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Is a king kutter tiller reverse or forward rotation?

14K views 11 replies 8 participants last post by  Ken N Tx 
#1 ·
I see they mention on a Tractor House add its reverse but nothing in the manufacturers homepage mentions it
 
#4 ·
I can't speak for others, but for my uses, I don't see any advantage to counter-rotating tines. I'm not sure I'd want them even if a counter-rig was priced less instead of more.

A counter-rotating tiller has to use a little more power since it's going in an opposite direction of the tractor. It will also throw debris towards the tractor instead of away from it.

Counter tines can be a nice plus on walk-behind tillers in certain soils conditions and a bit dangerous in others.

I've been impressed with the overall build quality of my 5 foot King Kutter. Bought it new for around $900. I've abused it a lot, tilling many acres of very hard ground with large rocks in it. Got a few jams in it from large rocks or tree limbs, but the HD slip clutch has been bullet proof so far.

Now, if I was using a little compact tractor that was light enough to be thrown forward by a tiller in hard soil -maybe I'd feel different. But I do all my tilling with small but full size farm tractors, e.g. a Ferguson TO35, IH B-275, Deere 1020, or MF 35.
 
#3 ·
King Kutter tiller pushes in same direction as the tractor's forward direction. Tiller tines move forward on top and backwards on the bottom where they hit the ground.

So, if this was a walk-behind tiller it would NOT be a counter-rotation tiller.

Tillers that are referred to a running "backwards" actually have tines that turn forward where they contact the ground.

I've got a 5 foot King Kutter and love it. Used it for four years now on very hard and rocky ground.
 
#5 ·
I bought a Land Pride reverse till it has a thick rubber shield to keep it from throwing stuff forward I still havnt had a chance to use it tho since its still too wet and cold Im hopeing that it tills better than the old troy bilt horse on the horse if you werent careful it would drag you along for the ride even at times if you were careful tho I am useing it behind a 2305 so its far from being a farm tractor I doubt that a forward tine tiller would throw it forward but Id be afraid that it would ride the ridges deep in the soil like the horse dose the reverse should pull it down and in
 
#6 ·
These 3PH tillers are heavy enough that they will ride the shoes regardless of being forward or reverse rotation. If you're breaking hard (virgin or badly neglected) ground you'll need to move slowly to allow it to take smaller 'bites' with each tine. I have an old 42" forward rotating 3PH tiller that I use with the BX2350. I've no trouble with it pushing the tractor, however it will 'hop' a lively jig if drug thru hard ground to quickly. For tilling the gardens under in the spring it works great at ~1/3-1/2 groundspeed in low range. Make two passes over the garden and it's every bit as deep & fine as the TB Horse (old 7hp K series model) in a fraction of the time!

I know where you're coming from with the Horse comment... I've had mine 'gallop' away on me many times... feel like tilling the garden with one should be a rodeo event!! :thThumbsU
 
#8 ·
These 3PH tillers are heavy enough that they will ride the shoes regardless of being forward or reverse rotation.
My five-foot King Kutter II has never pushed any tractor I've had it on.

On yearly-used garden plots, one pass at 1/2 to 1 MPH is all it takes to make a great seed-bed. Thus the need for a tractor with good low gearing.

I've use it lot though on much tougher work. A few years ago I stopped spraying sod in the Fall (so it would break up during Spring plowing). Now, all the corn, potoatoes and pumpkins are planting organically. Our ground is miserable and full of rocks. When I plow up sod in the Spring, it's near impossible to break it up well enough for my corn planter to work well in. I can disk it ten times and it's still rough. So, I plow it and then run the King Kutter II tiller over several acres. It does a great job of breaking up all the sod clumps and making it great for planting. One pass at again . . . 1/2 to 1 MPH is all it takes.

I've only had one problem with the King Kutter and it happened when it was only a few days old. All the gearcase-cover bolts shook loose and started falling out. It's a design flaw. They used a gasket instead of RTV sealant - so the bolts cannot be tightened very much without crushing the gasket. To fix, you either eliminate the gasket- use RTV - and crank them tight . . . or . . . clean the bolts and holes and reinstall with Loctite, thus keeping the gasket just tight enough to seal.

My five-footer pretty much maxes out a 28-30 horse tractor with a 134 -144 cubic inch engine - so I would not want a five-foot counter-rotating tiller. Seems to me it must use more power, since it not only goes against the direction of travel - but it also pushes debris ahead of itself and "retills" it a bit. It does a little more work and therefore must use al little more power.
 
#10 ·
Who's "jargon" are you complaining about? I haven't seen any religious statements within the actual reply-portion of anybody's posts.

In reference to your H, I'm kind of amazed you can use a tiller at all IF it's PTO powered. That is, unless you've got some sort of gear-reduction kit on it, or super soft soil. It ought to be way too fast in the lowest gear to run any tiller.

My H runs over 2 1/2 MPH in 1st gear at PTO speed. Same for my Ford 641. Anything over 1 MPH gets a bit too fast for decent tilling on many soils.

My Ferguson TO35, MF35, IH B275, and Deere 1020 all run less then 1 MPH in low, at rated PTO speed which is perfect.

I have run a rear-mounted 4 foot tiller on several older tractors that are too fast in 1st gear and lack live PTOs - but I used a self-powered tiller with its own 14 horse twin-cylinder Wisconsin engine on it. That way, I could run the tractor almost with the engine idling and it tilled like crazy. Neither ground speed or lack of a PTO matter with a self-powered unit.
 

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