Troy Bilt Horse Tiller

[2manyrocks]

There has been a badly overpriced Tbilt horse on our local Mid TN CL for a couple of months. We had a brief warm up about a week ago, and I noticed the seller had boosted his price to $1,000, but had the same photo of his unit with the same flat tire. There was another listed at $300, and it's sold.

 

[boxygen]

An "equivalent" machine purchased new today would cost well over 2k, and it would be not nearly as durable. As far as parts go, you can download a parts and service manual on the troy-bilt website (free) and look up parts diagrams as well as purchase any part right on the website. I purchased new wheel seals and a set of belts last week, although I had to phone it in because the online ordering didnt seem to work. All I can say is that I wish all my machinery had that kind of resource available. These older horse models are extremely tough. If I were you I would try to start the tiller right on site. I started mine a few days ago just to see if I could, it fired right up in 2-3 pulls and it was in the 20s outside. They also used to make front snowplow attachments for these so they are meant to run in the winter if you use the correct type of oil in them.
I wouldnt go near the new troy bilt. They are owned and built by MTD like every other piece of Homedepot-grade garbage that is available today. These old horse models were built in Troy, New York by people that set out to build an extremely durable HD tiller and they suceeded. I have the original paperwork on mine and it is very interesting reading. IF you wore out your tiller, they advertised that they would completely rebuild the tiller at their plant for half the cost of the original purchase price. THe original purchase price I think was around 900 dollars twenty plus years ago. Technically, there is no expiration date on the document and it is binding, but we all know you would never get anywhere with that. Don't give up on this lead if you are serious about buying a tiller. Best of luck.

 

[oldmanmike]

boxygen wrote:

I have the original paperwork on mine and it is very interesting reading.

I'm interested in reading it. If you could scan and post, or scan and email miketuch1@aol.com I'd appreciate it.

 

[bontai_Joe]

My 6 HP tecumseh horse has 2 matched belts, that is the older 2 speed. The 2 speed has the reverse disk the goes into a groove in the pully. The newer model has a single belt that you switch to a different groove in the pulley to get your 4 speeds. It also uses a flat reverser disk that rubs a flat on the transmission pulley.

My appologies, I learned something new today. I didn't know that the real old ones were a 2 speed. I've never seen one, but sounds like the drive would be more positive.

 

[BATTY54]

No apologies needed, I read a few groups daily and learn new stuff all the time. As far as the drive being more positive, it is when adjusted correctly and matched belts. It is tough to find a matched pair of belts lately I assume that is part of the reason for the switch to the single belt. I used to buy them from NAPA and now Stens but they only have singles.

 

[oldmanmike]

Troy Bilt Tiller Parts

Another Horse parts house - small selection - has Horse axle seals.

Does anyone have an opinion on how well the 90 degree Bolo tines work versus the 45 degree stock tines? My tiller is half and half, 4 Bolos, 4 standard. Why do the Bolos cost double?

The Bolos are installed so that when you look at them from the rear, they form 3/4 of a rectangle, causing a two-track dirt turnover pattern. I'm about to move those tines around so that they alternate better.

 

[oldmanmike]

Forget my last questions. You're not supposed to mix bolo and cultivator tines. I'm going to take them apart, mix and match correctly, and put them back together.

The manual is here. RTFM as they used to say.

PDF Manual Web Archive

Type in Horse for Model, 1 for Serial.

You have your choice of the entire manual (huge), or the manual sectioned out. Be sure and look at the index to get an idea of where the info you're looking up might be, because the PDF sections do not equal manual sections.

Accept. (I had to repeat this several times to get it to "take".)

FYI - the manual says to use SAE 90 or SAE 140 for transmission gear oil. The T handle is the transmission filler hole. Duhhhhhh. I used the oil level plug.
Eventually I got it done........

 

[oldmanmike]

I have the manual and parts list for the Troybilt Horse 1 on my machine as a .pdfs, if anyone's interested. I bought a $7 CD off EBAY. I suppose I could burn CDs for you guys, but I'm not sure if it would work for everyone, as it calls up AOL (even though the Adobe doesn't need it.) (why I don't know). Anyhow email miketuch1@aol.com.

The guy in Jacksonville, you've been around. My engine is a Tecumseh 8HP. Do I have breaker points and a cap buried in there, or a transistorized module? Are they behind the flywheel? If they're behind the flywheel, does it knock off with a hammer?

 

[J_J]

I have the manual and parts list for the Troybilt Horse 1 on my machine as a .pdfs, if anyone's interested. I bought a $7 CD off EBAY. I suppose I could burn CDs for you guys, but I'm not sure if it would work for everyone, as it calls up AOL (even though the Adobe doesn't need it.) (why I don't know). Anyhow email miketuch1@aol.com.

The guy in Jacksonville, you've been around. My engine is a Tecumseh 8HP. Do I have breaker points and a cap buried in there, or a transistorized module? Are they behind the flywheel? If they're behind the flywheel, does it knock off with a hammer?

I have mostly worked on Briggs, and Kohler's, and I can't remember about the Tecumseh engine. I know the Briggs do like you said.

Would love to have one of those Cd's. Send me a PM. Thanks

 

[oldmanmike]

Gotcha covered, JJ