Tiller tiller breakdown

[Geddinight]

My father recently purchased a king kutter xb tiller at TSC for our compact tractor. We planned to re- till an old section of garden that hadn't been worked in about three years. The tiller started out great. The section worked up is about 120' x 200'. Every single rock jolted the tractor and tiller violently. Now the arms on the tiller are bent terribly, one side cut the supplied pin right off and the welds on the arms are beginning to break. Does anyone have any advice on this? Thnaks in advance.

 

[bdog]

Make sure the slip clutch is properly adjusted. Sounds like it may be too tight. Also if the tractor and tiller are being jolted violenty that should be you first sign to stop and check things out. These are tillers for soil not rock hammers. No offense intended but it sounds like you were abusing the equipment. I have tilled probably close to 30 acres with my tiller over the past few months, and have not had any damage to it. I stay away from rocks though.

 

[JJT]

How big is the tractor and how big is the tiller? I agree with Bdog, sounds like the slip clutch isn't doing it's job. I've tilled 50+ acres with my 6 year old KK gear drive and have done nothing but grease it. It hits tons of stones every year and the slip clutch does it's job. It's banged up, but no bent arms or broken welds.

 

[Dustin]

It sounds like your first pass might have been a bit deep. I live in Connecticut and there is more ledge and field stone here than you can imagine. A smaller tiller will hop up over large stones, but I'd not expect it to jolt the tractor too much. The tiller arms that connect to the 3-point lower trailing links can be cut off (if necessary) and a new pair welded back on - heavier duty. The most important part of a tiller is what makes it work, the rest can be re-welded. I would suggest not continuing with the tilling and hurting the tiller further.

 

[demote]

I almost bought the KK Combo Sub-soiler/middle buster this week before I realized it was the XB version which is much lighter duty. I was looking in the Tractor Supply Company's catalog when I picked up on that notation.

 

[rswyan]

I have the KingKutter II 60" tiller and had similar problems with violent shaking because I did not set the slip clutch initially but left it as it came from the factory .... big mistake .... as on mine it way too tight.

Fortunately I didn't have any damage and a couple of days ago I adjusted the slip clutch as outlined in the manual - loosen bolts until springs just make contact, slip the clutch for a couple of revolutions and then tighten the bolts 1 1/2 turns as an initial starting point. That's where I've left them for now and it seems to be working well.

FWIW, I am really impressed with the durability of this tiller - it's brought up numerous rocks the size of a grapefruit or softball and one that was probably slightly larger than a football ..... with no damage to the tiller whatsoever.

 

[ducati996]

Dont understand why you didnt stop to look at what you were tilling before you destroyed your tiller. I discovered this
rather large slab of concrete (and much more) by accident.
It gave me a jolt that was un-mistakeable that need further investigation /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif However I did not destroy the tiller or more importanly my machine....slip clutches saved the day - and I didnt continue hoping I could grind it up...had to dig it out and more