Roto-tiller chain or gear driven?

[digdug]

I'm going to buy a roto-tiller for the Kubota to use for garden prep and to use wildlife food plots. What are the pros & cons of a chain drive and a gear driven roto-tillers? Any other advice on purchasing a roto-tiller would be appreciated.

 

[Theekillerbee]

Most are a combination of both. Usually the gear drives are reserved for the higher end tillers. I've not heard of anyone loosing a chain, as it is usually the gear box up on top where your PTO hooks in that goes bad.

 

[Bulldog]

My brother had a King Kutter brand tiller that was all gear drive and I have a Bushhog that is chain drive. The KK gave no trouble and neither has the Bushhog. A all gear drive will mean you have another gear box to change oil in and maintain with is no big deal. After the initial chain tention adjustment and adding grease for chain lubrication I have never needed to do anything else to me chain drive. If you buy a quality built tiller I don't see any problems with either type.

 

[Marty394]

I have the King Kutter 5' gear dirven model, and it has worked well. I use it for food plots, and gardens also. This last spring it put in a 6 hour day of tilling our food plots in some pretty nasty conditions (slipped the pto clutch three times) and it worked great.

Bob

 

[Mingy]

Mine is a 4' side shift with a gear final drive. Made in Italy.

The chain drive is in an oil bath, which is, as I understand the way chains are supposed to be. A chain in an oil bath last a long time while one 'out in the open' like my haybine, and baler wear out quickly. Lots of vehicles use chain for timing and last as long as the engine does.

In terms of advice, I'd suggest not going too big. With a side shift tiller you adjust it so it tills behind the right wheel.The thing with a PTO tiller is, it does a lot of work real fast so, unless you are doing this for a living there isn't much benefit from going big. Every spring I till my garden (about 1/2 acre) and a few of the neighbour's as well in less than a couple hours. Of course, if you have nice soft soil, big isn't bad, but we have rocky stuff that gets real hard.

Oh yeah - make sure you get one with a slip clutch PTO, otherwise, any rocks and you'll shear a pin.