Country Line (King Kutter)

[PlotMakerBigBuck]

This weekend I was tilling my food plots when I broke 6 tiller tines. Upon inspection I found that the tines were made out of cast iron. Does anyone on here know why they would have made tines out of cast iron? I have used many other rental tillers and never have broken a tine. Now I am worried this tiller is going to cost me money everytime I use it. I feel like I got taken to the cleaners when I bought it.

 

[keyser soze]

This weekend I was tilling my food plots when I broke 6 tiller tines. Upon inspection I found that the tines were made out of cast iron. Does anyone on here know why they would have made tines out of cast iron? I have used many other rental tillers and never have broken a tine. Now I am worried this tiller is going to cost me money everytime I use it. I feel like I got taken to the cleaners when I bought it.

Just b/c it is a County Line does not make it a King Kutter. (You can tell a King Kutter product by the silver bar code / serial number / model number stick that is present on all of their items. It wont' say King Kutter, but it will say, for a tiller, TG-48 or TG-60 or TG-72 depending on how what model width you bought.) Secondly... King Kutter tiller tines are not cast iron. They are heat treated steel. I think that the Dark Horse tiller from a couple years ago had cast iron tines. But I know for a fact that King Kutter tiller tines are not cast iron from the factory, nor do they sell any replacement tines that are cast iron. I've never personally seen a good tiller tine, like what King Kutter, or Land Pride, or Bush Hog for example, use.

I think you'll find about every person on here will tell you that the King Kutter tiller is a very good tiller.

sorry about your bad luck.

 

[keyser soze]

Ken Sweet can tell you what the model number for the Tarter Gate tiller would be. Tarter Gate sells equipment to TSC branded "County Line" also.

 

[Baby Grand]

The first time I ran my KKII 60" I broke a tine. I lucked out and found the broken piece in the garden. Both of the broken surfaces had a very light layer of rust over 80% where it appears the tine was cracked before it ever spun (It came new & crated from TSC). I suspect someone with a forklift set it down >>HARD<< on that tine during shipping because it's been 3 years and many bread loaf sized quartzite cobbles later and no more breaks despite a fair amount of wear. At the time of the break, I examined the broken surfaces with a 10x hand lens they sure looked like nodular cast iron to me - but I'm not sure they weren't some sort of spheroidal steel. Tough buggers, either way.

As part of the repair, I ordered 6 replacement tines (3L & 3R) from KK with bolts & nuts for a very reasonable amount, despite the $%#$%^ shipping. Figured I'd be breaking them fairly often. Sometimes it's nice to be wrong.

-Jim

 

[keyser soze]

They're not cast. It's some sort of hardened steel.

 

[DK35vince]

I had a 60" King Kutter II tiller for 5 or 6 years. Jammed it with large rocks, hit pipe, roots Etc. Etc. Never broke a tine the entire time I owned it. It was a very good tiller

I upsized to a 72" King Kutter II tiller 2 years ago. I break tines nearly every time I use it. I have broken a dozen tines. The tines looked like some type of cast to me.

My old 60" tiller did all the hard work of tilling the soil loose and finding all the buried objects and never had a problem. But now my new 72" King Kutter breaks tines tilling previously tilled soil with all the big objects removed.
Is King Kutter trying out cheaper junk tines or what???

 

[MarkV]

Ok, my local TSC is now carrying County Line implements. Are these or are these not King Kutter implements renamed? I have had good luck with KK implements but when the 'look a likes' labeled Dark Horse hit TSC they were a disaster. So is County Line a King Kutter, Dark Horse or another player in the market?

MarkV

 

[irwin]

Ok, my local TSC is now carrying County Line implements. Are these or are these not King Kutter implements renamed? I have had good luck with KK implements but when the 'look a likes' labeled Dark Horse hit TSC they were a disaster. So is County Line a King Kutter, Dark Horse or another player in the market?

MarkV

Very good question Mark. I ordered a HD KK box blade from my local TSC last year.. it took a few weeks to show up. Durring the wait the KK BB is removed from the on line catalog. Finally shows up, looks like a KK, but has a CountyLine sticker on it... this is one heavy duty box blade so I'm happy, but it doesn't appear to be offered in this HD version anymore? first pic is mine, second is the picture from the on line TSC catalog I ordered from.

 

[gauthier]

They were not made of cast iron,cast iron and cast steel are two different things,doubt if they were made of cast steel either,just probably cheap steel,or steel that was not heat treated right or something. Not a big demand for tiller tines in the world wide scheme of steel,[down on the list you might say],order new ones from another place than the place that made these[if you can].

 

[keyser soze]

Ok, my local TSC is now carrying County Line implements. Are these or are these not King Kutter implements renamed? I have had good luck with KK implements but when the 'look a likes' labeled Dark Horse hit TSC they were a disaster. So is County Line a King Kutter, Dark Horse or another player in the market?

MarkV

It depends on what state you're in. In Georgia, I believe it's still King Kutter products re-branded. In other parts of the country Tarter Gate makes the product that is branded County Line. TSC also used a company called Hawk Line a couple years ago, but I believe that was stopped.

 

[keyser soze]

I upsized to a 72" King Kutter II tiller 2 years ago. I break tines nearly every time I use it. I have broken a dozen tines. The tines looked like some type of cast to me.

My old 60" tiller did all the hard work of tilling the soil loose and finding all the buried objects and never had a problem. But now my new 72" King Kutter breaks tines tilling previously tilled soil with all the big objects removed.
Is King Kutter trying out cheaper junk tines or what???

No. I don't know what is going on with you breaking tines, but to my knowledge, this is not a widespread problem. Although, a company could always acquire a bad batch of tines.

I've ran a 72" KK tiller in asphalt and not broke a single tine. I'm perplexed.

 

[PlotMakerBigBuck]

Thank you everyone for some knowledgeable information. I just looked at my father inlaws KUHN and it is hard to tell what those tines are made of. I hope my TSC tiller is not going to be a big junker. I did tons of research and many of people had good things to say about my tiller.

My father litterally just put the thing on the soil that I tilled last year and within 2 seconds I heard clank clank and a tine blew out. I figured if this is a huge issue I will probably see more people on these message boards. It is amazing how much information we have now at our disposal.

If any one hears of any issues with the Countryline Tiller/KK could you please let me know. I will just wait for my replacement tines and til my food plots this fall. When I til my food plots again I should be able to see if any more issues arise. Once again thanks for the wonderful input on my tine breakage issue.