Crushing the earth - My time roto-tilling

[jachady 130]

I've had a pretty busy spring. It was really warm in March so I had alot of calls come in to get some roto-tilling done. I did a few back in March but did the bulk in the last week. So far I've done 18 jobs. From a 4x8 foot plot up to a 100x100 garden, and everything in between. Most are gardens but some are people putting in grass or landscaping. Some jobs are current gardens but most lately have been breaking new ground. The C-125 does an awesome job but one garden just kicked mine and my tractors butt. The ground was so hard I literally had to stand on the tiller to get it to push into the earth. Doing that got me down about three inches, then I switched to turning circles so the tines were cutting sideways into the earth. That got me to about 4-5 inches deep. It was a 15 x 30 garden and it took me like an hour and a half.

Anyways, here's some pics. I know you want them.

Breaking new ground for a wildlife trail.

How a garden should look after my job is done.

On a side note, my tractor doesn't have an hour meter, so how often should I be changing the oil during this rough use?

John

[can whlvr 991]

oil is alot cheaper than engine rebuilds so i do mine about every 20 hours,in real dusty conditions even more,its dust that beats up an engine more than almost anything,besides running them out of oil,i would do it alot if it was my livly hood

[tunahead72 2,341]

On a side note, my tractor doesn't have an hour meter, so how often should I be changing the oil during this rough use?

Kohler recommends every 25 hours under normal conditions, "more frequently under extremely dusty, dirty conditions", every 15-20 hours sounds about right to me.

You should also make sure your air filter and foam precleaner are clean, and keep the cooling fins clean, pretty much all the time.

It's good to see your machine has recovered nicely after its mishap last fall.

[AMC RULES 36,945]

Nice work, and worker too. :thumbs:

[Jake Kuhn 1,547]

That has always been a cool looking tractor. Looks like she does a nice job when the ground is not too hard. Jake

[bean 85]

_{nice job! i am looking for a tiller this winter. we plowed and disc'd, but the tiller really gives you that finishing touch. makes all the follwing steps much easier.}

_{I noticed you are wearing 4.80-8s on the front. i like the narrow look. what rears do you have - 23x8.50-12?}

[jachady 130]

_{nice job! i am looking for a tiller this winter. we plowed and disc'd, but the tiller really gives you that finishing touch. makes all the follwing steps much easier.}

_{I noticed you are wearing 4.80-8s on the front. i like the narrow look. what rears do you have - 23x8.50-12?}

Yes, they are 23x8.5-12s. I was going to go wider but I wanted to make sure the tiller would cover the tracks. The skinnys on the front really help turn in the soft tilled ground. The regular wide fronts would "float" and skid.

Thanks for all the compliments on the tractor. My customers like it as well, they're surprised I actually use it. Most think it should just go to shows.

I guess I'll be changing the oil soon. I do keep an eye on the level, plus I use MOA from BG Lubricants. I trust that stuff to protect the engine even if I ran out of oil.

John

[jachady 130]

Oil got changed, tranny fluid topped off and a good wash and a coat of wax!!

Loaded and ready to go another round,

I had three gardens to do today, the ground is getting almost impossible to till. It hasn't rained in a while so the dirt is becoming rock hard. One of the gardens happened to be by a river so the ground was like butter still. I love gardens like that.

A question for you other guys that run a tiller fairly regularly, do you think I can do any damage running the tractor backwards while tilling the hard pack? It seems to cut more aggressive and breaks up the hard ground pretty good. I'm just worried about breaking something. Any thoughts?

John

[ericj 1,576]

i've done a couple of job this year with my tiller and i've come to the conclusion that if it is virgin ground or real hard i take a 2nd tractor along and plow it with a single bottom plow. i am not beating my equipment up and adding wear to my tines. it goes much easier when plowed first and ends up not taking much longer in the end even with the 2 step process because tilling plowed ground is like cutting butter with a hot knife.

eric

[jachady 130]

Spent some time in the woods this weekend. Putting the Horse to some hard work, then I got to join in on the "fun". Here's the photo op shot -

Then I got busy tilling a new trench. The ground is actually fairly soft, sandy and loamy, but there's so many roots. Here's a video of me tilling. The belt jumped the first time I shut the tractor down, then I didn't get it on right and it was rubbing so I had to shut her down again to adjust.

As you can see, the tractor may look good but it's still a worker. I do cringe a little bit because fo the abuse. I ended up tilling 450 feet of trench. After runing the tiler up and down the path twice I grabbed the shovel and started digging the loose dirt out of the trench. Ended up taking me 6 hours with breaks included. Here's a video of the final product.

Next week I go chop trees down. Too bad the Wheel Horse can't help me with that. :)

[312Hydro 473]

Great use of your tiller! Is that trench around 6" deep for a path? Thanks for sharing the pics. You could always find that Wheel Horse with the saw on the front! :ychain:

[kpinnc 10,736]

A question for you other guys that run a tiller fairly regularly, do you think I can do any damage running the tractor backwards while tilling the hard pack? It seems to cut more aggressive and breaks up the hard ground pretty good. I'm just worried about breaking something. Any thoughts?

It will put more strain on the rear hitch, but the big thing is the lift cable. If the tiller gets in a bind, it will actually force it down lower- which may break your lift cable and/or the lift mechanism. I've tilled backwards (just a little when needed) to get a deeper bite, but I would pay close attention when doing it. There's a whole lot of torque back there, and if it gets in a bind it all has to go somewhere.

Also, the lower the tiller goes- the greater chance of the belt tension loosening up. Keep an eye on the belt to make sure you don't burn it up due to slippage.

[jachady 130]

Great use of your tiller! Is that trench around 6" deep for a path? Thanks for sharing the pics. You could always find that Wheel Horse with the saw on the front!

The trench is for some excess water runoff, I piled the dirt right next to the trench to give a high and dry path. I did see that Horse Saw and it conjured up a bunch of ideas, none of which OSHA would approve so I haven't gone forward with any of them.

A question for you other guys that run a tiller fairly regularly, do you think I can do any damage running the tractor backwards while tilling the hard pack? It seems to cut more aggressive and breaks up the hard ground pretty good. I'm just worried about breaking something. Any thoughts?

It will put more strain on the rear hitch, but the big thing is the lift cable. If the tiller gets in a bind, it will actually force it down lower- which may break your lift cable and/or the lift mechanism. I've tilled backwards (just a little when needed) to get a deeper bite, but I would pay close attention when doing it. There's a whole lot of torque back there, and if it gets in a bind it all has to go somewhere.

Also, the lower the tiller goes- the greater chance of the belt tension loosening up. Keep an eye on the belt to make sure you don't burn it up due to slippage.

I've noticed it about the bite. You can really fel the torque when it starts binding down. I'm always at the ready to put it in forward and get out of any bad situation. Of course, eventually I'll find the breaking point.

[jachady 130]

Had a big project to do.  This was all an overgrown yard that hadn't been tended to in 10 years.  My brother in law is flipping the house and needed me to till the yard to restart the lawn.

 

 

 

 

 

[Wishin4a416 2,188]

Thats a fine lookin tractor!!

[rexman72 210]

looks like your having a blast tilling

[posifour11 723]

Wow! I need a tiller now! Chances are, a tiller would hate the Ozarks, though.

[neil 2,398]

Should have no trouble flipping the house now .

great job

[jeremi3210 688]

Doing all that tilling how are your tines holding up? Just wondering cause i know they are kinda expensive.

[jachady 130]

The tines are starting to "point" on the end but they still have the full curve.  I've used this tiller more than Wheel Horse probably intended so I'd say it's holding up fine.  I have a brand new tiller that I had been considering selling but decided to keep it because of the cost of the tines.  I should be good for another 10 years.

[jachady 130]

The start of the 2014 tilling season has officially begun. I was able to get out today a do a couple gardens.

Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk

[jachady 130]

And some more, this is all one days work.

I take pride in my work and love it when the gardens turn out like this. The ground is perfect right now, not to wet and clumpy or dry and hard. It is tilling up like powder.

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And since I sold my big silver truck, this is what I use to pull my tractors. A Ford Mustang Pony Package to pull the Wheel Horse

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[jachady 130]

Back at it today, except I ran into a new problem. The oil drain pipe actually broke off while I was tilling. The engine on the red C125 has always puffed a little smoke under load, but all a sudden it really started smoking so I shut it off. I looked at the engine and saw oil dripping. Look underneath and the pipe broke off flush with the bottom of the pan. So I loaded her up and went and got the silver one to finish the job.

Then I went and did another big job. I always do this garden but thus year he wanted it twice as big.

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[brandonozz 168]

Jachady,

 

From now on I think we need to forward all tilling questions to you!  Looks like you get as much seat time in with the tiller in a year as most do in a lifetime.

All that tilling around the house.... Wow.

[Lane Ranger 10,495]

That Mustang puller pic for the Wheel Horse just makes my day!