Tar River?

HawkinsHollow · Oct 23, 2023

I have a friend in the market for a tiller. She ahs hit on this Tar River tiller for $1575 for 48"er. Certainly it is a rebranded Chinese manufactured tiller. Anyone know anything about this brand?

Tar River Compact Rotary Tiller | Tar River

tarrivermfg.com

5030 · Oct 23, 2023

Ask Ken Sweet (he advertises on here) and he sells Tar River implements and Ken is a straight shooter.

tacticalturnip · Oct 23, 2023

@sweettractors I've tagged him so you don't have to go searching for him.

HawkinsHollow · Oct 24, 2023

tacticalturnip said:
@sweettractors I've tagged him so you don't have to go searching for him.

Is that the guy who imports these? Not sure who that is.

They are a pretty good looking tiller, but I have not done much tiller shopping.

HawkinsHollow · Oct 24, 2023

Did a little more digging on this tiller. They look pretty nice and it sounds like they are distributed from a reputable company with a good warranty.

kennyd · Oct 24, 2023

There has been lots of bad press the last few years on TR, search diligently.

HawkinsHollow · Oct 24, 2023

Oh, yeah

kennyd said:
There has been lots of bad press the last few years on TR, search diligently.

Yeah, I dug a bit deeper and there are some unhappy people out there from their experiences with Tar River. Thanks for the heads up!

CliffordK · Oct 24, 2023

That looks like a nice little tiller. I'm a little surprised it is listed as gear drive. I've got a little Howard with belt drive which always seemed like a really cheap solution, although it seems to work.

What brand/model of tractor is it being used with. I really dislike that my 48" Howard is narrower than my tractor. Anyway, get a tiller as wide as your wheels assuming your tractor can power it.

HawkinsHollow · Oct 24, 2023

Not my tractor. But their tractor is a Kubota L2301. I have only spent very little time using it. Do you think it could handle a 5' tiller?

CliffordK · Oct 24, 2023

HawkinsHollow said:
Not my tractor. But their tractor is a Kubota L2301. I have only spent very little time using it. Do you think it could handle a 5' tiller?

I'm not finding the L2301 on the web. There is a B2301, an L2501, and an L3301.

The B2301 is rated with a 20.9 engine HP, and 17.5 PTO HP.
The L2501 is rated at 24.8 engine HP, 20.5 PTO HP.
The L3301 is rated at 33 engine HP, and 26.2 PTO HP.

Anyway, I'd probably go with the smaller tiller if you have the B2301.

Although it would be nice if you could find a "demo" model to try out.

Hmmm....

Ok, Kubota puts out some recommendations for various B series and L series tractors.

https://www.kubotausa.com/docs/default-source/lp-pdfs/02-b-series-lp-implements.pdf

https://www.kubotausa.com/docs/default-source/lp-pdfs/03-standard-l-series-lp-implements.pdf

For the B2301, they seem to recommend 42" to 58" tillers.