3520 arrived...first impressions.
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tuolumne
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I used my tiller for the first time today to turn over the ground for our raspberries. I ran a swathe about 6' wide by 60' long. The soil on our property is wonderful stuff. There are no rocks at all less than 2". However, the 6" stuff is pretty popular, and from there up to some real monsters. The biggest one I found during excavation was about 8'...I could not lift it with the excavator, but managed to dig a pit next to it and put it a bit further down. A few samples of what came up during the tilling are at the end of the row.
I ran 4 passes to test things out. Roots, sticks and sod (forst style, not lawn) were no problem, but I bounced over a few rocks. I went through with the kids between each pass and chucked out all we could find. By the last pass I had the tiller buried and no more rocks. I guess this is a good preview of what's ahead with the many acres we eventually want to till. It looks like rock picking will be our families favorite pastime. But as I said, with those stones chucked out the soil left behind is amazing.
Here are the helpers....don't worry, I would never let them ride in the bucket, this was just a photo oportunity.
Here is the tiller. It's the 665, and the tractor had plenty of power for it. I was surprised that even 1st gear in A range seemed a bit too fast at PTO RPMs for breaking new ground. I ended up backing down to about 1800 for the first two passes to keep good control with the rocks. I fought with the tiller for half an hour to get it on before giving up. The PTO shaft was just too long. I took it to the dealer and they took 2" off each piece while we waited. They thought that it had been sized for i-match, which sets the tiller back 4" further. After that, I had things hooked up in 2 minutes. Hooray, we're finally farming.
I ran 4 passes to test things out. Roots, sticks and sod (forst style, not lawn) were no problem, but I bounced over a few rocks. I went through with the kids between each pass and chucked out all we could find. By the last pass I had the tiller buried and no more rocks. I guess this is a good preview of what's ahead with the many acres we eventually want to till. It looks like rock picking will be our families favorite pastime. But as I said, with those stones chucked out the soil left behind is amazing.
Here are the helpers....don't worry, I would never let them ride in the bucket, this was just a photo oportunity.
Here is the tiller. It's the 665, and the tractor had plenty of power for it. I was surprised that even 1st gear in A range seemed a bit too fast at PTO RPMs for breaking new ground. I ended up backing down to about 1800 for the first two passes to keep good control with the rocks. I fought with the tiller for half an hour to get it on before giving up. The PTO shaft was just too long. I took it to the dealer and they took 2" off each piece while we waited. They thought that it had been sized for i-match, which sets the tiller back 4" further. After that, I had things hooked up in 2 minutes. Hooray, we're finally farming.