Tillage equipment

[mboulais]

I am trying to choose my next 3pt attachment. I sold a 3 bttm plow and a pull type cultivator when I moved and now will need some tillage equipment again. I am not ready to drop 2k for a tiller wide enough to cover the 6' track of my tractor. I am trying to choose one tool for under 1k to cultivate a garden and maintain trails

So far I have been looking at the king kutter line, I have thier box blade and like it.

1. The rotary harrow

Although designed for horse pastures looks interesting, not only for the garden, but for maintaining trails and the horse pasture (I have one of those too.)

2. The field cultivator

Not really a do-it -all tillage tool, but maybe good enough to get by. An old fashioned spring tooth serves well for trail maintenance for my father.

3. 6 1/2 ft disc harrows

Only looking at the heavy duty model, I have used disc harrows before and I like the fact that there are more angle settings and it is a heavier frame than the light model. I would probably twist the light one.

Any thoughts, Preferences, or Alternatives?

 

[Barneyhunts]

Marcel,
I bought a KingCutter 51/2 ' disc harrow last year (the heavy duty model) and used it on freshly plowed ground and it worked really well. I also used it on some short trails with decent results. The trails were not plowed and I had cleared them of brush beforehand. I didn't spend enough time on the trails to plant on them.

 

[JoeinTX]

Disc harrow....disc harrow.....disc harrow.


Short of the tiller it is the best tool out there. Buy it cheap, make two or three passes over the ground to get it where you want it if that's what it takes, and be done.

 

[mboulais]

Disc harrow....disc harrow.....disc harrow.


Short of the tiller it is the best tool out there. Buy it cheap, make two or three passes over the ground to get it where you want it if that's what it takes, and be done.

Do you think I am right to go with the heavier one?
I could put additional weight on the light one to get ground penetration, but I don't know if the frame is heavy enough.

 

[Beavis]

The heavier ones that I have seen are equipped with "sealed bearings" and the light weight ones had "gray iron bearings". So, the heavier one means that it should be pretty much maintenance free.

 

[Farmwithjunk]

The heavier ones that I have seen are equipped with "sealed bearings" and the light weight ones had "gray iron bearings". So, the heavier one means that it should be pretty much maintenance free.

Maintenance free? A disc? Come on now. There is no such animal.

(A) Even "sealed bearings" don't live long without frequent greasing.

(B) Seals don't last long in an environment of dirt and dust like a disc operates in. Then you have "unsealed bearings". Roller bearings/ball bearings don't deal with dirt contamination very well.

(C) Most all the economy grade to medium duty 3-point disc's on the market today use the same basic design of bearing and bearing carrier. They AREN'T the same as higher grade, higher quality, heavier duty bearings available on bigger "AG duty" disc's.

(D) "Boxings" or those grey iron bearings can operate with considerable wear. They deal with dirt contamination MUCH better than roller bearings. They have a tremendous service life expectancy. They've been around since the inception of mechinized farming and don't seem to be going away any time soon.

(E) Most of the 3-point disc's available on todays market have the option of roller bearings OR boxings, weight of the disc not withstanding.

Point is, the type of bearings on MOST all 3-point disc's today ISN'T an across the board indication of quality. After owning several of EACH TYPE, and using them quite a bit, unless I was buying a very large, very heavy duty disc, I'd be just as inclined to buy one with box bearings as I would roller bearings. I'd be MORE inclined to judge my purchase by things like gauge of iron in the disc blades, over-all weight, strength of design, and adjustability of the gangs.

The only "absolute" I know of with purchasing a disc is, get the heaviest model your tractor can safely and easily handle. Lbs per disc blade is THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT issue in the performance capabilities of any disc.

 

[dynasim]

6' king kutter tillers are much less than 2000, particularly if you catch them on sale.

Chris

 

[Gizmo36]

I think the Boxing works the best on light disc's .they will last longer then the bearing will.now on my big Taylor-way the bearing are in a pipe and in 90wt oil all the time .and they go bad I just put new disc on it and new bearing on it.

 

[mboulais]

6' king kutter tillers are much less than 2000, particularly if you catch them on sale.

Chris

TSC price 1599.99 for a 6' KK tiller + 128.00 tax. It's getting close to 2k and that will barely cover the track of my tractor.

TSC price on HD 6.5' disc - 969.99 + 75.5 tax. I can deal with that, less would be better, but I can deal with that.

 

[mboulais]

The heavier ones that I have seen are equipped with "sealed bearings" and the light weight ones had "gray iron bearings". So, the heavier one means that it should be pretty much maintenance free.

I have to agree with farmwithjunk. the grey iron bearings are probably the better choice on small discs. The worn out set I had would still roll when the bushings were worn about 1/2 through. The hd has sealed brgs, but a much nicer angle adjustment system and wieghs more. I may still add wieght, but I won't need as much extra wt.

 

[Z-Michigan]

I have a "Farm Force" 6.5 foot "heavy duty" (by TSC standards) disk harrow that is basically identical to the King Kutter disk. FWIW I think the Farm Force stuff is slightly better made, but the design is pretty much the same, price is exactly the same at TSC.

This disk has done an excellent job on our garden plot in terms of turning and mixing the topsoil and chopping old vegetation. Only downside is that with a couple passes of a decent sized tractor, the soil below disking level can be somewhat compacted. We remedy that by running our scarifier 1-2x after disking, but that's an extra step and extra implement. We would definitely buy the disk again. Only real downside is that it has cheap sealed bearings that, per discussion above, probably won't last all that long. A minor downside is that adjusting the disk angles requires two BIG wrenches and some serious force (long breaker bar, impact wrench, or we used a wooden mallet). Once you find angle settings you like you probably won't adjust it much.

One other affordable disk option is the one from Worksaver, which has fixed angles (not so good) but has greasable bearings, and is in the same price range as TSC stuff.

I'm not sure what you're planning to do on trails. Where we are, any trail would have tree branches and rocks, so the disk wouldn't work well. You may have different conditions or plans.

 

[sunspot]

This is an Atlas that I am looking at for my 47hp. Note the angle adjuster. It's on a screw type. Other harrows I've seen have a slide type that seems one would need a big crowbar to move the angle.
It seems like the screw adjuster would be easier.
Any thoughts on adjustment type?

 

[mboulais]

This is an Atlas that I am looking at for my 47hp. Note the angle adjuster. It's on a screw type. Other harrows I've seen have a slide type that seems one would need a big crowbar to move the angle.
It seems like the screw adjuster would be easier.
Any thoughts on adjustment type?

I like that one, The adjustment screws would work well as long as you lift the harrows off the ground to adjust them. That would go for any adjustment type though. Looks like sealed bearings. I suppose after they fail I could look for some teflon fillied ball bearings. They are used in industry for some extreme environments.

 

[wushaw]

My disk needs no tools to adjust the angle of the disk, I just use a pin with a clip on the bottom just like a top link pin. I can move the gangs by hand real easy to line up with whatever hole I want.
Here is a pict of mine. http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/...sk-harrow-901943-homemade-disk-harrow-014.jpg

It has been modified since this picture to be a true five footer.