3pt tiller questions
Printed From: Unofficial Allis
Category: Allis Chalmers
Forum Name: Farm Equipment
Forum Description: everything about Allis-Chalmers farm equipment
URL: https://www.allischalmers.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=117241
Printed Date: 25 Aug 2025 at 10:48am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 11.10 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: 3pt tiller questions
Posted By: Wdtractorman
Subject: 3pt tiller questions
Date Posted: 07 Jan 2016 at 7:02pm
| I'm thinking about getting a 3pt tiller either 5 or 6 ft. Iv never used one is there anything I need to know about them? Any specific brand or option to look for? Would there be any reason not to buy a used one? Thanks for any comments or advice. |
Replies:
Posted By: sparky
Date Posted: 07 Jan 2016 at 7:06pm
|
What tractor do you plan to use it on? ------------- It's the color tractor my grandpa had! |
Posted By: DiyDave
Date Posted: 07 Jan 2016 at 7:09pm
| What are you pulling it with. They work better with a tractor that has low gearing in the tranny. If you buy a used one, check the usual seals, bearings and driveline, plus the chainbox. Pick up the tiller, grab the tine bar, and see how much slap you have in the chain, most have an adjuster, in the chainbox, to take up slap. Tines can be got for a lot of 'em, at cleancutter.com. If they don't have them, it may already be obsolete... |
Posted By: Wdtractorman
Date Posted: 07 Jan 2016 at 7:34pm
| It a 4000 ford I'll be using it with, I know it wrong color but I don't think the b will pull one lol. |
Posted By: Travis2766
Date Posted: 07 Jan 2016 at 8:47pm
| You can get them with forward rotation and reverse rotation. In my experience the reverse rotation (rotate back to front) do better in things like sod and short weeds but plug up very quickly in long stemmed plants like corn stalks and tall grass. I use a 4' forward rotation (turns front to back) tiller for my garden and food plots. |
Posted By: SHAMELESS
Date Posted: 07 Jan 2016 at 8:55pm
| a lot of times can use the forward rotation types and have your tractor in neutral, just padding the brakes to keep it slow. if your tractor has a slow enough gearing, i'd get the rear rotation type. |
Posted By: jaybmiller
Date Posted: 08 Jan 2016 at 6:09am
|
Shameless is RIGHT again ! You NEED a really,really slow 1st gear. I have an Italian 5' tiller on Troy, D-14 #1 and have to 'feather' the PD AND use the brake to get slooooow enough. You need less than 1MPH to be happy. Now 2nd, 3rd passes are easier as the tiller digs in more and I can fluff up the soil better. Also the garden is only 60 by 360 so I don't get a lot of time on the tractor! Watch out for 'used-abused' units. A new set of tines can be 1/2 cost of a new unit,gear boxes should NOT leak and overall condition will show how it was cared for.Whatever you buy be sure to get a manual (online these days) and locate a source for parts! Even brand name stuff can break and if you an't get that oddball OEM part, any deal is NOT a good deal. I have to say it's the BEST tiller I ever bought! Used everything from front walkbehinds, TROTbilt rear tillers, LGT125 with tiller all with OK results . Just wish I had more garden to till !! 8 passes and the wife can plant and I can relax !! Jay ------------- 3 D-14s,A-C forklift, B-112 Kubota BX23S lil' TOOT( The Other Orange Tractor) Never burn your bridges, unless you can walk on water |
Posted By: SHAMELESS
Date Posted: 08 Jan 2016 at 7:39am
| Jay....if yer mowing, you could be tilling! |
Posted By: Butch(OH)
Date Posted: 08 Jan 2016 at 8:12am
|
A few years ago I thought that a PTO tiller was something I just had to own but a buddy who had owned one told me best thing to do was invest $100 to rent one for day before I took the jump. Glad he did because after a couple hours it was clear that slipping the clutch and riding the brakes to go slow enough was a joke. You need a hydro or creeper gear for a PTO tiller in our clay ground. |
Posted By: Eldon (WA)
Date Posted: 08 Jan 2016 at 1:26pm
|
I've used Howard Select-a-Tilth rotovators for years, first behind a SI D17 and then 175 diesels. I use the fastest set of gears and they do a good job. Mine are 5 foot wide and will take all of 60hp in sod or clay. They quit making them years ago, which is a shame as they are very heavy duty. Tines are available, but other parts not so much. I buy good ones whenever they come up for sale....I have 5 now, just picked up two this last year, one for $900, and the other for $1000. Well worth it. http://s29.photobucket.com/user/ejons/media/Implements/023.jpg.html" rel="nofollow">  ------------- ALLIS EXPRESS! This year: |
Posted By: Allen Dilg
Date Posted: 08 Jan 2016 at 2:35pm
|
Hello WD tractorman I have an off brand 5' 3pt tiller that I pull with an AC5020 4 speed trans an high intermedium and low range shifter 12 gears. It will till sod. Is the Ford live power???? |
Posted By: ac fleet
Date Posted: 08 Jan 2016 at 6:01pm
|
WELL,----I gotta be odd man out, (again!!LOL!!!)---I use a King-Kutter, 72" (bought new many years ago from your favorite co,--TSC,) and have it on the 650-G which has 3-speed, PLUS hi-lo transmission ,--NO live pto, don't need it,-- and there is video of it and me on You-tube tillin! --Tractor sounds like a DETROIT diesel! --its only 25 hp BUT moves VERY slow in L-1! This is the little black tractor with orange wheels and has Harley-Davidson motor cycles decals on it, plus a big ole harley hog tip muffler! I did have it on the 706, which works ok except tractor too heavy and a bit too wide for garden use!---it has lpto and I usually ran in L-1 with torque back which was plenty slow! It's more about ground speed and not quite so much about hp!!---watch my video and you can see!--that's 6 inches deep first pass!---I then plant! thanks; ac fleet
|
Posted By: ac fleet
Date Posted: 08 Jan 2016 at 6:11pm
|
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wc-fGsH_SD4 don't know if this is the link or not to the video , this don't seem to be a clickable link! thanks; ac fleet PS,---if you copy and paste the link it will take you to the video! |
Posted By: Gerald J.
Date Posted: 08 Jan 2016 at 6:38pm
|
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wc-fGsH_SD4" rel="nofollow - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wc-fGsH_SD4 Easy to make it a clickable link, click on the icon to the left of the smiley. Gerald J. |
Posted By: Dek Thorne
Date Posted: 08 Jan 2016 at 6:51pm
| A ford 4000 should work just fine a tiller. the newer ones have a very slow first gear and a live pto. a 64 4000 with the round hood would have the power but one might be a little harder to use because it has a faster first gear. |
Posted By: Eldon (WA)
Date Posted: 08 Jan 2016 at 7:04pm
Yes it is either hp or speed...my 175 does the same or better job at twice the speed. I use a very heavy 8' Northwest tiller on my 6080, but it has the slow gears also so it handles it well, actually better than my 190XT. I've had competition running the King Kutter tillers out here, they aren't advertising the next year. They just won't hold up in our rocky soil. Same with the Landprides....the guys you see year after year doing custom tilling will have an old Howard or Northwest. ------------- ALLIS EXPRESS! This year: |
ac fleet wrote:Posted By: ac fleet
Date Posted: 08 Jan 2016 at 8:22pm
| I don't till in gravel pits or stone quarries, so it works fine for me.---I have black gumbo to work with here. thanks; ac fleet |
Posted By: Wdtractorman
Date Posted: 08 Jan 2016 at 9:52pm
| Yeah it live power, well got the two stage clutch. That what I was worried about the speed it a 5 speed and not that slow in first. |
Posted By: Dennis IL
Date Posted: 08 Jan 2016 at 10:48pm
|
I have a 6 ft. King kutter that I have really put through the paces and tilled a whole lot of ground with for years now and never had a lick of trouble with it. It's been a wonderful machine for me and I would buy another one in a New York second. I run it off the D-17. and it weighs just about 850 lbs if I remember right off the top of my head. I will say this, all of that tilling has been done in beautiful black Illinois soil that doesn't have so much as a pebble in it. So I can't really say how it would preform in very rocky ground. ------------- HE WHO KNEELS BEFORE GOD CAN STAND BEFORE ANY MAN |
Posted By: Brian-KS
Date Posted: 09 Jan 2016 at 2:43am
|
This is my set up I use for my six small garden plots. They (tractor and tiller) work excellent together and thanks to the 3 cylinder Diesel, the fuel consumption is nil. You can barely see the tires moving in it's lowest gear! It has 15 forward speeds. [TUBE]sgQ_SATLECg[/TUBE] ------------- EAT BEEF! |
Posted By: DiyDave
Date Posted: 09 Jan 2016 at 5:20am
| Brian, that's similar to the setup I have, I have a Kubota L2202, with 12 forward speeds, and 4 reverse. I can set it so slow, I can get off, go up to the house and get a cup of coffee, drink it, pee, and walk back down, and turn it around... |
Posted By: fixer1958
Date Posted: 09 Jan 2016 at 7:39am
|
FIL has a 5' Land Pride I think, He uses it behind a New Holland 35 hp. All hydro and does a nice job. I wanted to use it on my WD but he said it was to fast. I thought I would just milk the hand clutch in first gear. Anyway I have this 1320 Ford now and am going to get a 4' offset one. Don't know what brand yet. |
Posted By: tbran
Date Posted: 09 Jan 2016 at 8:46am
|
what ever brand you purchase - check out the availability of parts. We have a parade of broke down customers every spring with tillers that bear no name or model identification. You usually are ok with name brands supported by dealers. Not saying others are bad- it is just that stuff happens... ------------- When told "it's not the money,it's the principle", remember, it's always the money.. |
Posted By: tim 52160
Date Posted: 09 Jan 2016 at 8:59am
| I wanted to buy a howard for years . But they were so exspensive. hate that they went out of business.A neighbor had one on a mf 135 and had j shaped tines instead of the L shaped. he went through 10-12 foot corn stalks that had been picked not combined and it didnt clog uponce. of course we just did a test strip since he was really there to till my grandmothers garden. I thought about just using themto shred and incorporate the trash then hit it with a chisel plow or field cultivater like Louis bromfield did on his malabar farm.I think somefolks used to mount engines on them to power them so they would have enough power and be able to go slow. |
Posted By: Gerald J.
Date Posted: 09 Jan 2016 at 9:38am
|
The tiller maker's sales or operating manual should specify horsepower requirement and ground speed limit. Gerald J. |
Posted By: Brian-KS
Date Posted: 09 Jan 2016 at 9:39am
Dave, that is so funny you mentioned that, I have done the exact same thing many times! I wasn't going to tell that story because I didn't want to excite any "tractor safety Police" that may be lurking. This tractor has 15 forward speeds and 5 in reverse. It's an incredibly durable tractor, it runs my PTO driven log splitter most of the winter. It has a 4 speed PTO so I can put that in 3rd and set the engine speed to 1200 rpm and split a cord of wood on $2 worth of fuel  ------------- EAT BEEF! |
Posted By: DiyDave
Date Posted: 09 Jan 2016 at 6:46pm
| Brian, as far as what others think, I just lost the capacity of caring about that long ago. I would love to have one of the Jap Allis's, but can't justify spending $3500, when I can find Kubotas to run a tiller, for $800, and a few minor repairs, to do the same job. The Kubotas I have are similarly low fuel users, and way easier to transport than a full sized D series, to do small jobs... |