Tilling and mowing and reducing implement changeup time

[JD425AWS]

I have a JD i-Match quick hitch on my 3ph. If I take the pto out of gear, I can put the tiller on in about 3 minutes or less. Taking it off is under a minute, and I'm not hurrying.

JD made an "A" frame style quick hitch that should fit your 425 if you switch to the mechanical tiller. Is the hydraulic tiller that much work to connect?

That is what I am trying to figure out. I don't have a tiller yet, but my sense is that the hydraulic units are more time consuming to put on because you have to mount a hydraulic drive pump under the frame on the PTO. Based on the comments it seems like a quick hitch and a rear PTO may be the faster way to mount up and in a pinch I could till with the mower deck on if needed, which I don't think I could do with a hydraulic tiller.

The quick hitch seems to solve the main problem I have had on my bigger tractors which is that it is a 20 minute job trying to get a 450 pound tiller to line up properly to insert the pins, aside from the fact that I fear for my fingers every time I do it.

 

[bigtiller]

You really don't want to till with the mower deck on. You can, but it looks like cr@p and the deck takes a beating.

 

[JD425AWS]

You really don't want to till with the mower deck on. You can, but it looks like cr@p and the deck takes a beating.

Yes, true. I agree with that. You mentioned above that you had a hydraulic tiller on your 425. Can you describe the install process? Is there a hydraulic pump that has to be hitched to the front facing PTO?

 

[bigtiller]

My cousin and neighbor had the hydraulic tiller on a 318. I never seen him put it on, but i don't remember it being a big deal to do it. He would go into the garage and about 5 minutes later he was ready to till. That's about all i remember, except that my mechanical tiller would till the ground that his just bounced on top of.

 

[pmsmechanic]

It isn't that bad a job on my 4410 to change from a 3 point hitch mower to a roto tiller but I eventually went a bought a front mount mower. Yes there was some money involved but even with both mowers being the same width it was still an hour less to mow three acres of grass with front mount vs a rear three point hitch mower.