howard 50 select-a-tilth rotovator question

just picked up this tiller and have a ferguson/ford "super dexta" diesel which has 45hp diesel with about 39hp on pto. (maybe a little under powered)

I tried tilling and the way it is set-up now it won't till more than a few inches in my lowest gear (my low maybe isn't low enough (1.6 mph) or hopefully I can adjust the tiller gear configuration (would like to know if anyone has link to info on gear selection??). I see the rear of the case has wing nuts but didn't open it yet. there is a metal rod with handle which seems to only disengage and isn't for changing between gears? I have the large adjustable wheel and adjustable skids on this but I didn't mess with them yet (just used hydraulics to hold depth)

I tried ground with minimal vegetation that was slightly moist and loamy but hasn't been broken up for a long time (if I lowered it slightly I could till off the weeds in gear and turn over a little bit (maybe 2 inches), just couldn't go full depth while in gear(although it would easily go full depth stationary and lowered into ground)

there are multiple tines per wheel not all have the same number of tines though(some have up to 5 I believe per wheel so I guess I could look into removing some to help as another alternative??)

this was a 50 inch unit

Copy and paste this link in a browser, for some reason it doesn't like it if I put in in as a link, it's not your model, but it is a Howard manual and will give you the info you looking for.

http://www.kongskilde.com/~/media/DLG/Kongskilde/DownloadLib/Manuals/Soil%20Preparation/PTO%20Harrows/Rotary%20Cultivator/Howard%20Rotavator%20%20Rotalabour%20500%20600%20700/R500_MAN_GB_051005_74966834300.pdf

First, you're asking a lot from it, breaking hard ground with a tiller usually requires a couple passes. We have several howard rotovators, a 16 ft, a 72" and a 60". The big guy is strictly secondary tillage, the smaller ones are heavy enough to break ground, but we prefer to use them after moldboard plowing to prepare seed beds.

The purpose of the selectable speeds on the gear box was to allow adjustment of the rotor speed to suite the tractor speed and the finish desired. We run ours at the fasted speed and 3rd or 4th gear in a ford 6600 in plowed ground, slower doesn't make it any nicer and faster it starts to suffer on quality.

To make life easy for you and the tiller you need to rip the ground with something like a chisel plow before tilling it up and yes you need a tractor with slower gearing really.

OK thanks for help with manual. I have a plow so I guess I will use that first. I think the tiller will actually work better than disc I have. going to increase size of my lawn this spring. Also hope to get ready to grow some flowers for herbal medicine market and this will be perfect for making tilled rows

Running a little fast won't hurt anything you just have to go over it a few extra times.