Case-Ingersoll Tiller for a PT?

[KentT]

My latest score on attachments to modify and adapt for my PT-425 is one of these hydraulic tillers for a Case or Ingersoll garden tractor.

It has a hitch that originally pinned on the tractor's 3PT hitch bar. I'm trying to design something that I can put on a PT QA plate that will allow me to pin it on so that I can offset it to ether side to till out my wheel tracks. It is only 41" wide, and my track is now at least a foot wider with the large 28ci wheel motors I'm running.

I picked my tiller up for $400, shipped and delivered - a cool $1000 less than a new 48" one. Hope to get it modded in the next few weeks, ready for spring time gardening... Note that these are pics from the 'Net. Mine is actually white, and has a complete shroud, not missing the piece in the one pic.

 

[MossRoad]

Nice find! :thumbsup:

 

[J_J]

Does your PT have enough GPM's to run the tiller?

It will probably turn it regardless of the GPM's.

What's good about hyd tillers is that you can do a reverse till..

 

[KentT]

The 425 PTO pumps 8 GPM at 2500 PSI. I think -- not sure -- that the spec for that tiller is 10 GPM max. It is for their 10-14 HP tractors.

 

[J_J]

If their tractors are 14 HP, they can pump about 8 GPM at 2500 psi, so you seem to have a good match for your 425.

 

[KentT]

Yep, and these are much more affordable than JD or others out there...

Case Ingersoll H 70 Hydraulic Tiller | eBay

 

[KentT]

Got my first chance to use this today, so I thought I'd provide some pics. It's not as pretty as some of the pics I'd posted from the web earlier...

Since the tiller is not as wide as my PT's stance, I made the mount so that I could offset the tiller to either side, and adjust its offset in about 3" increments using the original mounting holes:

This garden spot had not been plowed or tilled in at least 3 years, and it was still a bit too wet, but I was getting impatient. Results of first pass:

After a second pass:

Overall, I'm quite pleased with it, on my first use. Once I get more familiar with it, and perhaps learn how to back up an articulated machine in a straight line, it will work just fine...

 

[cqaigy2]

Sweet!

Which direction does it turn? What happens if you try to drive forward, other then run over your tilled soil? Maybe forward once or twice as needed and do the last run backward to leave it pretty.

If i didn't have a smallish tiller already....

 

[KentT]

It spins toward the PT from the top. It can be used driving forward, kind of like a tiller with counter-rotating tines, but you can't do it with the lift arms in float position. In float position, going forward, the PT will try to climb up onto the tiller rather than push it into the untilled soil. You can push it forward, as long as you're controlling the lift arms.

Works fine in float position if you drive in reverse. The challenge becomes backing up in a straight line. The only way I could do that was to totally ignore what the tiller was doing, and focus on driving in reverse. If I watched the tiller, I'd inevitably overcorrect...

 

[woodlandfarms]

That is a huge garden. Huge... Nice idea on the offset....