Need 6' Tiller Recomendations/advice

[jduke]

I have a DX55, its classified as a CUT, but the rear wheels are just a hair over 6'. I need a 6' tiller. I also need one that will accommodate a 55HP tractor.

I see all sorts of considerations from reverse vs. forward rotating tines and number of tines per flange, and number of flanges, gear vs. chain drive. Can someone help me out as to which I need? I am certain I want/need gear drive. Im PRETTY sure I need counter rotating tines, but that puts me in the Bush Hog category, and they only have 4 tines per flange, which seems weak. My soil is hard, solid red clay in one area and solid black clay gumbo in another. When its wet, its gooey, when its try, its like tilling concrete. I need this for food plots as well as gardening. You can ball up damp clay, throw it at a tree and it will stick there for a week.

I see Bush Hog makes a few (4 tines per flange):
RTH72-03


Land Pride has only ONE in my HP range (not counter rotating):
RTA3576

King Kutter (6 tines per flange, no idea if forward/counter rotating, no idea about HP range...lack of info from company is concerning):
TG-G-72

Ag-Meir-Mohawk (6 tines, Gear drive, not sure if counter Rotating)
RT72

Woods (can get 6 tines per flange, no idea if counter rotating):
SGT80

Most of these have HP cutoffs at 55HP, which puts me at the very top. Id rather not be there I don't think, right?

 

[Gary Fowler]

I have a DX55, its classified as a CUT, but the rear wheels are just a hair over 6'. I need a 6' tiller. I also need one that will accommodate a 55HP tractor.

I see all sorts of considerations from reverse vs. forward rotating tines and number of tines per flange, and number of flanges, gear vs. chain drive. Can someone help me out as to which I need? I am certain I want/need gear drive. Im PRETTY sure I need counter rotating tines, but that puts me in the Bush Hog category, and they only have 4 tines per flange, which seems weak. My soil is hard, solid red clay in one area and solid black clay gumbo in another. When its wet, its gooey, when its try, its like tilling concrete. I need this for food plots as well as gardening. You can ball up damp clay, throw it at a tree and it will stick there for a week.

I see Bush Hog makes a few (4 tines per flange):
RTH72-03


Land Pride has only ONE in my HP range (not counter rotating):
RTA3576

King Kutter (6 tines per flange, no idea if forward/counter rotating, no idea about HP range...lack of info from company is concerning):
TG-G-72

Ag-Meir-Mohawk (6 tines, Gear drive, not sure if counter Rotating)
RT72

Woods (can get 6 tines per flange, no idea if counter rotating):
SGT80

Most of these have HP cutoffs at 55HP, which puts me at the very top. Id rather not be there I don't think, right?

King Kutter makes both forward and reverse rotation tillers. Those with RTG designation are reverse rotation. I don't know about the other brands you listed. RTG tillers are a few hundred more than the forward rotating ones for some reason.
From what I have learned, forward rotating blade are better for rocks and other hard surfaces but they don't cut as deep on a single pass. They are easier to pull than reverse likely due to the less digging depth.
I just bought a 6 foot forward rotation KK due to the many rocks that grow on my place and continually push up every winter. I can always make more passes to get the depth and chop the vegetation finer.
One manufacturers website did say that 6 tines per flange tillers are easier to pull than 4 tine which seems a little strange but that is the claim. I do think they will till better and operate with much less vibration.
All Land Pride tillers are chain drive so if you want gear drive, mark those off your list. Also another good American made tiller is TARTER. They are more costly than KK but are recommended by SweetTractors as good heavy duty tillers. They have a good video of them torture testing some of their products that may make you an owner of one.

 

[Gary Fowler]

King Kutter 6 foot tillers have a 100 HP rating on their gear box.
I know what you mean about the black clay, we call it buck shot in Louisiana and it gets that hard when dry. There is a very short time between too wet and too dry and you have to get it just right when using any tillage equipment. Too wet and you will have cannon balls rolling around all year long, too dry and you need a 10,000 pound disc just to scratch it.

 

[sweettractors]

The Tarter 6 ft is geardrive and can be used in forward or reverse rotation. It does have 6 tines per rotor mounted in a scroll pattern and is slip clutch protected. $1795 + low cost lower 48 shipping. Ken Sweet

 

[sweettractors]

Here is a pic of the Tarter tiller and instructions for the reverse rotation conversion, if needed. Ken Sweet

 

[Daver1963]

TG-G-72 30-55HP
King Kutter TG-G-72 Professional 6Ft. Tractor Rotary Tiller - McGee Farm Equipment, Inc.

TG-G-84 50-65HP
King Kutter TG-G-84 Professional 7 Ft. Tractor Rotary Tiller - McGee Farm Equipment, Inc.

 

[jduke]

Here is a pic of the Tarter tiller and instructions for the reverse rotation conversion, if needed. Ken Sweet

Those are considerably cheaper (cost wise) than Bush Hog or many in my list......

What about gear box rating.....should I be worried if one is rated from 30-55 if my tractor has a 50HP PTO? Or should I try to find one rated for something a bit higher?

 

[sweettractors]

Those are considerably cheaper (cost wise) than Bush Hog or many in my list......

What about gear box rating.....should I be worried if one is rated from 30-55 if my tractor has a 50HP PTO? Or should I try to find one rated for something a bit higher?

These should be fine on that tractor. If you keep you slip clutch adjusted properly, you can run on a much higher hp tractor. Ken Sweet

 

[jduke]

Trying to find one a little more local so I can pick it up, but trying to find a 6' tiller with reverse rotation for a 50HP PTO is proving to be like finding a snowball in ****. Ive called a few places with tillers that have everything I want on them EXCEPT that. Not sure how important it is. My old troybilt powders a fine seedbed and its forward rotating.

 

[Gary Fowler]

TG-G-72 30-55HP
King Kutter TG-G-72 Professional 6Ft. Tractor Rotary Tiller - McGee Farm Equipment, Inc.

TG-G-84 50-65HP
King Kutter TG-G-84 Professional 7 Ft. Tractor Rotary Tiller - McGee Farm Equipment, Inc.

Initial price is not bad but for me it was almost $400 in shipping cost which put it out of competition with local prices.

 

[disney]

I am not currently in the market for a Tiller, but I like that you can change rotation direction with the tarter brand! Questions for Mr. Sweet; how difficult/ expense is it to get parts for the tarter tiller (how long have they been around)? And are the tines a standard size (if there is such a thing)? For a 6ft wide tractor what would you consider to be the min pto hp? (I know this varies with use and soil type, but I can always go shallower, or not use full width until I have loosened up the ground, but a 5ft tiller will never cover the tracks (unless offset)

 

[Gary Fowler]

These should be fine on that tractor. If you keep you slip clutch adjusted properly, you can run on a much higher hp tractor. Ken Sweet

I am thinking that the range for HP listed is the minimum that it takes to pull the tiller + some assumptions for width of the tractors in that HP range so the tiller is as wide or almost as wide as the tractor wheels.
For instance, a 5 foot King Kutter tiller (per brochure) says 25-40 HP. I take this to mean the require HP needed to turn the tiller not necessarily the max that you can use it on. With a shear pin or slip clutch protecting the tiller, you could have 1000 HP and as soon as it gets overloaded, the pin will shear or the clutch will slip so you aren't going to hurt the tiller with more power. I think the KK website is where they tell about the HP rating on the gear box which for my 72" is 100 HP IIRC. I think the big range difference is to account for tilling in loose sand vs hard clay which would require much more HP than loose sandy soil.

 

[rmk700]

These are good tillers too.

Secondary Tillage - KUHN North America.com

 

[jduke]

What about a Phoenix 10TR.....Ken, do you sell these? What are their prices?

 

[McGeesEquip]

TG-G-72 30-55HP
King Kutter TG-G-72 Professional 6Ft. Tractor Rotary Tiller - McGee Farm Equipment, Inc.

TG-G-84 50-65HP
King Kutter TG-G-84 Professional 7 Ft. Tractor Rotary Tiller - McGee Farm Equipment, Inc.

Thanks Daver1963, for bringing our web site to other viewers.

 

[Daver1963]

TG-G-72 30-55HP
King Kutter TG-G-72 Professional 6Ft. Tractor Rotary Tiller - McGee Farm Equipment, Inc.

TG-G-84 50-65HP
King Kutter TG-G-84 Professional 7 Ft. Tractor Rotary Tiller - McGee Farm Equipment, Inc.

Initial price is not bad but for me it was almost $400 in shipping cost which put it out of competition with local prices.

Don't go by the internet shipping price. If you call them in person and start asking about the shipping you can get a cheaper rate. I ordered a 4ft KK Tiller and 5ft KK bush hog and shipping for both was about $330 ($165/per implement). Now, that was based on me being able to unload them off the back of a tractor trailer which I was able to do with my FEL.

 

[Daver1963]

Thanks Daver1963, for bringing our web site to other viewers.

Y'all treated me right and I appreciated that!

 

[McGeesEquip]

Initial price is not bad but for me it was almost $400 in shipping cost which put it out of competition with local prices.

Gary Fowler, I do not know why you would have been getting quotes around 400.00 for the shipping of a tiller from AL to AR. I would have been happy to review that shipping quote.

There is a shipping charge button on each of the product detail pages that can be used to calculate product shipping costs. Did you add the item to the shopping cart and then tried to get a shipping costs on the check out page.?

Thanks

 

[jduke]

Looks like the one I need with all the specs I want (for the most part) is the RTR2072 Landpride. Too bad its horribly expensive. Maybe I can find a better price somewhere. Most are upwards of 4k. Id like the full 8" of tilling depth for my soil.

Now, back to forward rotating tines. It seems to me those would do a FAR better job in areas that are 'weedy'. Rather than pulling UP and never getting a full chop on a long weed, a forward rotating tine would push down and chop weeds far better. Also seems that the seedbed would be the same regardless of tine rotation. ???

 

[jduke]

So I think I have narrowed it down. What do you guys think between these?? The most expensive is the chain drive.

I need this for gardening, food plots, and wildflower plots. I have heavy thick clay.

King Kutter - RTG-72
Counter Rotating Tines, Gear drive, 721#, $2,000

Land Pride - RTR2072
Counter Rotating Tines, Chain Drive, 795#, $4,000

Mohawk - RT72
Forward Rotating, Gear Drive, 750# $2300

The King Kutter I can buy online from a site here. It looks like it has more flanges, its gear driven, but is it considered their 'low end' model? Its awfully cheap compared to the landpride.