Tiller Tiller Shopping

[JATO_RaT]

I've looked at various tillers in the past, Kuhn & Howard seem to be 2 of the tops. I question though whether an all gear drive is superior to a chain drive. With the brutal punishing and jarring situation a tiller goes through, it would seem a chain would offer some cushion or shcok protection. I know some manufactuers provide both drives. Any experience or reasons why a gear would be superior over a chain drive? The tillers I looked at had chain drives of #100 chains and larger. Rat...

 

[rdbrumfield]

I have had howard, kuhn and now a JD.
If I hadn't found a deal on the JD I would have gone with onother kuhn. The gear drive has to be the smoothest tiller out there. The JD is a 680 about 7' wide. Does a good job with light soil, but is a bit light, tends to hop.
On the reverse till, I do some by backing up with the door open in tough soil. I have found that the secret is to go as slow with the tractor as possible with the tiller at full trottle in sod. Once it is cut, you have a hard time busting it up once the ground has been loosened. That first pass is forward to cut the sod.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

I question though whether an all gear drive is superior to a chain drive. With the brutal punishing and jarring situation a tiller goes through, it would seem a chain would offer some cushion or shcok protection.

Hi Rat--I think you hit the nail on the head--we sell First Choice in both gear and chain drive tillers and when the gears wear out, they will get into your pocket book bigtime---Most of my customers had rather replace a chain every 100 acres of roto-tilling for $10-$15--than 2 gears for ??????---Ken Sweet
Sweet Farm Equipment Co
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.sweettractors.com>http://www.sweettractors.com</A>

 

[HayDR]

Rat,
Your JD is a Howard tiller. Just ask the landscapers why the do not like chain drives. If the chain breaks 80% of the time the gearbox housing is trashed and the repair will be more than the cost of a gear. Is the transmission in your car gear or chain driven? Its gear driven. I was the service manager for First Choice, (Sicma), and we hardly ever had any problems with a gear drive tiller but we sold many chains, sprockets, & side casings for those chain drive tillers. This in no way is saying anything bad about a FC tiller because its a good tiller. The chain will strech over time and cause wear on the sprocket. Why do most all the manufacturers with 100+ HP main gear boxes use a gear drive? The chains just can not take it when the HP is applied.

 

[rdbrumfield]

I have to agree with you, I have replaced sprockets and stretched chains, but never did take out a gear box in 15 yrs of some pretty tough going with the geardrive kuhn.

 

[JATO_RaT]

Randall, this is where one such as myself would have to listen to folks such as yourself who obviously know from where they speak. When I mentioned these two tillers, you didn't come out and tell me how you can get a brand x for $500 in a 72" width that weighs 300lbs. I should think a tiller takes a great deal of punishment from its ordinary task of picking into dirt to hitting rocks and debris hidden to the eye. I for one would rather wait and get a tiller with some mass and quality until I could afford it then a lightweight unit. I'm confused though, are you saying the Kuhn's have bidirectional tilling? A gearbox with a "reverse till option" That would be interesting. Thanks for the heads up about chains and gears. It would just seem from a contact point of view that chains would have full contact all the time where the gears get 2 or 3 teeth having full contact and thus less chance to break something as the result of a tine slamming into a cobble. Certainly I can see the wear factor of chains developing. Replacing a chain after a few hundred hours or every other tine change might be in order. I think folks reading this about tillers will be most interested about chains vs gears. Then theres the whole weight vs width etc. to talk about. Rat...

 

[Hoeman00]

Don't forget about KK gear vs Kuhn gear, I would
imagine KK uses a cheap cast and higher $$$ ones
might use bar stock gears.
Big difference in life and shock load.
One thing that helps before tilling is use some
kind of ripper or plow to bust up soil before tilling.

 

[rdbrumfield]

Sorry about the confusion about reversing. I use my tiller at times when I'm digging footings and such with the loader. When I'm in clay I will open the soor and run the tiller while backing up. It digs in better to loosen the ground. It chunks it out though and I wouldn't recommend it for finish tilling. As far as I know except for some hand tillers they don't reverse the rotation. If a tiller did that I would imagine that the blades would have to have cutting edges and angles on both front and back edges.
You are certainly right on about tillers taking a beating. I acn't tell you how many times a person has told me that "oh there's nothing in there" before I start chewing and have the tiller bounce out of the ground on concrete, steel, and the worst, steel cable winding up in the tines. I will say that I have broken tines, bent them and the flanges on the rotor axle, but never did take out a set of gears. I do prefer them over the chain final drive. Remember, this is just a personal opinion, and I'm sure that others have some reguarding their blessings of other systems.

 

[Bird]

I have not seen any tillers that would "reverse"; i.e., change the direction of rotation of the tines. However, I have seen "counter rotating" tillers on which the tines dig in at the rear and turn through the soil toward the front. I owned a little Sears self-propelled counter rotating tiller, and I saw a Kubota tiller once that the dealer told me was counter rotating (I didn't look at it closely enough to verify what he told me), but then I owned a Bush Hog RTS40 tiller that was not counter rotating. I have assumed (erroneously?) that was what was being discussed here. Does anyone know of a tiller on which you can reverse the direction and till either way?

 

[Rockyroad]

I bought a Kuhn back in 1986 to go on my JD 750. I live in Rhode Island, which means lots and lots of rocks. The Kuhn is a tough machine. It has an adjustable clutch to take up some of the shock of hitting rocks and boulders. I busted a tine shaft before I learned to adjust the clutch, but that has been about all I have had in the way of problems. I put in a new tine shaft and had the old one welded as a backup. I just have to replace an oil seal that has gone bad on the gearbox end after 25 plus years. This Kuhn as been used hard in the stoney soil here. It is one tough machine. I paid about $1,500 back in 1986, but I don't know what they are worth now. I also bought a TroyBilt horse in 1986 to cultivate between rows. I have to replace the oil seals on the tiller end on that too! Anyways, I would highly recommend the Kuhn, although there are other good brands out there as well. I have had the cover off the gear box end of the Kuhn, and the gears are heavy and the whole thing seems to be built for heavy duty use.