Tiller commercial tillers?

ed3357 · Jul 21, 2005

I am in the process of setting up a vegetable farm on 10 acres. The acreage was formerly farmed, but fallow for the last 3 years. Just bought a Kubota L4400, and I am now considering the purchase of a tiller. This tiller will be used alot, so it should be of a heavy-duty nature. What should I look for?
Thanks for the wisdom,
Eric

Bob_Skurka · Jul 21, 2005

You may want to look at the following website, they specialize in equipment for small scale commercial market farmers & truck farmers.

Market Farm Implements

EDIT: I should have also mentioned Mark Carter at CCI as someone to look up. My dealings with Mark & his company have been of the highest quality. When I think of commercial equipment for small farm I typically think of the website I provided, however we have some high quality TBN members to consider also. CCI is one of those members.

HayDR · Jul 21, 2005

CCM has 3 series of tillers equal too or exceeds commercial demands. We sell only GEAR DRIVE TILLERS, not the lighter duty chain tillers.
Just looking at the link above our MR series compares to the Howard HR20 and our SR series compares to the Howard HR30 series. You will notice we have a substantial price advantage because of the way we market our tillers. Take a look at the CCM GEAR DRIVE ADVANTAGES.

GeneD14 · Jul 21, 2005

I have a similar tractor: L4330 with a CCM tiller and it has worked out well for me. I have mostly clay with lots of rocks.

nomad · Jul 30, 2005

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EDIT: I should have also mentioned Mark Carter at CCI as someone to look up. My dealings with Mark & his company have been of the highest quality. When I think of commercial equipment for small farm I typically think of the website I provided, however we have some high quality TBN members to consider also. CCI is one of those members.
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All tillers (made in Turkey) are gear drive tillers. There is no chain drive tiller here. CCM (officially, there is no CCI) tillers are among average quality tillers in Turkey.

Egon · Jul 30, 2005

Whats wrong with a chain drive tiller??

Egon /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Charolais · Jul 30, 2005

Chains stretch. I had a Caroni tiller and had to tighten the chain 5 times through the first set of tines. Most equipment that is gear drive uses heavier bearings. The CCM 90" tiller I bought uses gear oil in the bearings. Not tube grease. Also I've heard it argued that gear drives are more efficient than chain drives. And less maintenance with the gear vs chain.

Under heavy use I prefer the gear drive.

Cactus · Jul 31, 2005

I have a Howard Tiller that is chain driven and I have tilled acres of ground that never head been plowed,no problems yet.Unless I am wrong it looks like one of the tillers in your picture may be chain driven.

HayDR · Jul 31, 2005

You are wrong because CCM has no chain drive tillers. You can plainly see the idler gear mount in this side view picture.

Charolais · Jul 31, 2005

I have one pasture that's 6.3 acres. Had lots of Privy bushes on it. So to kill those with roundup I couldn't use the rotary cutter to cut the Fescue and other grasses down. After spraying I found a good used Cat.2 JD subsoiler. This pasture hadn't been cultivated since 65. So the soil was tight. I ran the subsoiler over it first. Then went back and sprayed the rest of the privy. The subsoiled humps were to high to run the rotary cutter over it then. (used a 64 hp Long to subsoil/took 5.2 hrs and burned 18 gal. of diesel ) Finally got some rain and the privy was dead. I ran the CCM tiller down the subsoiled rows first. Grass in places was 15" tall and fescue sod. Then ran the tiller across the subsoiled rows to level it out. (used 73 hp Farmtrac, 5hr's and 20 gal of fuel) Both tractors sucked the fuel down because of the compacted soil.

Never had grass or weeds to get wrapped around the tine shaft and clog it up on the CCM. When I had the Caroni I clogged it up sever times. The CCM cut grass, sod and dirt like nothing I've seen in this area. As hard as the soil was I'd have never gotten a disc or plow in the ground. I now have my seed bed ready and just waiting for the proper time to sew here. Now by tilling that 6.3 acres both ways in 5 hrs. I figure that's pretty good speed for a tiller. The Farmtrac held up under some heavy work also. That tiller was all it wanted. Had that Perkins grunting at times. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif I kept it just under the lugging stage anytime the tiller was in the ground.

I've never seen a Howard tiller except in pictures. I've heard they are real high quality. I looked at a price sheet when I was shopping for a tiller. If I remember correct the price for the (Howard) same size I bought in the CCM brand was a little more than double. When running the CCM I see no faults with the machine. I couldn't ask for it to operate any better than it does. The CCM is one tough machine.