rotary tiller thoughts

BTW, i looked at a new deere tiller this morning, and it wasn't a Howard!! I guess deere has went cheap too, at least the one i looked at looked pretty lightly made!!

Robert

I'm always amused when the subject of "tillers" comes up here. There's always a lot of mis information given, and some of it, i'm sure is partly because we live in different area's of our planet.

I have (3) "Howard" rotavators, (only brand i'll buy) and i do a lot of custom tillage with them. I've been rotavateing for near 20 years now with the first one i bought, adding the other two in later years. I'd say i've put more hours in the field with a tiller than "all" of the people here who have answered combined!!!

I haven't come across "any ground", that "can be plowed", that my Howard "didn't do a better job", and also have that same ground ready to plant "faster" than if it's been plowed, disced, draged ect... ESPECIALLY new or reclaimed ground!! BUT, i've only rotavated in two states, not all over this planet, so your ground may be different????

First of all, there's a HUGE difference between a "garden tiller", and a "field tiller"!! Garden tillers are much more fragile, and can be tore up fairly easily especially in "stones" or by hitting other "trash" in the ground!

All of the bigger Howards are "field tillers" and if sized right for your hp of tractor, you won't be tearing them up any time soon on rocks or anything else!! That's what a "properly ajusted" drive line slip clutch is for!!!!

I don't agree that "gears" are better/stronger than a chain unless you are getting into 150 + hp units!! My 6' HA Howard is chain drive, and after nearly 20 years of "yearly" comercial custom tilling, it's still on it's origional chain, sprockets, and about everything else for that matter!!!! In fact, the only parts i've needed for it are, sealing washers under the bolt heads of the chain cover bolts, slip clutch plates, a few frame bolts, and a pto shaft! (other than rotor blades & bolts, and greese & oil)

As for "destroying the soil"???? I can't seem to destroy my soil, and it's only seen a rotovator for many, many yeas now!!! The rye field in the picture was rotavated (again) last fall, seeded, and you can see how it's produceing this spring!!

"If" these things destroy the soil, why do i, and my customers keep getting such good crops year after year????? "If" tillers are so fragile, why aren't mine breaking when i'm useing them for comcerial duty????

BUY a good brand "field tiller" sized right for your tractor, "learn how to set it for YOUR conditions", and 99.9% of all the problems you "read about" will be GONE!!!!

Robert

I hope i don't offend anyone, but for a "field tiller" the KK "isn't" going to last long around here. Stones DO kill a "cheapo" tiller!!!! i've also seen Woods and Bush Hog tillers bent up badly too.

Howard i think is toughest, Kuhn is said to be good too, but i've not owned a Kuhn, and don't like there design as well as Howards. I guess you could buy a small John Deere tiller, they are GREEN Howards!! :>) BUT, Howard saves the bigger line (field tillers) for themselves.

Keep in mind, field tillers, till a few inches deeper than the cheapoes do too. So, a 6' rotavator will take a mininum of 45hp to run it "right", and 50 wouldn't hurt one bit in tough conditions.

The advantage of a "field tiller" is, you can "turn the tine speed up", NOT slow them down. With a faster tine speed, you can also have a faster "ground" speed!!! This is how i get good tillage at 4, 5, and 6 mph!! (in the right conditions) Of course, this takes a lot more power too, so that means you can't put it on a whimpy tractor!!

Open and closeing the back door is another ajustment that can be made for different conditions, so as you see, you have to learn how to properly set it up for the conditions "you are tilling in"!!

I haven't priced a Howard HR20 70" with a multi speed gear box lately, but i'd say it will cost "about" $4,000.00?? From time to time i see some good used Howards around, and that's how i bought two of the three i now have.

Just to show you "another field" that's been rotavated "every year" for over 15 years now, check out the one i shot my buck in this last fall!!

Robert

I want you to do a bit of research for us. Can you come up with reasonably accurate figures on what percentage of the soil in North America tilled by rototillers and what percentage is done by conventional plow, disk and cultivator. My guess is about 3 to 4 percent rototiller and 96 to 97 percent conventional. I will stand corrected if you can prove me wrong. However even if the figures were 25 rototiller and 75 conventional. Surely 75% plus farmers across North America are not wrong. Is that what you've been trying to tell us," North American farmers are idiots."

Hugh,

NO song or dance, just the truth of what MY experence has been with my Howard rotavators. I don't care how many other farmers use a rotavator, all i care about is that they work for ME and MY CUSTOMERS, who keep haveing me back year after year.

I like i said in my last post, i've only rotavated in two states, and maybe where you live, things are different????? ???? Meanwhile, they keep putting money in my pocket!!!

Robert

Truth is farmers have gone as they did because of cost. True farmers can respond to economic changes faster than any other segment of society. The owner of the dairy my dad used to ship milk to, once told my dad," If you raise the price of raw milk to point where profits are good for the farmer, he will respond with added production within 2 months even though we all know it takes 9 months from the time you breed a cow until you have her in production."

Soil is a very fragile part of a reproduction system. As with any other part of any reproductive system beating the crap out of it will not enhance the system even a little bit. The moldboard plow will roll your soil over very gently. Now doesn't that sound familiar.

I'm not sure how hard your ground is that you want to work, but if you plow the area you want to till first, you will save a lot of wear and tear on the tiller.

I used my 6' tiller on my 40HP diesel tractor on some hard, un-broke ground and snaped the #80 chain from all the jarring and jumping (It was pushing me all over even in the creeper gear). I learned real fast.

If you are just re-working the same garden area each year, you should be fine.

Good luck
Keith

One more thing. For a tiller to work properly you have to give it time to digest the dirt. That means your tractor has to creep. If your 800 is like my 4000 with a 4 speed, forget it. This is where an SOS works perfectly (10 speed).

FYI.

Mark

I don't think you could successfully roto-till with the tractor if the tines were reverse of the normal tilling direction.

I expect in both instances the tractor simply is geared to move too fast. I typically roto-till with my tractor between .8 and 1.3 mph.