Something suspicious about King Kutter

[N1ST]

Apparently the hall monitor didn't like my abreviation for "hub assembly"

Jim, Please post on what you find out. My theory is that the hub can take a LOT of greese and when I give it a good working, the greese is settling so it can take more.

 

[Baby Grand]

Jim, Please post on what you find out. My theory is that the hub can take a LOT of greese and when I give it a good working, the greese is settling so it can take more.

N1ST -
Will do - as soon as I can get at it. Right now the tiller is pretty inaccessible until I move a bunch of stuff around.
-Jim

 

[kthompson]

Very much realize you are talking about their tillers but this Saturday as I hooked up to my KK rear blade thought on this post. The blade is rated for higher HP than either of my tractors..there has been I think 3 failures due to broken welds, 1 to metal failure. One major weld failure and the metal failure were both at slow speeds. With the metal failure it was shocking to see how thin the metal was the bladed assembly all welded to. BTW, the paint job is good for a scrap blade. kt

 

[Baby Grand]

N1ST,

I finally dug the tiller out from behind all the other stuff in the shed, mounted it up and parked it in the garage. After replacing a broken blade I popped off the bearing hub cover (the one with 4 small bolts & grease nipple). As you had theorized, the hub can take a lot of grease, about 1/2 cup, maybe more. Thats just on the outboard side of the bearing. The seal is actually red/brown RTV and looked like it never fully covered the mounting flange faces. After rummaging around for awhile I found my tube of red gasket goo, but it was solid, so off to Advance Auto Parts in Enfield for a fresh tube. While there I also scored RainX wipers for both my wife's car and my own (2 for 1 deal!).

8:00 PM and back at the ranch - cleaned off the mating flanges with a few razor blades and some brake cleaner spray, applied a goodly bead, assembled finger tight until oozing was observed. After about 90 minutes I tightened the bolts 1/2 turn per instructions. I will try regreasing late this morning in preparation for tilling the garden in prep for winter rye.

-Jim

 

[N1ST]

Jim,

Interesting about the hub. I didn't realize you were in my neck of the woods. I'll shoot you a PM.

 

[Taylortractornut]

Im having trouble with a customers KK tiller getting a bearing for it. it went out last summer. All the bearings Ive found are all different sizes either too small or too big. It mikes to and off size. He truck farms and uses it for a living so for now it has a Brass bushing I turned on the lathe and a little extra oil in the tube. I also got tired of having the ball bearings go out on my finish mower deck so I went to a bering supply and took some Fafnir taper roler bearings and rebuilt my spindles to take the side loads.

 

[63DH8]

I have a problem with Chinese so-called "precision" parts like bearings and gears. If you take any Chinese swivel caster and compare it to an American, Japanese, or even a Taiwan made swivel caster, you'll see where the Chinese caster has a space between the ball bearings that's noticeably larger than on the other casters. I've had bears fall out of almost every caster I've used on my tool boxes, creepers, and brake stool where the casters were made in China. I usually replace the casters with ones I buy at Grainger.

As for gears, I've had several break because of loose quality control over their dimensions. You can hear the gears "click" when you turn the gears over by hand at the one gear tooth that's off. That caused the gear to break off during work.

 

[N1ST]

I'm surprised, I had heard that it's easy to get KK parts. What did KK say when you asked them for the bearings?

Im having trouble with a customers KK tiller getting a bearing for it. it went out last summer. All the bearings Ive found are all different sizes either too small or too big. It mikes to and off size. He truck farms and uses it for a living so for now it has a Brass bushing I turned on the lathe and a little extra oil in the tube. I also got tired of having the ball bearings go out on my finish mower deck so I went to a bering supply and took some Fafnir taper roler bearings and rebuilt my spindles to take the side loads.

 

[keyser soze]

KK imports everything they sell from the lowest bidder. They care about price, and thats all. Go back to the store in a year or so and you may see a totally different line depeneding on who is giving them the lowest cost. The assembly on this stuff is basicly non-existant. Maybe the put the bolt though the PTO shaft on the gear box, but thats it. Speaking from experience, they are a horrible company to get parts from because of how they do this. We see many pissed customers in trying to find parts who are simply up the creek since KK changed suppliers and the old stuff is no longer available. The stuff is cheap, and thats it. I'd actually consider using them for things like box blades, plows, and simple iron implements. However I'd avoid anything with a gearbox.

Just as an example, their current rotary cutters are sourced by a Chineese company who also sells direct to dealers. (I am assuming this, they look exactly the same). Dealer cost is $350-400 on some models. The parts program that this company offered was "We'll throw some extra stuff in the shipping container for you". A Woods cutter, which is domesticly made costs us nearly 3 times as much. However thats what we choose to sell because we can actually back the product properly.

All of this is wrong. King Kutter equipment is made in three plants in the US (Ohio, Tennessee, and Alabama). Your example is where a chinese "mfg." (and I use that term loosely b/c it's such shoddy product) has attempted the copy the KK rotary mowers (and other products). They import a few products like spreaders and cement mixers from Italy, but all of their other products (I may have forgot one or two items) are made by US workers in the US. I've been to the facilities.

Lot's of company sell value equipment, not just King Kutter. Saying they only care about price is a little harsh IMO, but the largest market is the value and price point market. It's something they're good at. Some of the other companies are better at making an extremely heavy product, and there is a cost associated with that too.

 

[DaleV]

My 2 cents.
Product is great quality. Owned my King Kutter 2 for more or less 10 years and its tilled a lot of tough terrain with no problems- until recently- seal leak left end of tine shaft. I was looking for technical assistance from Rural King and referencing parts diagrams on-line and find a lot to be desired in these departments. Got the seals and bearing right off the shelf from a local bearing supply outlet. I'm working my way through the repair with a little forum advice here and there and hope to be tillin' again soon.