Tiller Tiller advice

[PaulieD]

I just picked up a 60" KingKutter tiller at TSC, but need to trim the PTO shaft before I can try it out. My question is this: the operator manual advises me to adjust the skids and adjust the back plate. I assume adjusting the skids will change the depth to which I till, but I don't know what to expect by adjusting the back plate.

I only have 40 hours on a tractor and 0 hours on a tiller, so any operator advice would be welcome.

Thanks,

Paul

 

[LGinIA]

I am a new tiller user and believe that adjusting the skids will control tiller depth as you mention. The back plate will help adjust how fine the dirt will till--if plate close unit will till finer and if farther back it will till coarser. Someone else may have a different thought on this . Good luck with your tiller.

 

[LarryD]

If I understand your question correctly, the manual tells you to adjust the skids and tail-gate prior to cutting the shaft?

This is probably to find the maximum extents the pto shaft will reach when tilling at full depth. On flat ground this still wont be the maximum extension since the tines will be sitting on the ground. I would try to find someplace I could just lower the tiller about 8" lower than the rear end and use that as a guide.

 

[Mike_C]

find a hill or ledge to hang the tiller over to lower it to the
lowest point, then use this to check the overlap of the pto halves. We just had a discussion about this
In this thread

 

[rswyan]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I assume adjusting the skids will change the depth to which I till, )</font>

I think it would be more accurate to say that adjusting the skids will change the amount of potential "bite" the tiller can take - ultimately the depth to which you can till is controlled by how far your 3PH will lower the tiller, the soil type, whether there is hardpan, and how long/how slow you are willing to go.

From my observations the skids are the most effective (at holding the tiller "up") when they are riding on untilled ground - once ground is tilled and you are making additional passes over it, the skids will sink below the top of the previous tilled soil and don't really keep the tiller from going deeper to as great a degree as the 3PH does.

I recently got the same tiller myself.

 

[OkieG]

PaulieD,
Cutting your PTO shaft so there's a couple inches overlap when the 3PH is all the way down, as already suggested, might work OK. The reason to cut the shaft, though, is to make sure it's short enough that it can't collapse fully when your tractor has it positioned at it's shortest length. I just "sneak up" on the right length, by cutting an inch at a time until I get it right.

With the tiller mounted (but not turning!), use the 3PH and top link to approach the shortest length. If you can make the shaft ends bottom out, then another inch needs to be cut off until it will not bottom out. I test the limit carefully, until the ends just barely bottom out, then use the hack saw to lop off another inch. My technique isn't the most efficient, but it works.

Then, when you test with the 3PH as low as it will go, there should be at least a couple inches overlap.

The plastic guard sleeve that covers the PTO shaft is a great guide. When you separate the halves of a new PTO shaft, each steel half will be an inch or so longer than the plastic covering it. I think the steel shafts bottom out at the same point the plastic shield bottoms out when the two halves are fitted together. Keep the length relationship between the steel and plastic and you can tell by looking at the plastic shield when you're close to fully collapsed.

OkieG

 

[PaulieD]

Thanks guys, you provided some excellent direction. I was able to shorten the PTO shaft and make my first test run Saturday. I adjusted the skids for maximum depth, but as was suggested in one of the earlier posts, that adjustment didn't buy me much. Dropping the 3PH below my preset stop bar (which was set up for my bush hog) made a big difference. Thanks to you guys, I got it running great.

I only spent an hour tilling, but it was a ball. The garden went from weedy, hard packed soil, to silty loam. My bride does most of the planting and she was really delighted results. I think she thought I was crazy spending a grand on a tiller, when I had a perfectly fine 5hp yard machine tiller in the shed, but now she's glad we made the purchase.

Thanks again for the help.

Paul