BX with Tiller

[Snowmansimon]

I have a BX1860 and an older FL1000 tiller. I find the tiller really struggles to dig down very deep. Its a forward rotating tiller and I have the skid shows as high as they will go but on new gardens it might get 4". I can reverse with the tiller and it really digs in good but then i leave tracks. So I reverse till then forward till to remove the tracks and still find on the forward pass it just doesnt want to dig.

Looking at the angle of my lower 3pt arms it almost seems as the tiller is working it wants to push the arms up because of the angle. The arms are always angled up since the tractor is so small. Maybe a B series being higher would cause the arms to be angled down below horizontal and then the tiller would bite better and dig in.

Anyone have similar experience tilling with forward spinning tillers on a BX? Just seems like the tiller could use 300lb of weight on it to get it to bite and stop crawling up out of the cut. Works great on well established loose soil gardens. Drops right in and goes deep enough the link arms are horizontal/below horizontal.

 

[RCW]

Wondering if you need to lengthen your top link to give the tiller greater depth in forward direction. A little extra top link can change aspect of implement greatly.

 

[imnukensc]

Needs to shorten the top link, not lengthen it.

 

[Snowmansimon]

Ive tried both. I kind of want a reverse rotating tiller. I am doing a lot of tilling on the side and find i need 2-3 passes and still feel its not very deep.

 

[Nodlenor]

I have a BX2380 and a 48” King Kutter forward rotating tiller. It does a great job tilling but doesn’t go very deep. Not sure it would have enough power to go much deeper. I use mine mainly to till gardens, mine & several others.

 

[Snowmansimon]

I have a BX2380 and a 48” King Kutter forward rotating tiller. It does a great job tilling but doesn’t go very deep. Not sure it would have enough power to go much deeper. I use mine mainly to till gardens, mine & several others.

Maybe these tillers are just not heavy enough to sink in as deep as i expect. When I reverse with mine it loads up and digs pretty deep and the tractor actually lugs a little. going forward it doesnt even know its back there.

 

[random]

Maybe these tillers are just not heavy enough to sink in as deep as i expect. When I reverse with mine it loads up and digs pretty deep and the tractor actually lugs a little. going forward it doesnt even know its back there.

Probably stating the obvious: I found that for hard ground, a light pass followed by a deeper pass helps. The light pass breaks up the top enough that it can get deeper next time over.

 

[i7win7]

Are the skids at the highest setting? Removing them will let tiller go deeper, may not be good for tiller. New mounting holes for skids or make custom skids. Don't know how much you want to experiment on an expensive implement.

 

[Nodlenor]

I have been thinking about removing the skids on mine but haven’t yet. I’ll probably do that and see how it does. Shouldn’t hurt to try.

 

[JimmyJazz]

I don't know much about tillers but I read somewhere that on a particular model the tines could be removed and either replaced or reversed so to speak so the unused edge would till like new. Perhaps the tines are the source of your discontent.

 

[SteveBX23]

Ive tried both. I kind of want a reverse rotating tiller. I am doing a lot of tilling on the side and find i need 2-3 passes and still feel its not very deep.

Its fair to say there is a decent market for tiller work in your area? I thought about hunting out a used one, there’s one actually for sale close by now. An RTR1250 for $1500, can’t quite pull the trigger on. I have a lot of use for it though on my own property though too, combined with doing side work, has me thinking about it.

Best of luck with your situation

 

[Henro]

Maybe these tillers are just not heavy enough to sink in as deep as i expect. When I reverse with mine it loads up and digs pretty deep and the tractor actually lugs a little. going forward it doesnt even know its back there.

If you think about it, what is happening is to be expected, due to the way the tines are turning.

Going forward, the tines tend to lift the tiller up out of the ground, The only thing keeping the tiller down is its weight.

When you back up, the tines tend to force the tiller downward, so both tiller weight AND downward force caused by the tine tips moving upward add together, and the tiller will dig in, rather than tend to lift.

So it looks like the answer is to add weight to the tiller. How much? At minimum enough to counter the upward force caused by the tiller tines. Amount perhaps only determined by adding some weight and watching the performance difference.

 

[Snowmansimon]

I think weight may be the issue combined with the forward rotation. I got this for 600cnd so it owes me nothing. I have paid it off about 10 times in the last two months tilling gardens/lawns.

Maybe ill look for a newer reverse tiller. Not as great when you find rocks but should reduce the amount of time I spend at each job.