Question on Maschio tiller HP requirements (and others?)

[jim_wilson]

One of the things on my short list of attachments to acquire - is a tiller. So I've been reading a bunch of the tiller threads here on TBN to get familiar with what is out there and try and narrow down what I want to get. King Kutter and Land Pride seem to get a lot of recommendations - and on the higher end I see Kuhn and Maschio also getting recommended a lot for doing commercial work. The way I look at it is I have one of two ways to go - I can either buy something on the lower end because my immediate need is to just some small lawn installs and occasionally help out a friend or neighbor - or I can invest in something more heavy duty because my longer term goal is to potentially do some tilling for hire or help out some friends who have small farms. I tend to like to buy reliable tools that last a long time - so I'm not adverse to spending on a good tiller if it's worth the money and it's going to get a workout.

This would be run behind a Kubota B3200 with a claimed PTO 23hp.

During the research I ran across Maschio tillers - which I hadn't really heard of before - but they got a lot of good recommendations - especially from people who use them hard commercially. So I started looking into those as a possible option. ( I had spent a good amount of time looking at the Kuhn stuff too). But the Maschio stuff has me a bit confused - they seem to be saying that even some of their smaller tillers have some pretty high horsepower requirements. For instance the AL160 - which is a 64" tiller - is spec'ed as needing 30-60HP. I've seen a number of people here on TBN saying they're running 60" + tillers on tractors with similar HP to my B3200.

Do the Maschio tillers need more HP to properly drive them than some other brands - or maybe the question is: is there something about certain tillers that would require more HP to drive them than other tillers of similar width? Like 4 tines needs less HP than 6 tines?

 

[MtnViewRanch]

One of the things on my short list of attachments to acquire - is a tiller. So I've been reading a bunch of the tiller threads here on TBN to get familiar with what is out there and try and narrow down what I want to get. King Kutter and Land Pride seem to get a lot of recommendations - and on the higher end I see Kuhn and Maschio also getting recommended a lot for doing commercial work. The way I look at it is I have one of two ways to go - I can either buy something on the lower end because my immediate need is to just some small lawn installs and occasionally help out a friend or neighbor - or I can invest in something more heavy duty because my longer term goal is to potentially do some tilling for hire or help out some friends who have small farms. I tend to like to buy reliable tools that last a long time - so I'm not adverse to spending on a good tiller if it's worth the money and it's going to get a workout.



This would be run behind a Kubota B3200 with a claimed PTO 23hp.

During the research I ran across Maschio tillers - which I hadn't really heard of before - but they got a lot of good recommendations - especially from people who use them hard commercially. So I started looking into those as a possible option. ( I had spent a good amount of time looking at the Kuhn stuff too). But the Maschio stuff has me a bit confused - they seem to be saying that even some of their smaller tillers have some pretty high horsepower requirements. For instance the AL160 - which is a 64" tiller - is spec'ed as needing 30-60HP. I've seen a number of people here on TBN saying they're running 60" + tillers on tractors with similar HP to my B3200.

Do the Maschio tillers need more HP to properly drive them than some other brands - or maybe the question is: is there something about certain tillers that would require more HP to drive them than other tillers of similar width? Like 4 tines needs less HP than 6 tines?

Actually 6 tines require less hp. Smaller bites.

 

[jenkinsph]

For a 24ptohp tractor I would recommend a 48" tiller with a large diameter rotor and 6 tines design. You might be able to turn a 60" tiller as I do but it won't till up a given area any faster than the 48" model because you will be limited by your forward speed. You can only till as fast as the combination of tractor and tiller can keep up. I do recommend you get a tiller that will cover your tire tracks and never liked the offset models.

 

[Ed of all trades]

I have 18 hp and a 60" KK tiller, but I do have hydro. Works well.

 

[jim_wilson]

Actually 6 tines require less hp. Smaller bites.

That's one of the things I was wondering - does a 6 tine tiller use the same size or smaller tines than a typical 4 tine tiller.

 

[jim_wilson]

For a 24ptohp tractor I would recommend a 48" tiller with a large diameter rotor and 6 tines design. You might be able to turn a 60" tiller as I do but it won't till up a given area any faster than the 48" model because you will be limited by your forward speed. You can only till as fast as the combination of tractor and tiller can keep up. I do recommend you get a tiller that will cover your tire tracks and never liked the offset models.

The B3200 is a hydro tractor - so if I understand correctly I just adjust the tractor speed to the speed of the tiller?

A 48" tiller is not going to cover the tracks on this tractor - a 54" might - just barely. I can see other benefits to a tiller that will offset: one of them being able to till right up next to something more easily than if you have to get the tractor right up next to that object. But I've also read a lot of people here on TBN who are down on the side shift tillers for some reason.

 

[jim_wilson]

For a 24ptohp tractor I would recommend a 48" tiller with a large diameter rotor and 6 tines design. You might be able to turn a 60" tiller as I do but it won't till up a given area any faster than the 48" model because you will be limited by your forward speed. You can only till as fast as the combination of tractor and tiller can keep up. I do recommend you get a tiller that will cover your tire tracks and never liked the offset models.

I'm also in New England - where I will definitely be coming across a lot of rocks - all things being equal - am I better off hitting a rock at a slower speed with a wider tiller - or whacking it a higher speed with a smaller tiller?

 

[MtnViewRanch]

That's one of the things I was wondering - does a 6 tine tiller use the same size or smaller tines than a typical 4 tine tiller.

Jim, 4 or 6 tines is not what determines the tine length. Typical? :confused3: You think that anything that we deal with is "typical" :laughing:

 

[jim_wilson]

Jim, 4 or 6 tines is not what determines the tine length. Typical? :confused3: You think that anything that we deal with is "typical" :laughing:

That's sort of what I figured. Unlike stuff like ripper shanks for box blades - I figured that tines on tillers probably weren't standardized in any consistent fashion across the industry. The thing that threw me off about the Maschio stuff I was reading was that - where other tiller manufacturers might say you need say 20-40hp for a 55-60 inch tiller - Maschio is saying 40-60 on the literature I saw. So they're saying their tillers take 50-100% more horsepower.

Made me wonder if somebody isn't botching the marketing materials at Maschio and using the upper HP limit they recommend as the required HP instead.

I could see how Maschio *might* require more HP if they are setup with larger tines and more of them - but that isn't very clear from the literature.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

That's sort of what I figured. Unlike stuff like ripper shanks for box blades - I figured that tines on tillers probably weren't standardized in any consistent fashion across the industry. The thing that threw me off about the Maschio stuff I was reading was that - where other tiller manufacturers might say you need say 20-40hp for a 55-60 inch tiller - Maschio is saying 40-60 on the literature I saw. So they're saying their tillers take 50-100% more horsepower.

Made me wonder if somebody isn't botching the marketing materials at Maschio and using the upper HP limit they recommend as the required HP instead.

I could see how Maschio *might* require more HP if they are setup with larger tines and more of them - but that isn't very clear from the literature.

Do they not say what the maximum tilling depth is? I would think that maximum tilling depth would be listed? :confused3: I know that Land Pride shows the digging depth.