King Kutter disc is a piece of garbage

[Chain Bender]

King Kutter disc is a "MISFIT" edited

Spent a little over 20K last week on a new Kubota L3200, King Kutter bush hog and a King Kutter adjustable disc. Today I hooked up the disc. I removed the bolts from the adjustment slide and thought I was going to adjust the disc for full bite. WRONG! Could not even budge either the front or back. Studied it for a while and found that the bolts that attach the flanges across the top and the bottom of the slide rail to each gang were so tight that the flanges were actually bent around the center rail of the disc. Also, on each flange there were pieces of flat stock about 1/2" wide welded on the flanges right up next to where they make contact with the center rail. They were welded so tight against the center rail there was no wiggle room so the discs could be adjusted. So I took the flanges off and ground about an 1/8th of an inch off all eight of these pieces of flat stock and remounted the flanges. If I tightened the nuts on the bolts tight enough I thought that they wouldn't come off I still couldn't slide either of the discs forwards or backwards. Again I loosened the flange bolts and tried to adjust the discs. Finally after all that I was able to get the discs to move one hole and then the leading corner of the "L" flanges would hit on the main frame, preventing the discs from being adjusted more than one hole.

Unbelieveable poor design and or craftsmanship for an $1100 disc.

Wonder now what problems I'm facing with the bush hog.

Chain Bender

 

[kf4uda]

Ouch, I believe that I would contact King Kutter and give them a little feedback about the problems. Never know they might help you out in some way.

 

[kebo]

For that much money, you could have bought a Frontier disc harrow like mine and avoided all that trouble!! They have a very simple, but effective, design to adjust the gangs and then lock them in place. No hassles!

 

[FredH]

Are You Talking this type KK disk ?

King Kutter Incorporated


Although I could adjust mine , the problem I noticed was that regardless of angle set , Front axle would always throw more out than back axle would pull back in , leaving hills or if next to a fence , it would just keep piling up against fence .

I ended up doing some mods to mine , cupping both front and back disk's inwards and welding the front hangers onto additional 1/2" stock that was welded onto the main frame . Although it left a gap in the center that does not get turned , I usually only move over 1/2 the disk width for next pass .

One of these days I will find my camera cord so I can post pictures again , have a bunch on the camera but cord is ?????????????????

Fred H.

 

[bullbreaker]

Wonder now what problems I'm facing with the bush hog.
Chain Bender

Don't know but make dang sure your gear box oil has correct level of fluid in it(80/90).

Here's my A@B eagleline(Tenn.) DH(6'1/2).Rear disc wheels same as front(Canadien made) knotched.
Boone

 

[Soundguy]

if it was new I'd have taken it back vs any doctoring on it.. etc.

soundguy

 

[TractorTidy]

Unfortuantly, that's what can happen w/ lesser quality brands. The price may be good, quality many times is not. I cringe when I see people buy things at places like TSC, Lowes, Rural King, etc.. It's cheap, low end stuff w/ no dealer support.

Spend a little more and buy a better a quality piece like Woods, Land Pride, Rhino, etc.. You spent good money on the tractor, why skmip on the implements. They take the beating.

Hope your cutter is better but don't be surprised if it isn't.
King Kutter is low quality.

 

[Soundguy]

Unfortuantly, that's what can happen w/ lesser quality brands. The price may be good, quality many times is not. I cringe when I see people buy things at places like TSC, Lowes, Rural King, etc.. It's cheap, low end stuff w/ no dealer support.

.

that's not always true.

i have a 5' LL tsc mower that needed the retaining clip that holds the pto yoke to the mower drive shaft in case the shear pin broke. I broke it putting the drive shaft on. I called KK and was ordering one and the operator simply said she was mailing me the part free and to have a nice day..

had a similar low dollar need for a 10' howse ( hd model mind you ).. again.. howse sent a 25$ part to me free.

not all economy things are bad...

soundguy

 

[Chain Bender]

Are You Talking this type KK disk ?

King Kutter Incorporated


XXXXXXXXXXXX

No Sir. I'm talking about a heavy duty 5.5' disc. 3x3x1/4 box tubing for the main frame and the gang arms.

The problem with the disc is in the bolts that hold the two opposing gangs together where they slide back and forth over the adjustment/center rail of the frame. They appear to be 5/8" bolts through the plates and then through the gang frame and then through another plate. When you adjust the cutting angle of the gangs the 5/8" bolts have to serve as pivot points. As the cross plate slides forward or backward over the adjustment holes, the gang frames must pivot at the bolts. The bolts only have a lock washer and a nut on them. So if you tighten the nut tight enough that it won't back off under use, then the plates are so tight the gang frames can't pivot or slide freely over the center rail/adjustment beam. Never mind the four 1/2" wide pieces of flat bar welded to the cross plates against the center/adjustment rail. Think I'm going to grind the weld off those tomorrow and pop them off.

STILL though, I have to put a spacer between the cross plate and the gang beam/frame between each plate (upper and lower) to create a gap between the plate and the center rail so you can push/pull the gangs into the set you want. BUT, I don't think I can use a lock washer and a regular nut. I think I'm going to have to locate some nylon insert nuts so they won't back off and drop into the dirt. I spent $20 at Lowe's an hour ago buying 4 6" grade 5 bolts and washers and 16 5/8" flat washers.

Maybe after I get all this done I'll be able to adjust the set without a compressor, an impact wrench and a 16# hammer. OH yeah, and I had to make my own 5/8" drop in pins since the disc came with grade 5 bolts just barely long enough for a lock washer and a nut to fit on.

Done whinning now. Just aggrevated with what could/should have been a better built implement for that much money.

Cheers,
Chain Bender

 

[k0ua]

My KK rotary cutter was/is ok. No problems, and have had it many years.

James K0UA

 

[sweettractors]

Spent a little over 20K last week on a new Kubota L3200, King Kutter bush hog and a King Kutter adjustable disc. Today I hooked up the disc. I removed the bolts from the adjustment slide and thought I was going to adjust the disc for full bite. WRONG! Could not even budge either the front or back. Studied it for a while and found that the bolts that attach the flanges across the top and the bottom of the slide rail to each gang were so tight that the flanges were actually bent around the center rail of the disc. Also, on each flange there were pieces of flat stock about 1/2" wide welded on the flanges right up next to where they make contact with the center rail. They were welded so tight against the center rail there was no wiggle room so the discs could be adjusted. So I took the flanges off and ground about an 1/8th of an inch off all eight of these pieces of flat stock and remounted the flanges. If I tightened the nuts on the bolts tight enough I thought that they wouldn't come off I still couldn't slide either of the discs forwards or backwards. Again I loosened the flange bolts and tried to adjust the discs. Finally after all that I was able to get the discs to move one hole and then the leading corner of the "L" flanges would hit on the main frame, preventing the discs from being adjusted more than one hole.

Unbelieveable poor design and or craftsmanship for an $1100 disc.

Wonder now what problems I'm facing with the bush hog.

Chain Bender

FWIW, Carry a wrench with when disking. Checking the tightness of the axle nuts is imperative until all settles in. Ken Sweet

 

[LD1]

Boy, what an interesting read.

Here's my thoughts.

First of all, for those of us that are unfamiliar with that disk, some pictures would be helpful.

Second, No sense in badmouthing and bashing KK IMO.

KK is by far not the worst or lowest quality implement manufacture. But I'm certainly not saying their the best either. It's like everything on the market today, there is different quality levels. You certainly wouldn't buy a hyuandi and expect it to be of lexus quality would you??

And as with everything in manufacturing and mass-production, problems can arise. NOTHING is perfect and NO companies make 100% perfect products 100% of the time. Thats what customer service and warrenties are for.

What makes a good company is how they handle the occasional situation like yours where a problem occurs.

Your first mistake was trying to cut and weld and grind on a BRAND NEW $1100 disk without contacting KK.

Like I said, things happen. No company is perfect. KK likely would have resolved the problem with you, but now they may not since you have "attempted" to fix it. But it is still worth a call to them to see if they can help. If they do resolve your problems to your satisfaction, to me that speaks volumes of them as a company. But even if they dont, it would still be good for them to know that there might be a potential problem with their design/manufacturing.

Before you do anymore KK bashing, I'd suggest you give them a call. If something goes wrong with your L3200 in the next week, are you going to be on here telling everyone how bad kubota is?? I have a L3400. My tach cable broke @ .3 hrs I contacted them instead of bad-mouthing them and they promptly sent me a new cable. That is why my next tractor will more than likely be a kubota.:thumbsup:

 

[gwdixon]

I had the exact same issue with a $3K Howse disc. Your description of the design and problems make me think that Howse makes the KK.

Like you, I fixed the out of adjustment factors so it now works just fine. Such things should be an expectation since folks tend to purchase based on price rather than quality. Equipment manufacturers have to keep prices down, or at least reasonable, to stay in business.

My take on it is that you are dealing with a piece of farm equipment, not a Lexus.

Brand new, attachments generally have the paint chipped, rust spots here and there, things don't line up exactly, and then you are going to take it out and beat it around anyway.

First time the 3PH is hooked up the paint in that area is toast. No reason to get **** about it, just deal with it and move on.

Take a look at any 5+ year old farm equipment and there are welds, rust, bends, wear, faded paint, and so forth. They still command a high price as their usefulness is not diminished.

 

[Chain Bender]

I suppose I could change my schedule full of doctor's appointments for myself and wife and go ahead and load the tractor and disc back up on my trailer adn haul it the 50 miles to where I bought it from and drop it off and let them (the tractor dealership) let it sit in the back lot for a month or so while they make contact with KK. Mean while, I'm out a $1100 implement I need to be using.

If I contacted KK do you think they would send a service truck to my house to correct the shoddy craftmanship and save me two trips to the dealership? Doubt it seriously.

I'm not much with all the picture posting, but I'll try to take some pics this morning before I go to church to show the "poblems" I have encountered.

Bottom line is that with the configuration the disc is sold in it is impssible to adjust the gang set without completely removing a 5/8 inch bolt (adjustment pin) and loosening a pair of 5/8" bolts on each interior gang. Then and only then can you move the gangs. Then you can drop the center (adjusting) bolt back in, re-tighten the two bolts on the gangs, then tighten the center bolt. Repeat this for the other set of gangs if you wish to adjust them too.

Oh, wait a minute. There's this problem with a 3/8" thick piece of metal bumping up against the main frame preventing the gangs from moving more than one adjustment hole.

Maybe I'm the only one to experience the problem, but I doubt it.

CB

 

[Ford850]

Are you talking about a KK disk like this?

 

[sweettractors]

What ever happened to the King Kutter Rep that was on TBN regularly back earlier? If your disc problem was a anomaly, The box store would just give you another disc or your money back. Ken Sweet

 

[Ford850]

Or this one?

 

[Ford850]

What ever happened to the King Kutter Rep that was on TBN regularly back earlier? If your disc problem was a anomaly, The box store would just give you another disc or your money back. Ken Sweet

Sweet, it sounds like he bought it with his new tractor from a dealer.

 

[sweettractors]

Sweet, it sounds like he bought it with his new tractor from a dealer.

I did not catch that Ford, however, The dealer would probably do the same swap out or money back. In addition the dealer could send some one out with correct parts to make the repair. Ken Sweet

 

[Chain Bender]

Here's the disc I've been bad mouthing. As you can see, it's not a giant, but isn't a cheap angle iron lightweight either.