Tiller Tillers; Why buy anything but County Line?

[lockhaven]

wow I had never heard about Tarter, looks to me that it's the one to buy

 

[Guesseral]

I just ran into these yesterday, there doesn't seem to be a manufacturer listed. I was wondering if anyone had any in put or maybe had one and knew about the quality. You just can't beat the price that is if it is any good.

Rotary Tiller, Rototiller, Tillovator | Agri Supply, 77711, Gear Driven

I also like the gear drive this actually seems to good to be true. Which means it probably is!

 

[Gary Fowler]

After looking at all the tiller brands available around here, I ended up buying a 6 foot King Kutter II model from my local Atwoods for $1834. This was the best deal I found other than some of the Chinese made ones like Agri-supply sells. KK, Tartar and LandPride claim to be made in USA but I am sure they use some foreign parts. MY PTO driveshaft had a Chinese brand name booklet attached to it, so for sure it is Chinese even if other items are not which I have no way of knowing what else is imported. Just like other brands of tillers, I am sure there are parts supplied by foreign companies. At least we do have some USA jobs being maintained when the major fabrication is done here in USA. Tarter, King Kutter, Howse and Landpride all claim USA manufacturer. I decided against Landpride because of the chain drive system. I don't know if it is really better or worse than gear drive but I selected gear drive for my use as that is what most brands tout as being the better system.
I didn't really like the Howse one as it looked pretty cheaply made with an open drive shaft from the PTO gear box to the side gear drive, perhaps this was to facilitate the easy (relatively speaking) change to reverse rotation. No one around here stocks the reverse rotation, possibly due to our rocky soil in my area which may damage a reverse rotation shaft or at least the tines.
I have yet to test mine out as I am still waiting for the soil to dry out a bit AND the temps to get a little better.

I did like the Tartar video however I would have liked to see the shape the tiller blades was in after the demo chopping up CMU blocks. Surely any tiller would run over them, but without damage to the tines would be the thing to see. I did notice that when he dropped the shredder onto the steel bar that it was located so that it didn't hit the cutting edges, but impacted up middle ways between cutting edge and mounting bolts. Was this intentional to make one assume that their blades would chop steel and not damage them, most likely. Still OK torture test of the equipment to show it didn't break anything other than a shear bolt.
I thought the gate demo was pretty good though what with holding up a tractor, but the hay ring was a small failure seeing how it collapsed a bit.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I did check pricing at my local NH dealer for a 5 foot tiller and it was $2500, about $1000 higher than I could find them at other places. I forget what they said the manufacturer was now when I asked back last summer, but I remember that it was one of the familiar ones like KK. Tractor dealers really are outrageously priced on their implements.

 

[ishiboo]

I bought a 6' KK and love it. If you're a smart shopper, they run about $1500 new + tax. I have about 34 HP PTO, the 6' was rated 35-50HP so I wasn't sure… it was DEFINITELY the way to go. Even with my HARD clay soil it works the best and a 5' would have been too narrow.

I think the Tarter's are quite close to the KK's, would probably buy one of those too.

Wonder if anyone as attractive as Ann Tarter works over at KK…

 

[Cub72]

Thanks to everyone who replied! I have no problem paying a little extra for better service and supporting my local dealer. But $1000 is not a little money! I did a web search and found a tarter dealer about 6 miles away. I also know of a woods dealer not that far either. King Kutter dealer is a drive for me. I guess for now I'll just concentrate on getting the best deal on a tractor, and worry about a tiller this summer. I'll hint around it when I'm getting quotes, and if I get a great deal I may go for it. Thanks again.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I bought a 6' KK and love it. If you're a smart shopper, they run about $1500 new + tax. I have about 34 HP PTO, the 6' was rated 35-50HP so I wasn't sure… it was DEFINITELY the way to go. Even with my HARD clay soil it works the best and a 5' would have been too narrow.

I think the Tarter's are quite close to the KK's, would probably buy one of those too.

Wonder if anyone as attractive as Ann Tarter works over at KK… [/QUOTE
The only ones I found for 1500 were on line and were charging about $400 shipping so ended up the same or more for the same tiller I could get locally at Atwoods. They had a 5 foot on sale last week for $1399 which is only $100 off normal sale price. I got the sale price (-$75) on my buy by asking for it even though the sale had expired last week. I was amazed that the 4 foot is about the same as a 5 foot and 6 foot is just a couple hundred more than a 5 foot. Each foot adds another row of tines and the KK has 6 tines per flange where some tillers only have 4 tines per flange. That is another thing to look at when selecting a brand. 6 tines will for sure run smoother than 4 and till better.

 

[Spindifferent]

If you want a reverse rotation tiller, you'll need something other than a KK.

I'm very happy with my Woods TCR68.

TC/TCR68 Landscape Equipment

 

[Gary Fowler]

If you want a reverse rotation tiller, you'll need something other than a KK.

I'm very happy with my Woods TCR68.

TC/TCR68 Landscape Equipment

According to their website, they recommend the reverse rotation tiller that they make over the forward rotation one. They make both types. Some brands of tillers are reversible by rotating the gear box (Howse is one of them) and changing the blade tine orientation which is a bit more work than I would want to do. I have not found any hard info from any tiller site that tells why one is better for use in certain circumstances. KK website just shows that reverse rotation does a better job of hiding the vegetation as shown in side by side comparison with two KK tillers and a competitors forward rotation tiller. I did find on TBN that someone said forward rotation was better on rocky soil which is what I have and when using them, they would climb up and over a large rock whereas a reverse tiller if it couldn't dig out the rock because it was too large, it would stall the machine, burn the slipclutch and/or break a tine if tractor continued pulling forward.
OTHER than rocks or stumps etc, is there other reasons for using a forward rotation tiller other than reverse.
On the Tarter tiller video, I think they were using a forward rotation tiller for their demo of chewing up CMU blocks.

 

[sparc]

I'm in the market for a new tractor. I was going to start getting quotes with a rotary tiller included. But from my research on here, it always seems like the tillers are made by King Kutter with different paint jobs. Like the blue LS tillers. LS Tillers are made by Taylor Pittsburgh and Taylor Pittsburgh is owned by King Kutter. King Kutter also makes the red tillers for Mahindra. I also read that King Kutter makes the County Line tillers sold at TSC which are only $1700 for the 5 ft model. So my question is: If I get a quote for a tiller more than $1700 am I getting ripped off? Or am I missing something?

Last time I looked at TSC tillers the line they had there with the Country Line brand were made by Tarter

Rotary Tiller - Tarter Farm & Ranch