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Correct tiller on Ford 901 Series

F

FortKnox

Member
Hi all-

We are new to hobby farming and are looking for your help/advice.

We have a 1/3 acre set aside for our garden. It needs to be tilled up. We have a Ford 901 (gas) and have considered purchasing a 5', 6', or 7' tiller from 1 of our local farm stores (Bomgaars, Fleet Farm,
etc.).

My question is: "What size of tiller would you recommend?" Some of these indicate a Cat. 1, 3 and so on. I'm assuming this based on HP?

Our hope is that this would go much faster and smoother than spending $1,000 on a walk behind.

Appreciate your input.

Nick
Iowa
1.jpg
 
If you have a 941 that is 4 speed it will not work, too fast. S 951 is a 5 speed with a slower first gear possibly. a 961 is 5 speed with live PTO and should work with you sliping clutch, a 971 is SOS and should run one, 981 is SOS with 1000 RPM PTO so probably cannot get tiller for 1000 pto.
 
A 901 should be a 5 speed with 2 stage clutch. 6ft tiller should cut your wheel tracks out if wheels all the way in. I just have a 5 ft. Behind a JD about same size. Pulls it easy. Wish it was a 6ft. Category 1 is what your tractor is. Oh. I have a king cutter. Its yellow. Came from Rural King. Plenty good.
 


It is not likely that you will be happy with any tiller behind your 901. It will not pull it slowly enough. You will have to make ten to twenty passes.
 
961 is the model you are refering to, the 901 is series that covers all 5 model tractors and not a model number. That 901 could be cheapest version with only the 4 speed transmission and transmission driven PTO. and that 961 is the model I said should work for you in any of the sizes. Just might have to make several passes to not overload tractor.
 
All-

We have a 971 Select-o-speed with wide front. Down side is previous owner welded a loader to the frame. Seems almost too heavy for such a small tractor. Provides a nice counter weight but "gramps" tells me to keep it on there. Thoughts?

I've also been looking at the possibility of using a 2 bottom plow along with a Dearborn "E" disk.

The idea of using a tiller is a little more appealing to me since it seems it would chew up the dirt a little "finer".

I sincerely appreciate all of your expertise with this 971.

Thanks!
 
(quoted from post at 07:21:37 04/08/20) All-

We have a 971 Select-o-speed with wide front. Down side is previous owner welded a loader to the frame. Seems almost too heavy for such a small tractor. Provides a nice counter weight but "gramps" tells me to keep it on there. Thoughts?

I've also been looking at the possibility of using a 2 bottom plow along with a Dearborn "E" disk.

The idea of using a tiller is a little more appealing to me since it seems it would chew up the dirt a little "finer".

I sincerely appreciate all of your expertise with this 971.

Thanks!
Click to expand...


Yes, the 971 will go much slower than a 961. I borrowed a five foot tiller from a friend once to till a garden plot for a non profit. Even as slow as my 971 went it still required multiple, maybe four, passes.
 
Thank you for filling in the model of tractor you have.

The selectospeed tranny is wonderful when it works, a money pit when it finally gets tired because it has 3 clutches in it, 3x as much stuff to have to repair.

It is the best for trying to run a tiller so you are lucky that way. You want live pto and very slow speeds to run a tiller, and the SoS tranny Has the most gear choices in the 900 series.

You want a category 1 implement. Your tractor is under 75 hp. Above that is the category two hitch size.

You will want a tiller that can be offset to one side. The tiller that works best for you will be narrower than your tractor. If the tiller is slid to one side, then it will till one wheel track under, and you can make circles and keep from leaving bad deep tire tracks in your tilled ground.

Paul
 
One small correction there... a 981 has a 3-speed PTO- 540, 1000, and ground speed. So a 981 will run 540 rpm equipment.
 
All I know about them is I read on this site is that the 981 only was a 1000 PTO so someone evidently did not post correct info before.
 
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