Tiller suggestion for BX 24

[AceDeuce]

I have a 48" King Kutter. No experience with other brands, but the KK is the perfect size and well built. I doubt another brand would be worth the extra $$$.

 

[PeterK]

Dumb question... but what is involved in "cutting the PTO 1 1/2"????

Yup, I left out the word shaft.

I had to cut the PTO shaft 1-1/2". Instructions for measurement are included with the tiller. It involved pulling the two sliding halfs of the PTO shaft apart, measure and marking, then cutting equal amounts off the plastic outer tubes and the metal inner shafts with a hack saw, and regreasing.

 

[rlsmith]

With my BX23 I went with the Landpride reverse tine. Love it but wished I had gotten the slip clutch. Will bury itself in sand so takes a bit of getting used too to keep it level and best in high range. Dark top soil ground it works up just great and levels out oh so nice in low range and goes as deep as it will go keeping the RPS up. Clay is the same as top soil just have to run forward speed slower keeping the RPM up. Clay and rocks do not go well with this unit as it will snap the sher bolt after hitting any size rock that it can not bring up to the surface, so it takes several passes, then picking up the rocks and doing it over and over until you get the depth you want. So buy dozens of of shear bolts if soil is rocky and hard unless you spend the extra $ for the clutch.
The forward unit on my JD 322 in clay would climb itself out of the ground and bounce over the rocks until loosened up. Broke shear bolts but not as many. But once you have the area cleaned out of rocks the reverse tine for me does a much nicer job finer job.

 

[gdBX]

Hi,
A 48" works well on my BX-24 in the upstate clay, power was not problem but ran at high rpm and low speed in 4 wheel drive with the loader on for front weight. It covers the wheels in the center position, but it also has the advantage that you can offset it by 6 inches if you want to which would allow you till 9 inches or so to one side. The tiller is a 6 tine Caroni FL1200 tillovator with slip clutch, is about $500-$600 cheaper than Woods or Landpride. There was some assembly and had to cut the PTP shaft to fit, but cutting allows you get tweaked to your set up. I had a quickhitch, thus a slightly longer shaft works. The only annoyance was the PTO guard which makes it virtually impossible to tighten the shaft on the tiller, I just sliced it slightly and bent back to get the wrench in and folded the plastic back. I also looked at CCM but they were out of stock of the 48" tillers this spring. Just to let you know my dealer advised to not go over Kubota's recommended 42" tiller but the BX seems to handle the larger 48" with ease.
Good luck on your search.

 

[taborekle]

With my BX23 I went with the Landpride reverse tine. Love it but wished I had gotten the slip clutch. Will bury itself in sand so takes a bit of getting used too to keep it level and best in high range. Dark top soil ground it works up just great and levels out oh so nice in low range and goes as deep as it will go keeping the RPS up. Clay is the same as top soil just have to run forward speed slower keeping the RPM up. Clay and rocks do not go well with this unit as it will snap the sher bolt after hitting any size rock that it can not bring up to the surface, so it takes several passes, then picking up the rocks and doing it over and over until you get the depth you want. So buy dozens of of shear bolts if soil is rocky and hard unless you spend the extra $ for the clutch.
The forward unit on my JD 322 in clay would climb itself out of the ground and bounce over the rocks until loosened up. Broke shear bolts but not as many. But once you have the area cleaned out of rocks the reverse tine for me does a much nicer job finer job.

Hi rlsmith,

I also got the Land Pride RTR0550 tiller with the sheer bolt. After going through about a dozen sheer bolts, I complained to my local dealer and he offered to upgrade it for me. I had to pay for the new slipclutch mechanism, but they did the labor at no charge. I had the tiller less then 30 days, and I had bought the tractor and tiller at the same time, so the dealer was giving me a break on the deal.

But the point is, that YOU can have you're sheer-bolt head on you're tiller replaced with the slip clutch head.

I'm very happy with the slip clutch head.

Larry

 

[taborekle]

Hi all,

For anyone that is having concerns with the ability of a reversing tiller to eat really hard soil, I've been playing with mine have have developed some techniques for dealing with it.

First off, if the soil is that hard that you might not have the necessary HP at the PTO to drive it, I would suggest making the first pass of the reversing tiller with the depth lightly set, either through the depth pad skids on the tiller itself, or simply by using the quarter-inching-valve to lift the tiller off the fully grounded position. The tiller will now only bite the top inch or two of the soil, and by doing repeated passes at increasing depths, you can work you're way down into very tough soil.

All this takes time of course, but if you can go slow, and approach the tillering with some patience, there is little question that eventually you will have the soil tillered.

On another note, I've found that the reversing tillers ability to kick soil out ahead of itself does a wonderfull job of filling in depressions and uneven surfaces. I've bladed and run the FEL over some washed in ditches in a effort to excavate them, and afterwards the surface is very uneven. Running the tiller over it not at full depth pushes the soil into the depressions and takes the top off the hills, leaving behind a much leveled surface.