New tiller setup - dang...

[JFoy]

So, been wanting to get a rotary tiller for a while now. Shopped around and decided to get a Landpride RTA1250 50in for my BX25 from my local Kubota dealer. Left house at 12:30pm. Hammered out a deal for the tiller and boxblade. He only had the tiller in inventory so I brought it home and will get the boxblade later this week.

After dealer loaded tiller in my truck bed, he put the PTO shaft in beside it. Said it would fit perfectly since I have a quick hitch. Excellent. Home! Ok, so first things first. Unload it. Done. Now, Grease it! Insert fresh tube of grease, connect to zerk, pump handle, and ughhh.. grease everywhere. Wait! I have one of those LockNLube thingys somewhere. Here it is. Ok, Round 2 - Grease! Much better!

Now to check the oil levels. Socket off the bolts here and here and huh? I need a hex key for this one? Umm.. why? Ok, grab the hex key and take that one off. Yep, unit has plenty of oil. So far so good.

Hmm... PTO shaft has some rust on it - really? Wonderful. Guess I should slip it a few times. Read about doing this. Let's see. Loosen each bolt 2 full rotations. Ok. Wrenches and really? Shaft is in the way so can only make 1/4 turns at a time. Fine, whatever. Finally, all 8 are loosened. Ok, let's put this puppy on and slip it. Attach the shaft, hop on the tractor, backup and align, and, seriously? The clevis pins are in the wrong place. Sigh..

Socket set. Move the clevis pins to the right location and retighten. Back on the tractor, backing up, trying to align, hop off, hook up PTO, backup for quick hitch connection, and... umm... hmm.. only one side of the quick hitch is in position. Try again. Still not right. Something is wrong. Try again. What the heck? Wait a sec, the PTO shaft is bottomed out. It's too long. Oh, for crying out loud. Seriously? I've got to cut it?

Hmm.. Ok. Read about this as well. Still, best to review the procedure. Read the manual - written in English, reads like Chinese. Wonderful. Ok, videos on youtube. Uh huh, uh huh, yeah, ok, Watched a couple videos. Did the everythingattachment way first. Hmm... Measure from implement PTO notch to clevis pins, 6.5in. Ok. Now, tractor PTO to quick hitch points, 19.5in. Hmm. So, distance is 26in. Now measure the shaft, 31in. Seriously? 5 inches? Can't be right. Let's do the side by side way and make marks. Line them up, make marks, etc. Takes shaft back into shop and stare at it for while. Ponder, wonder, scratch head, and then, AH! Ok, so I need to cut off approximately 2.5 inches on both!

Wait, how do I take off this **** safety guard? Umm.. Push with screwdriver through the holes. Nothing is happening. Really? Oh, for gawd sakes, this is annoying. Turn the thing upside down and shove flatblade screwdrivers in as wedges to the plastic tabs. Finally! geez... Saw, deburr, saw, deburr, done.

Ok... Where was I? Oh yeah, slipping the clutch. Let's finish this up. And, huh? Seriously? Thunderstorm. What time is it? 7:30pm? Really? Wife wants to eat dinner now. I can't believe I've spent the entire afternoon doing all this and still not done. Back at it tomorrow.

 

[Wagtail]

PARAGRAPH.

x2 :laughing:

 

[coobie]

PARAGRAPH.

Use Edit Post.

Really,who cares?Don,t read it then..Are you the Edit police? I see you made the same comment in another thread in this section.Move on and let it go life is to short appreciate it while you can.

 

[Citydude]

So, been wanting to get a rotary tiller for a while now. Shopped around and decided to get a Landpride RTA1250 50in for my BX25 from my local Kubota dealer. Left house at 12:30pm. Hammered out a deal for the tiller and boxblade. He only had the tiller in inventory so I brought it home and will get the boxblade later this week. After dealer loaded tiller in my truck bed, he put the PTO shaft in beside it. Said it would fit perfectly since I have a quick hitch. Excellent. Home! Ok, so first things first. Unload it. Done. Now, Grease it! Insert fresh tube of grease, connect to zerk, pump handle, and ughhh.. grease everywhere. Wait! I have one of those LockNLube thingys somewhere. Here it is. Ok, Round 2 - Grease! Much better! Now to check the oil levels. Socket off the bolts here and here and huh? I need a hex key for this one? Umm.. why? Ok, grab the hex key and take that one off. Yep, unit has plenty of oil. So far so good. Hmm... PTO shaft has some rust on it - really? Wonderful. Guess I should slip it a few times. Read about doing this. Let's see. Loosen each bolt 2 full rotations. Ok. Wrenches and really? Shaft is in the way so can only make 1/4 turns at a time. Fine, whatever. Finally, all 8 are loosened. Ok, let's put this puppy on and slip it. Attach the shaft, hop on the tractor, backup and align, and, seriously? The clevis pins are in the wrong place. Sigh.. Socket set. Move the clevis pins to the right location and retighten. Back on the tractor, backing up, trying to align, hop off, hook up PTO, backup for quick hitch connection, and... umm... hmm.. only one side of the quick hitch is in position. Try again. Still not right. Something is wrong. Try again. What the heck? Wait a sec, the PTO shaft is bottomed out. It's too long. Oh, for crying out loud. Seriously? I've got to cut it? Hmm.. Ok. Read about this as well. Still, best to review the procedure. Read the manual - written in English, reads like Chinese. Wonderful. Ok, videos on youtube. Uh huh, uh huh, yeah, ok, Watched a couple videos. Did the everythingattachment way first. Hmm... Measure from implement PTO notch to clevis pins, 6.5in. Ok. Now, tractor PTO to quick hitch points, 19.5in. Hmm. So, distance is 26in. Now measure the shaft, 31in. Seriously? 5 inches? Can't be right. Let's do the side by side way and make marks. Line them up, make marks, etc. Takes shaft back into shop and stare at it for while. Ponder, wonder, scratch head, and then, AH! Ok, so I need to cut off approximately 2.5 inches on both! Wait, how do I take off this **** safety guard? Umm.. Push with screwdriver through the holes. Nothing is happening. Really? Oh, for gawd sakes, this is annoying. Turn the thing upside down and shove flatblade screwdrivers in as wedges to the plastic tabs. Finally! geez... Saw, deburr, saw, deburr, done. Ok... Where was I? Oh yeah, slipping the clutch. Let's finish this up. And, huh? Seriously? Thunderstorm. What time is it? 7:30pm? Really? Wife wants to eat dinner now. I can't believe I've spent the entire afternoon doing all this and still not done. Back at it tomorrow.

Your on your way to being an expert at this! Thanks for the chuckle.

 

[JFoy]

PARAGRAPH.

Use Edit Post.

The story was supposed to be hurried and confusing sounding - hence, the lack of formatting. Oh well.

 

[JFoy]

Really,who cares?Don,t read it then..Are you the Edit police? I see you made the same comment in another thread in this section.Move on and let it go life is to short appreciate while you can.

Thanks Coobie

 

[Sun Treader]

I feel your pain.

I've had exactly the same experience with each implement and every time I need to change an implement. I don't have much time to work with the tractor so half a day every single time I want to change an implement means its pretty rare that I can do any work at all. I decided to try a Quickhitch a few months ago. Cat 2 tractor so went with a Cat 2 Speeco. Didn't fit anything and wasn't even close to fitting anything, and this is all "Cat 2 Quickhitch compatible."

Got a Harbor Freight Cat 1 quick hitch. Half a day and I got it to fit one thing. Another day messing with it and three trips to the shop for metal working tools and it still doesn't fit anything else. Worked on the modifications to the top link hook. Going to get to try again sometime this week and see if it will fit anything this time around. There's a quick hitch standard, I've read it, not a single implement I've measured has met that complete standard.

Literally every time I run the tractor something breaks; literally every time I run the tractor it looses parts that just fall off, usually pins. Absolutely nothing is standard or fits in any way. This is a mid-90s Case 495 with 1000 hours. It takes a special stepped top link pin that has to be ordered, why would they do this? The parking break can't be fixed without tearing the entire drivetrain apart.

Why are implements even sold with connections on them since from what I can tell every single implement needs to be cut up and welded back together to fit anything?

I'm new to tractors but not to machines and equipment and its shocking to me, head scratching, how poorly every single aspect of them is designed and built. Every single thing fits so sloppily its in danger of falling off, there are a dozen different things to adjust on the 3-point every single time its hooked up to anything and they all need a different wrench, hammer, pliers, or other tool.

Its all just seemingly random chunks of metal, plates, chains, pins, bolts, and whatever rubbing up against some other big chunk of something. I get that tractors are coming from a background of being setup with a single implement and just running that so making adjustments, grinding, and welding was fine; but for general use when you have to change implements its just a terrible system. I understand why Deere and Kubota have tried to standardize on their own systems (Deere with their hitch and Kubota by buying into Landpride.) That makes a lot of sense to me and one day I hope to be in a system where I can do the magical backing up and dropping/picking up things in a matter of minutes instead of hours. How hard can it possible be to build an implement to meet the quick hitch standard? Why would they put the pins and links just a few inches away from the standard? It just seems to be a completely silly situation that individual tractors need to have individual implements fitted custom to them. With a few weeks I'm sure I could get everything customized to reliably fit but having that amount of time isn't on the horizon.

Anytime an implement is going to be messed with there's going to be trying to muscle around a 900 lb chunk of steel, there's going to be missing and incompatible parts, there's going to be at least two and up to six tools required, and I'm going to end up covered in grease and oil from my elbows down.

I can do all this stuff, I'm more than competent with machinery, equipment, and tools; its just that it shouldn't have to be this difficult, there's no reason for all this!

I'm just bummed out its so difficult to get anything to work and for reasons that don't make enough sense to me.

Its just incredibly frustrating to finally get a few hours to get some work done and spend the entire time trying to get the box blade hooked up, its a whole day to get the backhoe ready to do some work.

Rant done with.

 

[JFoy]

Hey Sun Treader,

Sounds like you got yourself a serious can of worms to deal with there. We obviously started from opposite ends on this. I started with a new tractor with a quick hitch and have bought everything based on that quick hitch with an exception here or there.

The downside to going with the quick hitch is that implements often cost me more money since I can't just get any ole boxblade off craigslist. I have to find one that works with the quickhitch. This annoys my wife to no end as she is the queen of finding stuff on craigslist and yard sales and then I end up buying it new and paying new price.

Additionally to the "being on opposite end" theme, I don't have a machinery background. Mine is technical / scientific. So, I've read about many of the things people talk about here but haven't done them yet myself.

Still, getting a tractor has changed me inside. Told my wife that something woke up inside of me when I got it. Maybe it is some kind of genetic "man" thing but I look for things to do with my tractor now. Funny.

 

[bigtiller]

Sometimes it works the other way. I just bought a KK carry-all and made the time to "fix" it to fit my quick hitch. I was suprised to find that KK has changed their ways. Their carry-all's are now made to fit my quick hitch. All I had to do was add a bushing over the lift pins. The top-link was ready to go.

 

[CCWKen]

Oh yeah, I'm well aware of the domino effect when it's time to get something done. Just the other day I was going to take the Kubota down front (has FEL) and haul the DR trimmer, electric pole saw, chain saw, step ladder and 200' of extension cord to trim trees over the driveway. I had to move the Ford tractor to get to it. Fired up the Ford and it ran for 5-10 seconds and died. Whaaaaaaat? Cranked again and wouldn't start. Checked fuel, good. Checked fuel cutoff, good. Ah dang, must be air in the fuel line. Bleed the injectors and got it going. First time it's done that just sitting so make a mental note to check that out later.

Notice tires look a little low on the Kubota. Fire up the compressor and while it's filling the tank, check fluids and oil. Dang, low on UTF and notice a leaking coupler to the FEL. It's tight so make a note to check that later. Hunt around for some UTF and the 2-gallon jug is almost empty. Dang it. Locate some ATF. That will do until I can get to the leaking coupler. Air up the tires and check the fuel. Of course, it's low. Fill the tank with a hand pump. Fire it up and move to load up. It's already 10:00am and 95 degrees. Go inside the house to cool off and get a drink of water. Check the weather station and the heat index is 103. I decide I'm done for day and will tackle the job early the next morning when it's cool. (It gets down to 80 over night.) Take a coffee break and reflect on the day's accomplishments.