Is Kubota's tiller any good?

[Lefty7]

A couple of other things this Sicma so-called 'Instruction Manual' doesn't mention:

Included with the tiller for installation are two rods that limit or control the movement of the big flapper door aft. They attach to mounts on top of the unit, one per side, and each has 2 springs, and several holes along its length with pins to set the spring tension. I guess I can figure out how it's supposed to go, but it might have been nice for them to mention it or show it.

What bothers me more is the scant references to lubrication. First, they tell me to change the oil in the gear case after the first 50 hrs. Fine. How? Where's a drain? Every 50 hrs., they want me to check the oil levels. Makes sense. There is an oil port on the side case of the gear drive, what they call the lateral drive. It's just a hole. Is the oil supposed to be up to the bottom of this hole? Should that case be filled with oil? It isn't. I can see the gears are not dry, but can't see an oil level, peering in there with a flashlight. They also have me checking the level in the sump/bevel gear pair, that thing that looks like a differential up on top. At least this one has a dip stick attached. No oil showing on dipstick. Once again, it's not bone dry, but nothing showing on the stick.

I'm assuming these HD tiller units are shipped with oil in them, although thanks to the maker or American distributor, I don't know that for sure. Does the tiller need to be run for awhile before I take the dipstick reading?

I noticed a little bit of oil tricking out, somewhere near the of the bottom of that side case when I was getting the unit off the pallet. Could some of the oil have leaked out while sitting in a warehouse, or in transit?

They actually do mention the oil spec. They say, "If necessary feed with SAE EP 80W90 oil." Wow. One more sentence or two, and I might have found out how to tell when I should do that.

If anybody can shed any light on any of this, I'd like to hear from ya.

 

[Lefty7]

I got the Phoenix/Sicma tiller up and running today, and it's definitely a working machine.

I centered it on the 3-point, and, eying it up, the outer edge of the tiller is just maybe 1.5" narrower than the outer sidewall of each rear tire. I have no tire tracks at all. Glad I shopped around for a 66", and didn't buy the 60" the dealer offered. The L3940 had all the power the tiller needed, at least in my soil here.

The dry dipstick bothered me, and I added about 1/2 pint before I started, to bring the level up between the two lines. After work, I saw a little lube oozing out of the side oil port, so maybe I overfilled it slightly, but better that than too little.

This is my first time using a reverse rotation tiller. Seems like the depth setting might be a bit more critical when you're working. Kicks dirt and lot of small rocks on the back of the tractor, too. But, boy, what a nice job it did just on the first pass.

The spring tension struts on the rear flap went on just fine, and are effective. Once I got to looking at them, there was really only one way to install them and have them be useful.

However, it does look like the Eurocardan shaft is about 2" too long. When the lower 3-pt. arms are extended to make the attachment, it's about perfect, but once you retract them, the shaft is almost fully collapsed and a bit too tight. So the shaft may need to be cut down. But to get it working today, I just put a big bolt through lower arm slots to keep them from retracting and locking, and used it that way with the arms extended. Just a temporary solution to try out the new machine.

Obviously, this tiller is new and I don't have a lot of time or experience using it, but it looks like a workin' thaang.

 

[KubotaEd]

This is my first time using a reverse rotation tiller. Seems like the depth setting might be a bit more critical when you're working. Kicks dirt and lot of small rocks on the back of the tractor, too. But, boy, what a nice job it did just on the first pass.


The reverse tillers do a really nice job, and leave the fine soil on top so there is a nice seed bed. The one "bad" thing about them is the soil must be quite dry or else all that soil going over the top of the knives begings to build up inside and it is a real job to clean out. That is why I'm glad I didn't trade in my regular tiller when I bought the reverse one. When the ground is damp then I use the regular one...both Land Pride, 50" powered by a 2010 Kubota (27 engine HP) which handles them fine