I bought one a month or so back. Not really decided on how I feel about it. Had thought I was picking up one made by King Kutter, but saw the Tarter label after they got it on the trailer. Figured I'd go ahead and give it a try anyway.
It seems well enough built. Reasonably heavy at 629 lb. It looks very similar to the KK II, but the Tarter's torque tube is removable where the KK's is not. Mine had been sitting on the lot since last year & had picked up some rust in places.
Also on the plus side is the supplied PTO shaft. A nice Eurocardan with slip clutch.
Be aware they ship them without any grease/oil. You definitely need to fill & grease before use. It turned out that mine had had some water infiltrate the upper box, possibly from snow/ice build up around the vented top plug. I've flushed it a few times to try to get the water contamination to a minimum. One that hasn't sat out all winter probably wouldn't have that issue.
On the plus side, it does the job it is supposed to do - till dirt. No problems with its operation. No funny noises or vibrations. I was working in damp clay after it was opened by a middle buster. No gumming up, no bogging down.
One bad design element is the lack of weep holes in the deck to allow water to drain from the lower areas bordered by the box tube framing. I went ahead & drilled some 5/16 holes at the end corners so I wouldn't have standing water issues while waiting to get a workshop/shed built.
Tarter will not talk with end users. You have to go through a dealer to get any info. Mine had a bad zerk on the outboard hub (dinged in shipping). They wouldn't even tell me the specs for a replacement. TSC couldn't get info, just a promise to ship a replacement. Rather than wait, I found it was a 10 mm (metric) trying a few likely possibles provided gratis by TSC.
So, like I said, mixed feelings, but nothing that was bad enough to take it back & order something else that would have to be shipped in. It looks like it should do the job & I guess that's the bottom line.
Nick
