5' tiller on B21 - has anyone tried this

[nvr-enuf]

Ok - Wanted a tiller for years, F&F speed shop (fleet and farm) is running a special on the king kutter II tillers $1299 for a 5' tiller! Normally $1549. The king kutter is now all gear driven, guy at King Kutter says the all gear driven is stronger than the previous chain driven. No more chain drivens are made anymore at King Kutter.
The 4' King Kutter II at fleet is special order therefore $1500 which does not make any logical sense to me. So I think I will just end up with the 5 footer.

Good new is that I have a new 24 or 25 HP kubota diesel sitting in the garage, which will eventually end up in the tractor so I will have a little more pto hp.

Has anyone used a 5' / 60" tiller behind a Kubota B21 before? I am assuming that you would want to run this in low to reduce the amount of hyd hp loss.

thanks for your feedback - can't wait to plant a food plot for them deer!

 

[eepete]

I use a 40" tiller on the back of my B21. In our clay soil it doesn't know it's there if I take it slowly (1 MPH). I have hit a rock or two and it can feel that. I tilled up a brick in the 1st 5 seconds of use that put a big dent in the tiller and the tailgate. Got that 1st ding out of the way in a hurry :laughing:.

My point here is that there are 4 factors that interact with each other:
size of the tiller, the hardness of the soil, PTO HP and the speed you can cover.

If you've got a 24-ish HP on the way (you didn't say if that was engine or PTO HP) then that helps justify the purchase too. The B21 has 13.5 HP at the PTO. So 20 HP at the PTO with a 60" is comparable to what I'm doing.

Not the "yeah or neah" you're looking for, but think about those four factors.

Pete

 

[MarkV]

I've used a 4' KK tiller on mine for the last 5 years. Did about 2 acres the first year and then just the garden after that. I think a 4 footer is all it can handle if you have clay like I do. Nothing has worked this tractor as much as the tiller in the last 10 years.

MarkV

 

[nvr-enuf]

Thanks - I wish I could get the 4' for the same price. Oh well - Looks like I will just have to take it slow and limit my depth at first.

The 24 or 25HP is the engine HP

Thanks
SAS

 

[Trigger]

I run a woods 52", I feel like I could use a couple more ponies. I just go slow and make multiple passes if I need to go deep. I have clay soil, also in the woods with plenty of rocks.

That said it does a good job on the 2nd pass after rock removal and going slow

 

[nvr-enuf]

Thanks - I called Fleet and tried to plea my case on what I want and for how muc. They do not budge - I guess I will buy the 60" and take it easy.

Thanks everyone.

 

[keyser soze]

Ok - Wanted a tiller for years, F&F speed shop (fleet and farm) is running a special on the king kutter II tillers $1299 for a 5' tiller! Normally $1549. The king kutter is now all gear driven, guy at King Kutter says the all gear driven is stronger than the previous chain driven. No more chain drivens are made anymore at King Kutter.
The 4' King Kutter II at fleet is special order therefore $1500 which does not make any logical sense to me. So I think I will just end up with the 5 footer.

just an observation, but King Kutter's 5' tillers have always been gear drive. They only chain drive that they had was for the sub-compact tractors. Would've been called an XB tiller I believe. It was chain driven and was imported. But now... they even make that tiller in the states. So every current King Kutter tiller is gear drive. And if you were looking at a 5' model, they have always been all gear drive. Current KKII tiller models would be a 4ft made for sub-compact's- gear drive (still called XB tillers), & 4,5,6, & 7ft gear drive models... I'm pretty sure that's all of them. I think they have something called a professional model also.

I agree on the assessment that gear driven tillers are better than chain drive tillers. But there are lots of opinions out there on that.

It's hard to beat those King Kutter tillers.

 

[gwdixon]

My BX2200 runs a 4' tiller just fine in fairly rocky/clay soil. It is no speed demon and the tractor does kick around a bit but it can be done.

A 5' tiller would really be at the edge of the tractor's ability to control.