6ft Rotory Tiller not getting job done

[ruffdog]

The link shows tillers that only go up to 5ft and at 412 lbs, it is 278 lbs less than a 5' King Kutter tiller. Weight is your friend if you are trying to penetrate solid ground.

 

[bigtiller]

The link shows tillers that only go up to 5ft and at 412 lbs, it is 278 lbs less than a 5' King Kutter tiller. Weight is your friend if you are trying to penetrate solid ground.

I seen that, something isn't adding up. People have been known to get 6' and 60" mixed up. The OP hasn't been here since yesterday morning, maybe he'll come back with good news today.

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

Hard ground here in Colorado & I have a 5' King Kutter farm store special. It has a hard time if I don't rip first. I either use a subsoiler or scarfiers on my box blade or land plane. It tills good after ripping. I want a heavier 6' to match my new tractor. But the 5' KK has done well so far. Tines are about toast & half the size they are up near the rotor. I've put a lot of hours on it doing horse arenas.

Tighten the clutch as others have said. If you let it slip for minutes on end it's probably toast already though. You should have it adjusted so it rarely slips under normal operation.

Annually loosen up the clutch completely. I generally jam a 2x4 into the tines & turn on the PTO. Sometimes the rust & gunk alone is enough to hold the clutch together & slice the 2x4. Once the clutch is freed up tighten things a bit & jam the tines again. Slip the clutch for a few seconds to clean the rust off but not heat everything up much. Then tighten to spec. If you don't clean & check the clutch annually or so it's likely to be rusted solid & notvwork when you actually need it.

I'm good about welding clutches.

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

I'm 52 and we've used an 8 ft LONG brand tiller since I was 9 years old. Used it on this year's garden. Never tilled hard ground with it. Either sub soiler, offset disc, chisel plow, or break plow. We have an 8 ft offset disc with a tongue and wheels, it will turn a hard gravel road into a garden, one pass. Offset discs are mighty. New ground is unnecessarily hard on a tiller. Sure, you can eventually do it. I can eventually beat this square peg in this round hole, just keep hammering.....

 

[WoodChuckDad]

Disc it first then use the tiller.

 

[jptort]

The mechanic who repaired my rotary tiller said they are not built for braking land. Need to disk first. If disk won't work, get it plowed. Once the land is in use, tiller can handle it year to year.

 

[JeffinNE]

Another vote to disc first...and find a heavy disc, not the small & light 6 footers--they won't do much. Any farmer neighbors with big discs to quickly do the job?

 

[Kioti Dave]

Have tilled quite a few virgin acres with a KK 60" tiller. It does take a few passes. I would go after a rain when the ground was softer. Go slow. After 3 passes, you should have more progress than what the photo shows. Go slow and be patient if you don't have access to a plow.

 

[gpm6954]

Two things. One, is the idea already stated, adjust the clutch. The second is to slow the ground speed of the tractor to as slow as it will go.

Once the clutch is adjusted the ground speed may be increased after the first pass.

The virgin ground is not helping your problem. If you can obtain a moldboard plow and plow the area first.

It might be best just to hire someone to plow the field first since they should have their plow adjusted correctly.

I agree with Gee Ray I have a Tar River and adjusted the clutch once been a great Tiller since.

 

[TractorTYMe]

I tilled virgin ground with a 5' Kingkutter behind my TYM T474 for a friend of mine that was going to plant trees and put in a drip line on 8 acres. Made it in a U-shape 10 foot from property line and 10 foot wide, took 2 passes and did really well. It fluffed the ground about 6-8 inches average.

 

[tjandrews]

When we first got our Tractor Supply tiller, we tilled a garden from the year before without plowing first. That was enough. We could tell it was too hard on the tiller, and we'd wreck it before long. Now, we always moldboard plow first.

 

[Gord Baker]

You should have PLOWED it first. Tillers are not meant to be working up this type of area and soil other than small Plots.

 

[lpakiz]

If you are uncertain about the slip-clutch adjustment, ask yourself this: does it make the engine labor when you engage the ground?
If the clutch slips without loading the engine, it's set too loose.

 

[dwm1026]

New 48hp tractor and 6ft Tar River tiller. Others told me this tiller is a good unit, and I trust their opinion. My land hasn't been farmed in 3 years, so weeds have grown. I mowed the weeds down first. I then hookup up my tiller and gave it a try. Ground is clay, loam so not exactly peat. The tiller's Slip-Clutch PTO protection keep the tines from running most of the time, basically making very little progress. I went over the land three times, having to adjust 3pt manually up just scraping the dirt so didn't engage the Slip=Clutch PTO protection. Painfully slow process. End result is maybe 2-3 inches of depth of till.

I'm wondering if I first need to get a small cultivator this run over this ground first? I have about 6 more acres to go and seems very inefficient to continue with the tiller like this. Can anyone think i'm missing anything here? I'd love to just keep the tiller on and not swap it out and buy another implement (plus hooking up the tiller was a pain in the @ss). Thank you

Just wondering, what are you trying to accomplish with the land? How big an area, acres? Doubt if I’d use a tiller to break it up, disc or chisel point, then a harrow behind the disc to help smooth it out.

 

[sandytrail]

I would never use a tiller first on that type of soil. Another thing I consider is the moisture in the soil. If it has not been plowed or cultivated for years and its very dry, I will probably wait for the right moisture and then plow it first. If it was worked in the past year, might use the disc first. I think using the tiller first risks breaking something on the tiller. Not worth it.

 

[tagnamee]

New 48hp tractor and 6ft Tar River tiller. Others told me this tiller is a good unit, and I trust their opinion. My land hasn't been farmed in 3 years, so weeds have grown. I mowed the weeds down first. I then hookup up my tiller and gave it a try. Ground is clay, loam so not exactly peat. The tiller's Slip-Clutch PTO protection keep the tines from running most of the time, basically making very little progress. I went over the land three times, having to adjust 3pt manually up just scraping the dirt so didn't engage the Slip=Clutch PTO protection. Painfully slow process. End result is maybe 2-3 inches of depth of till.

I'm wondering if I first need to get a small cultivator this run over this ground first? I have about 6 more acres to go and seems very inefficient to continue with the tiller like this. Can anyone think i'm missing anything here? I'd love to just keep the tiller on and not swap it out and buy another implement (plus hooking up the tiller was a pain in the @ss). Thank you

Ya, need to go very slow. May seem painfully slow. That's been my experience and turned things over pretty well.

 

[saxon11]

I seen that, something isn't adding up. People have been known to get 6' and 60" mixed up. The OP hasn't been here since yesterday morning, maybe he'll come back with good news today.

Hey all - i wanted to thank everyone for very useful info. I was able to make the following adjustments, and now the dirt is damn near like potting soil. Much happier now. Still slips on occasion, but much better than before.

1. adjusted the slip clutch 1/4 turn, tested, and repeat. Ended doing that about 4 times.
2. raised up the depth from 2 to 1 - so now the most shallow the tines can go (on a scale of 1 to 4)
3. double-checked my leveling of the implement 3pt hitch. I noticed the right side was slightly higher than left, so adjusted it down.
4. I have a large pile of composted leaves from last Fall I dumped a few buckets into the soil as well. Worked up real nice with the clay loam soil.

When I bring my tractor in for it's first 50 hours service (at 25 hours now), I'll have the mechanic look at that slip clutch to ensure the disk aren't burned out completely from my initial use of tiller (and yes there was smoke). thank you

 

[stso9d]

New 48hp tractor and 6ft Tar River tiller. Others told me this tiller is a good unit, and I trust their opinion. My land hasn't been farmed in 3 years, so weeds have grown. I mowed the weeds down first. I then hookup up my tiller and gave it a try. Ground is clay, loam so not exactly peat. The tiller's Slip-Clutch PTO protection keep the tines from running most of the time, basically making very little progress. I went over the land three times, having to adjust 3pt manually up just scraping the dirt so didn't engage the Slip=Clutch PTO protection. Painfully slow process. End result is maybe 2-3 inches of depth of till.

I'm wondering if I first need to get a small cultivator this run over this ground first? I have about 6 more acres to go and seems very inefficient to continue with the tiller like this. Can anyone think i'm missing anything here? I'd love to just keep the tiller on and not swap it out and buy another implement (plus hooking up the tiller was a pain in the @ss). Thank you

Agree with others, why not disc first? can only reduce wear on equipment....

 

[Railroad]

Your ground may just be too hard. I've had the same situation in SW Washington with a 49hp tractor and 5' tiller. You will want to hook up your box scraper and make some cross hatch passes with the ripper teeth. Once you've broken the surface, your tiller should do the trick. If possible, wait until you've had a little rain and the soil is just damp enough to till without gumming up the tiller blades. Run in low gear and go slow...make consecutively deeper passes. This is not a fast process.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

You should have PLOWED it first. Tillers are not meant to be working up this type of area and soil other than small Plots.

That is mis information at it's best... (worst)

99% of my tiller jobs are reclaiming old ground, pastures ect., anyone "claiming" that tillers weren't designed to do this, is just showing their ignorance about tillers.

Perhaps they have only seen cheapo tillers, well built tillers can and will take on ANY ground, including ground with rocks in it. This field was a VERY old pasture full of all kinds of junk and rocks,

Today that tiller has over 2,000 acres on it, and still has the original chain, sprockets, bearing ect...

This site has more mis information about tillers and how to use them than any other I've ever been to. lol

SR