broken tiller

[docmark]

I got my first 60 inch tiller and after 45 minutes of use--the cast iron arm broke right off the gear box. It wasn't abused, nor did I hit anything hard enough to shear the "shear bolt". My dealer loaned me a 40 inch tiller to finish the job while we waited for a replacement and the same thing happened after a few hours work.

It is breaking on the cast iron arm--just around a bolt where the whole thing attaches to the gear box.

Has anyone else had this problem. I'd like to know before I go confess to the dealer that I broke a second tiller.

 

[WayneB]

I got my first 60 inch tiller and after 45 minutes of use--the cast iron arm broke right off the gear box. It wasn't abused, nor did I hit anything hard enough to shear the "shear bolt". My dealer loaned me a 40 inch tiller to finish the job while we waited for a replacement and the same thing happened after a few hours work.

It is breaking on the cast iron arm--just around a bolt where the whole thing attaches to the gear box.

Has anyone else had this problem. I'd like to know before I go confess to the dealer that I broke a second tiller.

Is the PTO shaft cut to the proper length? Did the brake happen when the tiller was in the earth or when it was elevated on the 3 pt hitch? Just curious as most of the tillers are rear beefy and I can't see how that happened to you, twice??

 

[KeithInSpace]

That doesn't sound like a very good day.

Those tillers are pretty tough creatures. Odd that you would find a way to break two different tillers in the same place. Were they the same brand?

Curious: Do you have tree roots or rocks in the area you're tilling? Is the thing bouncing around? Or are you in fertile loam fields where it is working like butter?

I had some hard luck with a tiller I had borrowed, but I was bouncing it around on trees and rocks. Part of the mount for the drive assembly (where the PTO connected to the gearbox on top) bent, but nothing broke. Snapped the drive chain, but never popped the shear bolt.

I had rigged the one I borrowed up because I didn't want to cut down the shaft...is there a chance having too long of a shaft is placing stress on some part of the drivetrain? Of course the dealer should have custom-cut the shaft on your original 60" tiller...

In the end, that sounds like a real bummer.

 

[docmark]

They were both brand new Kubota tillers.
The first time there was some bouncing from roots, the second time it was soft soil that had already been tilled. Both times, the tiller was in the soil, not elevated. The pto length was correct.
Neither time affected the shear bolt.

 

[N1ST]

How fast were you moving along when tilling? If you go at more than a snail's pace, it's too fast. I can't walk as slow as I till, without falling down ).

 

[bx23barry]

I'd look for another tiller

 

[Hoosier_Daddy]

Wow, my dealer told me that Land Pride was making the Bota Tillers and painting them Bota Color........

Is this not the case?

 

[john_bud]

I have the kk tiller and have had that thing bounce clean out of the ground more times than I can count. It's kicked out rocks that I couldn't lift. It's done all that a ---- pot more too, but it hasn't broken anything aside from 5-6 tines. Well, a could cracks in the sheetmetal and there was the 3pt lift pin sheared off, but aside from that...

jb

 

[nh DRAGON]

Now that is why it is so hard to fined a good used tiller!

 

[pitt_md]

I have the kk tiller and have had that thing bounce clean out of the ground more times than I can count. It's kicked out rocks that I couldn't lift. It's done all that a ---- pot more too, but it hasn't broken anything aside from 5-6 tines. Well, a could cracks in the sheetmetal and there was the 3pt lift pin sheared off, but aside from that...

jb

My Befco has come out of the ground when hitting BIG rocks just below the surface too. I have to keep an eye on the 3PH pins as they always work loose.