Disc Hiller Project Got Out of Control

Bilko · May 11, 2011

We are past ready to see the pics of the beds!!!

nspec · May 11, 2011

If it works half as good as it looks, you should go into production.

jwillett · May 12, 2011

Bilko said:
We are past ready to see the pics of the beds!!!

Sorry, I can only get to the farm on weekends, 2.5 hour drive. I need to go and see if I can fine the bedder at the local farm I saw it at and look closer at the forming chutes.

My friend that runs a tractor repair shop saw it and said it looked real good but wondered if I had enough tractor to pull it. I am only looking at making 6" high beds about 12" to 20" wide at the most. The soil is sandy at the farm and I am now wondering if it will hold together well enough. Planting is mostly done in SC but I plan to play with it and maybe plant some late stuff.

jwillett · May 14, 2011

Well I am back at the farm and hit it early this morning. Took my new toy to the field to see what she would do. On my first pass all I got was the hiller disc making hills with the pan never touching the dirt.

I lowered the pan and tried it again and still never got the pan all the way down to the dirt.

Next I raised the hiller disc and decreased the angle on them some and gave it a shot. Starting to get somewhere now.

Finally I started playing with speed and how far to lower the 3 point hitch. I set the stop at what worked best and found that in 2nd gear, low range, and 2000 RPM worked best for speed. The soil needs to be worked up well for my bed shaper to work so I hooked up the tiller and ran over the plot again. This location has lots of grass clumps and I broke it up as best I could. I think I can play with it more and do even better but a thunder storm hit and put an end to my playing and got me soaked to the bone.

Here are the final results.

Put my keys down to show bed height.

moored4 · May 14, 2011

Looking good! :thumbsup: Nice project and outcome.

What is the spacing of your hills?

Renze · May 15, 2011

You need some moldboards to get those hills up.
Here you can find plenty of ideas: http://www.baselier.com/E/p08.php

jwillett · May 15, 2011

Renze said:
You need some moldboards to get those hills up.
Here you can find plenty of ideas: Baselier

That is some really nice looking equipment.

Spudland_Dave · May 16, 2011

Renze said:
You need some moldboards to get those hills up.

Seeing the pics reminded me of why I got rid of my Disc Hillers and built this instead:

I dont think discs move enough material to make a nice bed...probably better suited for "cultivation" type tasks. I'm currently pondering combining the two...a moldboard type blade combined with your pan design and mulch/drip tape laying capabilities... Single pass gardening :thumbsup:

rus_geek · May 16, 2011

Spudland_Dave said:
Seeing the pics reminded me of why I got rid of my Disc Hillers and built this instead:

I dont think discs move enough material to make a nice bed...probably better suited for "cultivation" type tasks. I'm currently pondering combining the two...a moldboard type blade combined with your pan design and mulch/drip tape laying capabilities... Single pass gardening :thumbsup:

I've been going through a lot of hiller/bedder posts lately and remember seeing your design a long time ago. Tried every combination of search terms I could think of and still couldn't find you! Thanks for posting again!