Sub soiler for compact

queen of spades · Oct 13, 2009

Northern stopped selling the king kutter compact subsoiler.. anyone else still sell this?

James Loehr · Oct 13, 2009

I got one last week for my BX at Tactor Supply. It's the same as King Kutter.

Dmace · Oct 13, 2009

CountyLine Middle Buster Sub-Soiler Combo - 2122476 | Tractor Supply Company - $139.99

bp fick · Oct 13, 2009

These, I think, are all made by Tartar anyhow. County Line, Farm Force, KK, etc.
TSC and other farm stores have them, many of them, at least around here.

I LOVE mine. It is fantastic.

queen of spades · Oct 14, 2009

bp fick said:
These, I think, are all made by Tartar anyhow. County Line, Farm Force, KK, etc.
TSC and other farm stores have them, many of them, at least around here.

I LOVE mine. It is fantastic.

Is Tartar manufactured here or in china?

20 20 · Oct 14, 2009

TSC has them

Phineas7 · Oct 14, 2009

I have this one: CountyLine Sub Soiler - 2128333 | Tractor Supply Company

The main spar is about 1" x 4" solid steel, very heavily built. The welding is ok at best, but if it breaks I can fix it, but I can't buy the steel to build one for that price.
I believe it is longer (digs deeper) than the combo version, but not 100% sure.
When I lift it to the max (JD790), it's only about 4" or so off the gound. I wouldn't want to drop down the edge of the driveway with it back there.

ChuckinNH · Oct 14, 2009

Phineas7 said:
I have this one: CountyLine Sub Soiler - 2128333 | Tractor Supply Company

The main spar is about 1" x 4" solid steel, very heavily built. The welding is ok at best, but if it breaks I can fix it, but I can't buy the steel to build one for that price.
I believe it is longer (digs deeper) than the combo version, but not 100% sure.
When I lift it to the max (JD790), it's only about 4" or so off the gound. I wouldn't want to drop down the edge of the driveway with it back there.

Yes, that one is much longer than the combo one, and I think it's too long for the smaller B series, and BX series tractors. The "yellow" middlebuster is OK though, and stronger than the combo unit so I'm just going to add a subsoiler blade to mine.

bp fick · Oct 14, 2009

Tarter Gate is a US company. http://www.tartergate.com/

Agreed, some of the larger sub-soiler/middle busters are simply too tall for the BXs. Most users have dodged that issue with the shorter models, or XB models. Measure carefully.

Raves all around for them by most guys, including me.

Baby Grand · Oct 14, 2009

I have the same one as Phineas7 - it was on sale at TSC about 2 years ago. It's a beast and I run it deep - with the cross bar just scraping soil. Every so often I'll snag something - a root or cobble - and get pitched forward, hard. That reminds me - adding shear pin protection for the KK Sub Soiler is on my welding to-do list. I got a 15" Middle buster blade from Agri-Supply that I put on it when potato planting season rolls around. Works great - my shovel hates me now.

-Jim

roamerr · Oct 14, 2009

OK -- question:

Why do I need a shear pin on a subsoiler if using with a Kubota BX? I use a subsoiler like the TSC one and if it hangs on a root or big rock the BX will stop moving and just spin. On a large tractor the shear pin may be needed but on the BX I do not see the need.

DonWorrell · Oct 14, 2009

ChuckinNH said:
Yes, that one is much longer than the combo one, and I think it's too long for the smaller B series, and BX series tractors. The "yellow" middlebuster is OK though, and stronger than the combo unit so I'm just going to add a subsoiler blade to mine.

How many Horse power is reccomended for this subsioler. I have a Mahobdra 3325 and it is rated at 35 hp. Is is enough to break up the hard pan about 20 inches down.

Don

Phineas7 · Oct 14, 2009

Which one? The county line? There's a link on my post, I belive it's 50 hp.

jenkinsph · Oct 14, 2009

I have one of the tractor supply "subsoilers" but don't really consider it to be a real subsoiler. It in my opinion would need a larger foot that will buldge the ground around it while running about 24 to 36" deep. Takes about 75 hp per point. Would make a very good parking brake for a compact tractor.

A chisel plow can run 12" and I don't consider that to be subsoiling either.

Steve

Welshman · Oct 15, 2009

ChuckinNH said:
Yes, that one is much longer than the combo one, and I think it's too long for the smaller B series, and BX series tractors. The "yellow" middlebuster is OK though, and stronger than the combo unit so I'm just going to add a subsoiler blade to mine.

The ones I've looked at at TSC don't measure out to allow the sub-soiler blade to mount to the middle buster, without modifications but it does appear that you can bolt on the middle buster plow to the sub-soiler. I was going to go buy the sub-soiler today, until I saw this post. I know they change the spec's and construction on these things from time to time (in fact, my local store has two similar - same stock # -, but different sub-soilers sitting on the floor right now - one's about 4" longer (deeper) than the other.
Does anybody have first hand experience with this "conversion"?

I went there first to buy the "official" combination unit, but it's way too small, maybe better suited to a "sub-compact" tractor.

ChuckinNH · Oct 15, 2009

Well, it is not "real" subsoiling, but the object is often to just break the "tiller pan" which may be down there 4"-8". It seems to be the best we can do with our small tractors.

You are right about the subsoiler blade not fitting the middlebuster. I was just thinking of cutting a piece of 3/8"-1/2" steel to fit, and drilling the holes to match those on the plow blade. The problem I saw with the full size subsoiler is that the attaching pins were around 25" off the ground, and I doubt my Kubota B2620 would lift the thing more than an inch, or two. Of course that allows it to go deeper in the soil if you can lift it enough for transport. Now if we could combine a design for a shear pin with a way to pivot it out of the way............. it would be worth modifying.

Welshman · Oct 15, 2009

ChuckinNH said:
The problem I saw with the full size subsoiler is that the attaching pins were around 25" off the ground, and I doubt my Kubota B2620 would lift the thing more than an inch, or two. Of course that allows it to go deeper in the soil if you can lift it enough for transport.

Good point. Since I've never operated one of these, my question is how "vertical" do you operate them? I assumed looking at it that the "main spar" would be set at some (??)significant angle to the ground surface, which would "use up" some of that 25". TSC lists these as "12" maximum ripping depth". Am I thinking right or not?

jenkinsph · Oct 15, 2009

I pull mine with the mast vertical and as deep as it will go, the foot has the proper angle built in.

Steve

jnjpream · Oct 15, 2009

Would somebody mind posting what the tooth angle and what the shank dimentions are on a (single purpose) sub-soiler?

Thanks.

(Just got a welder and looking for a project to practice on).

Iplayfarmer · Oct 15, 2009

ChuckinNH said:
Now if we could combine a design for a shear pin with a way to pivot it out of the way............. it would be worth modifying.

I'm still waiting to see how the shear pin part works as my home built subsoiler has been pretzelified twice now. The pivot is easy: Just add another set of ears for the top link on the back of the implement. Pull the top link pin, roll the top of the implement forward, and attach the top link to the ears that are on the back (now the top).