Home made hiller project

[Eyecatcher]

My grandaughter has come to stay with us and wants to have a garden. It's just about time to plant tomatoes her in N. Florida, so we're gonna give it a go.
I just replaced all the discs on my old disc harrow, and have a bunch of 16" discs w/1 1/8" sqh I took off. Need to come up with a hub and axle for them to fit on. All of the ones I see for sale commercially have 4 bolts through the disc. Is it possible to drill thru them to mount this type of hub, or are they too hard?
I've got a couple of quills (I think thats what they're called) off an old John Deere mower deck that are in pretty good shape, Maybe I can modify them. I have a 3 point attachment with two arms that was made to tote citrus boxes. I cut the arms shorter, and mounted the rippers off my box blade to use for a sort of root rake. Haven't tried that yet, but I have room to weld a 2"square tool carrier behind that, would work well to mount the discs. Tractor is at the dealers, but as soon as I get it back, I'll post some pix. I'm open to all suggestions. I also have some 1/14 round bar for shanks if I can figure out how to attach them to the quills.

 

[Wyobuckaroo]

Will try to post a picture or two of my home made tool bar with two 16" hiller shanks from Ag Supply.
Good luck
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[boggen]

all a hiller is is 2 blades (discs, or flat pieces of metal) setup like a V with the bottom of the V cut off.

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if you wanted to go through the trouble. ((assuming you can adjust the angle of front ganges)) you cold pull all the gangs off your "disc" and then just install the front 2 gangs. with a single disc on each gang. and using spacers as needed on the front gangs to determine how wide you want the hill to be.

though you might want to add a couple gauge wheels. if you did above. so weight of 3pt disc. does not put all its weight down on 2 disc blades. and bend / crack them to pieces from pure weight / force being placed down upon them.

 

[Eyecatcher]

removing the blades from the disc is not an option. I got the disc with a tractor I bought about 12 years ago, and someone had worked on it prior to me. When I went to replace the discs, it was assembled improperly, spacers misplaced etc., and instead of figuring it out, the PO had used big flat washers to make it all fit. This implement has 4 sets of blades, 21 in all. I messed with this thing for 2 days until I finally got it right. I will never disassemble it. However, I've still have the removed discs, and am going to try to come up with a bearing/hub arrangement today. Big problem is going to be adapting the inch and an eighth sqare hole to a round shaft. May have to weld the disc on, but would rather make it replaceable.

 

[Eyecatcher]

Got the disc blades mounted to the hub and mounting plates half made to connect hub to the round shanks. Worked much better than i thought it would. The Deere spindles still had the stamped steel pulleys on them, when I finally got them off the shaft, I cut the pulley away from the hub, and set the hub centered under the square hole in the disc, marked with a sharp soapstone, and trimmed square to that line with cutting wheel in 4" grinder.
Mig welded them to the disc. Worked great. I've got inch and a 14 round bar for the shanks, need to look around for some pipe that will slide over to use for a mount, and go see if I can find a piece of 2x2 box tubing for the tool bar itself.

 

[WilliamBos]

Would you have pics of what the soil looks like after a pass?

 

[joshuabardwell]

I'm trying to figure out how tomatoes planted in August works. Why not spring?

 

[Eyecatcher]

Will, when I complete the build, I'll post pix of how it works. Josh, this is N Florida, time for fall tomatoes, plant again in the sping.

 

[Ken Pike]

I made my hiller using discs from an old ferguson disc harrow, welding up my own brackets/axel housings. It works great for making rows & hilling up potato rows after they have grown a bit.

 

[Eyecatcher]

Nice job - hope mine turns out as well

 

[Briar Hill Brittanys]

Here's another version for ya. The discs are from Agri-Supply. The cultivator shank is from a Dearborn 13-2 . The shank makes a nice furrow, or flattens the top of the hill to plant on/in. It removes quickly to hill potatoes. I've since painted and fabbed up a mounting bracket for the shank.

Here's a test pass in our kitchen garden.

Another benefit of planting on hills is the nice irrigation furrow produced when drawing up the hills. REALLY needed it this summer. Fortunately, the blackberries were done before the drought hit. I still had to haul water twice a week to keep the canes alive and growing for next year. I'd flood the row with about 200 gallons each time. Mark

 

[Eyecatcher]

 

[Eyecatcher]

Couln'g figure out how to get the text with the pix. Attachment started life as a citrus box hauler, given to me by a friend. We added the 3" ball on top for moving around the gooseneck trailers. We then added in the spacers and large angle iron to hold the 5 sacarifiers from the box blade - works great. Then I got the idea for the hiller. You can see the disc axle/bearing units, quills from a John Deere mower deck. Everything used was from scrap pile, except the 4' piece of 1/4 box tubing across the back and bolts. You can see it does a pretty good job. Needs cleaned up and painted - maybe someday.

 

[Eyecatcher]

I'm really pleased how this hiller works,but I'd like to add something to flatten the top of the hill. Thinking about a roller of some kind. Seems like in this area, all gardens including the commercial farms, plant in hills. It would certainly facilitate seed planting if the top of the hill was even and flat.
Anybody ever build something like that? Open to all ideas.

 

[boggen]

a funnel on it side, with no bottom.

2 sides and a top. were larger opening is nearest to tractor and smallest opening is further away from tractor. in idea it would "compact" the dirt some and shape the hill.

if you just dragged a piece of metal behind a hiller that had a disc on each side. you would most likely "flatten" the hills. having the 2 sides should help keep the hill, standing up. while flattening the top.

random ideas for a shaper / molder. i would imagine you would need to run the 2 disc setup first to create mounds of dirt first. and then run the shaper / molder behind it.


EDIT: the last diagram in above set of diagrams. you would adjust the green up right posts on the purple top bars. to adjust angle of the sides.

 

[Eyecatcher]

Got another idea. I think you're right, anything hat just drug would flatten the hill - but - how about a roller that was fastened to the toolbar, that would be adjusted to just flattten the top, mounted between the hiller discs, flattening process would always be the same once adjusted. I have the 2 front tires, axles etc off a Gravely rider I junked, I thought about mounting them sided by side, mounted on the toolbar so they would flatten the top. The two together should be about right. I like the idea of the shaper/molder, but looks pretty complicated.

 

[boggen]

i like the idea of using car / truck tires or even wider width rear riding lawn mower tires. more so if mounted on an axel of sorts. so they can freely spin. would make a big help in reducing any sort of clogging issues the "shaper/molder" would have. along with reduce HP and traction tractor would need!

and if you ever wanted to add "extra weight" you could just fill the tires with a fluid.

larger diameter tires, would give you more "working space" to place bearings and any sort of metal support stucture/s needed to hold tires in place.

if you could mount the side tires, on a pivot point. the tires would roll with the hills. and may not compact the side of the hills as much. other words if they hit a hard spot the wheels would open wider. if you hit a narrow spot in hill were dirt was brought up into the dirt hill. the wheels would tilt down into a narrow position.

 

[Don87]

Here is an easy hiller to build. It's a one row cultivator, modified with part of a freighliner frame and bolts.
Works great and it's 2 tools in one.

 

[biker]

I made my hiller using discs from an old ferguson disc harrow, welding up my own brackets/axel housings. It works great for making rows & hilling up potato rows after they have grown a bit.

Thats nice