverse. No issues with the implement yet and tilled three of my friends garden with it to. It feels and looks like it should last me many years. I hope that helps you in your buying decision.

 

[tman1020]

i have about 20 pto hp and run a 60 inch kingkutter II. no prob. i am very happy with my choice. i was thinking about going with a 72 inch but the 60 is perfect.