removing tines on tiller to use on smaller tractor.

[windsor96]

I have a 48" king kutter tiller and my john deere 650 tractor struggles in sod with it. There are 4 tines per flange. Could I remove 2 per flange and stagger each flange to keep it balanced? Half the tines should make it turn easier and not robbing as much power. Just wondering if anyone has tried it?

 

[motownbrowne]

I'd be more inclined to remove all of the tines from each outside flange reducing your total width. You say it struggles, what do you mean? Are you operating in your lowest gear at PTO rpm?

 

[windsor96]

Not enough power is what I mean by struggles. The tractor is only 17 horsepower. It does ok in broken ground, but not at all in virgin sod.

 

[cmhyland]

Not enough power is what I mean by struggles. The tractor is only 17 horsepower. It does ok in broken ground, but not at all in virgin sod.

Windsor, are you tilling as a business? How often do you have to break new ground? Is the 650 PTO hp 17 or is the machine 17 total? Generally they say 5HP per foot of tiller so a 48" tiller would require 20 PTO HP as a guestimate.... I would say if the machine is struggling with 17 PTO hp then you should be breaking the sod in 2 or 3 in deep cuts.

I run 60" on 27 PTO HP machine and you still need to break field sod in layers. Even in my garden plots of soil that has been tilled many times I run about 6 passes to get the soil ready for the row builder. I like the consistency of dry coffee grounds, I can't alway get there due to moisture levels but that is what we work towards.

Good luck,
Chris