Tiller What to look for in a tiller....

BRIGUY · May 26, 2005

I just got a Bush Hog SBX 40 with slip clutch, paid 1,725.00.

The woods is a good unit.

I would not go any larger than a 42". and get the slip clutch. It costs about 100$ up front, but will cost 250$ to upgrade later. I have hit a lot of rocks and concrete chunks, it tends to toss the BX around a bit, glad I didn't get a bigger one.

Dave_S · May 28, 2005

I just got a MF 48'' with slip clutch 1230.00 It was the only one I found that would till 8 inches deep.

Dave

Mike_C · May 28, 2005

I just bought the King Kutter 48" for $1089 at TSC. It's offset too which is nice. Works well on my BX-22, except when you hit a
tree root. Even with the slip clutch on the pto, it still kills the engine. Oh well I can deal with that. Will try to stay away from tree roots. Photos at: Mike's tiller web page

Oh, and I did have to cut the PTO shaft and shorten it by 3 or 4 inches but that only took about 20 minutes, mostly because of measuring 5 times to make sure I didn't screw it up. Put a metal blade in the saws-all and went through it like butter.

fractal · May 28, 2005

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( The E series is gear driven. the L is lighter. 48" E 600#. 48' L440# also chain drive made for low H.P compacts . the E stands for economy i have the E70 use it a lot, no problems so far. )</font>
Do remember that gearmore is a distributor, not a manufacturer. Their tillers are made in italy by ortolan ( http://www.ortolan.net/ ). I have an ortolan l-100 as I mentioned in another post that I find just a tad too big for my b7200 but other than that, a wonderful product.

I think you can get a better picture of the product if you combind what you find on the gearmore site and what you find on the ortolan site.

jim_wilson · May 29, 2005

All of this has definitely given me something to think about - sounds like I pretty much can't go wrong with whatever I get. I don't really need a tiller until probably next year when I will start doing my lawn over. Then I got that $100 Woods discount card in the mail and it got me thinking about buying a tiller now if the price was worth it. I have also looked at the Kuhn tillers - they look nice but expensive.

sweettractors · May 29, 2005

For quality, price and parts availability, dont forget "First Choice: roto tillers. --Ken Sweet

Sweet Farm Equipment LLC *Charter member of the First Choice Dealer Network*

YanmarFever · May 29, 2005

Why not buy a grey market Yanmar tiller for $400. and save the rest of your $$. I tilled 14 acres with one, and it worked great! the teeth on it dont break like the L shaped ones.
They are a lighter weight machine than the others, so when they hit a rock they just bounce up & down rather than break the teeth. I had an agric al 50 model that broke teeth like they were plastic. The yanmar does the job for me. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
Ernie

viking65 · May 29, 2005

Here's an example of a fine looking Yanmar tiller.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=66889&item=7519315763&rd=1

JeepOne · May 30, 2005

That is one nasty lookin tiller. Why would anybody buy something like that? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

Av8r3400 · May 30, 2005

Mike C--

What kind of soil do you have there? It looks to do a real good job on it! How does she feel when it's tilling, does your BX22 have enough HP to 'Git R Done'? Does the lack of lifting height give you any problems? Did it come with the slip clutch?

I've looked at the KK tillers too, just for the $$ savings. I'm not gonna farm with it, just some veggies and flowers. Why spend more?