Tiller Grey market tillers

[nebuniram]

I am looking to purchase a 3pt tiller for my tractor and was wanting to get all of your opinions. I can purchase a grey market tiller 60" (yanmar) for around $700-$950 around my area. Are these good heavy duty tillers? Is it worth that price or should I pass and wait for a used US model?

 

[flusher]

I am looking to purchase a 3pt tiller for my tractor and was wanting to get all of your opinions. I can purchase a grey market tiller 60" (yanmar) for around $700-$950 around my area. Are these good heavy duty tillers? Is it worth that price or should I pass and wait for a used US model?

First, that's way too expensive for that Yanmar. I have a Yanmar RS-1200 tiller (48" wide) that I bought 3 years ago for $300. I used it with my Kubota B7510HST to landscape my new house.

As for performance, it's a fairly lightweight tiller, not much good for primary tillage (i.e. tilling virgin, undisturbed soil) at least in my neck of the woods where rainfall averages about 19 inches per year. I had to plow the ground with a middle buster ($140 from Tractor Supply) before rototilling. Then the tiller worked fine as a secondary tillage implement.

Be sure that it's set up for your 3pt (some of these Yanmars are 2pt setups). Also, you probably will need a slip clutch (~$100) since your tiller may not have one and, like mine, may not have shear bolts either. I had to use the 35" long 3pt lift arms from my MF-135 diesel since the 26" arms on my B7510HST were too short to accommodate the slip clutch and the shortest pto shaft I was able to find at TSC.

 

[nebuniram]

Flusher, Thanks for the info, every used yanmar dealer site I looked at has the tillers listed in the $750-$900 range. I'm kinda on the fence if I should pull the trigger or not. Saying that they are not heavy duty doesn't make me feel good as virgin soil is what I will be mostly tilling out here in the PNW. Decisions decisions........

 

[greg_g]

Besides the obvious issue of where to obtain spare parts, you must be absolutely positive that the tiller you buy turns in the correct direction when you connect it to your tractor. Some unfortunate folks have gotten stuck with tillers that run backwards.

//greg//

 

[tony123]

I got my 48" Yanmar tiller for $260. I've beat the heck out of it on virgin ground and have had no issues yet. For all my grass seeding I set it so that it tilled a 2" depth on HARD clay soil. It did fine. For the garden, I tilled down to maximum depth and it pulled up football sized rock! Again, I beat the heck out of it.

The way I figure, it could fall apart tomorrow and it has well paid for itself. It's the disposable tiller philosophy. If I had a much prettier and more expensive one, I'd still be beating it up, but it would be much more painful.

If I were more respectful of it, I have no doubt that the build quality would give me a lifetime of tilling for a small residential application.

 

[flusher]

First, that's way too expensive for that Yanmar. I have a Yanmar RS-1200 tiller (48" wide) that I bought 3 years ago for $300. I used it with my Kubota B7510HST to landscape my new house.

As for performance, it's a fairly lightweight tiller, not much good for primary tillage (i.e. tilling virgin, undisturbed soil) at least in my neck of the woods where rainfall averages about 19 inches per year. I had to plow the ground with a middle buster ($140 from Tractor Supply) before rototilling. Then the tiller worked fine as a secondary tillage implement.

Be sure that it's set up for your 3pt (some of these Yanmars are 2pt setups). Also, you probably will need a slip clutch (~$100) since your tiller may not have one and, like mine, may not have shear bolts either. I had to use the 35" long 3pt lift arms from my MF-135 diesel since the 26" arms on my B7510HST were too short to accommodate the slip clutch and the shortest pto shaft I was able to find at TSC.

Oops--messed up the photobucket links when editing my album.

 

[Rowdius]

I paid $450 for my 4 1/2 foot yanmar tiller.

 

[john_bud]

The grey market tillers were originally designed to be used in rice paddies. The soil has been tilled for about 500 years (seriously, but historically manually turned), has no rocks, no roots, etc.

As you can buy a brand new KK gear tiller in 60" for $1100-1400 and it is 2x the toughness, why quibble? Now, if they were going for the couple hundred that they do here, it's a different story. But a 20 year old implement that was operated in water/mud and may have rusty gears, chain, etc? No thanks.

jb

 

[tony123]

John, some of these tillers do look rough, I'll admit. But at least half of the ones I've seen are still great tillers. Don't let the ugliness fool you. In fact, one in ten couldn't have more than 10 hours of tilling on them.

I'll have to disagree with the build quality comment. Yes, the KK is built a bit heavier. But I doubt I will ever have a built quality issue with my Yanmar. The margin is much closer in my eyes.

Good point though on the price spread. I just can't imagine why the Yanny would be priced so high around there. Is anyone else seeing pricing that high? The day I got mine, I could have picked from a dozen of them under $400.