[gburnett]

Well I've gotten the 8183 T w/tiller pretty well straightened out and good to go,question is did Gravely offer any extentions for that tiller? Its only 30" wide and I'd like it to be a little wider.

 

[wjohn]

Not to my knowledge. That's one of the drawbacks of the Gravely rider rear tiller - you've always got one wheel track you can't cover.

 

[Richard-tx]

Gravely in it's wisdom did the right thing as far as I am concerned. As time goes on, the rows get narrower and narrower due to plant growth. As a result one can't get as close to the plants as when they were seedlings. So go up one side of the row and down the other adjusting the distance accordingly. I set my row spacing to at least 1.5 times the tiller and tractor width.

 

[wjohn]

Around 45" (?) row spacing is humongous. Tractor with tiller width times 1.5 is really humongous. It's okay for a hobby garden I suppose, and Gravely sure wasn't trying to sell to serious market gardeners (one reason leading to Gravely's demise).

Gravely probably did do the right thing for the way the rider was designed, as a 45" tiller would have been pretty hard to handle and to get any penetration with. I don't think they had cultivation in mind when they designed it, but even for tillage it's kind of a pain unless you have an open plot where you tear all of the ground up at the same time.

 

[yamato72]

Around 45" (?) row spacing is humongous. Tractor with tiller width times 1.5 is really humongous. It's okay for a hobby garden I suppose, and Gravely sure wasn't trying to sell to serious market gardeners (one reason leading to Gravely's demise).

Gravely probably did do the right thing for the way the rider was designed, as a 45" tiller would have been pretty hard to handle and to get any penetration with. I don't think they had cultivation in mind when they designed it, but even for tillage it's kind of a pain unless you have an open plot where you tear all of the ground up at the same time.

I think the intent was to use the tiller to quickly turn over a new area for planting at the beginning of the season and then they expected you to use the rotary plow on a walk-behind for maintaining the rows.

 

[gburnett]

I'm going to use it to cultivate and since I plant rows 6ft apart on center the extra width won't be a problem.Has anyone added on to one of these? I have some extra tillers and tiller parts around of various makes so I'll see if I can match something up I guess.

 

[Richard-tx]

I think the intent was to use the tiller to quickly turn over a new area for planting at the beginning of the season and then they expected you to use the rotary plow on a walk-behind for maintaining the rows.

I think you mean "cultivator" not plow.

 

[PA RedRider]

I could not imagine the rear tiller being practical for cultivation between rows. My suggestion would be to try the rotary cultivator (either with or without the side shields). I may try to hill potatoes with it this year (walking backwards of course).

 

[PA RedRider]

If you prefer to cultivate with a rider, here's what I'd run:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Brinley-gar...448?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item35c72fb5f8

 

[gburnett]

I've tried about every cultivation method under the Sun, probably have about a half dozen of those Brinly jobs but a couple years ago I switched over to 6ft wide rows and tiller. On the first cultivation I now run a hiller beside the row pulling the dirt away from the plants and then
go down the row with a tiller running about 2 inches deep. Then there is a strip about only 2 inches wide to hand weed or hoe out.On later cultivations I turn the hiller to throw the dirt back into the row and depending on the plant type can cover up most any small weeds that are growing.I never use any shank type cultivator anymore.6 ft rows are great too as it give things like squash vines plenty of room and I can still get a GT down the center of the rows for harvest.Plus no weeds in the row can survive the tiller and move out away from the plants as they grow with each cultivation and the tiller doesn't disturb the vegetable roots deeper in the ground like a shank cultivator.

 

[wjohn]

I think you reach a point where ground clearance is a big help. You can easily cultivate 36" rows with this Allis Chalmers B, and fast, because you can drive right over the row. Since you can't do that with a Gravely rider, you're stuck driving between wide rows with a reallllly wide unit. There is a lot to be said for having rows closer together to shade out weeds and conserve moisture later in the summer, too. Again, I suppose for a small garden you can do about whatever you want.

Let us know if you do put together an extended tiller, and post some pictures.

 

[DJ in WV]

I could not imagine the rear tiller being practical for cultivation between rows. My suggestion would be to try the rotary cultivator (either with or without the side shields). I may try to hill potatoes with it this year (walking backwards of course).

A single set of wheels on a Model L or C with a rotary cultivator does a great job. I honestly can't see that much soil compaction while running it in the forward direction. There's some, of course, but it really isn't that bad.

If you really want to do a great, and quick, job of hilling potatoes, use the rotary plow with the dirt shield in place. It will pick up the soil fromt he center of the row, throw it toward the plants, and the dirt shield, when adjusted the way you want, will drop the dirt right down along the plant stems. You just can't beat it. :thThumbsU

 

[gburnett]

I've spent many days in my youth cultivating corn with a B pretty good units.I actually have a Hines H-1600 which is a clone of an AC G excpet it has hydraulics and hydro drive but after all I have tried I much perfer to go between the rows with a garden
tractor of course I'm down to about 2 acres of garden now and wouldn't be practical on a large field but I have almost 0 weeds and can keep going thru corn until its grown also makes picking sweet corn easier to be able to drive between the rows as some of my rows are around 250 ft long. On my tomatos I go 12ft wide so I can bring mulch in with my side dump wagon and usually mulch the row about 5 ft wide and 18" deep.

 

[wjohn]

I've spent many days in my youth cultivating corn with a B pretty good units.I actually have a Hines H-1600 which is a clone of an AC G excpet it has hydraulics and hydro drive but after all I have tried I much perfer to go between the rows with a garden
tractor of course I'm down to about 2 acres of garden now and wouldn't be practical on a large field but I have almost 0 weeds and can keep going thru corn until its grown also makes picking sweet corn easier to be able to drive between the rows as some of my rows are around 250 ft long. On my tomatos I go 12ft wide so I can bring mulch in with my side dump wagon and usually mulch the row about 5 ft wide and 18" deep.

Had to Google the Hines - that's a pretty neat little tractor! I'd love to get a G but the price tag is a bit much for me at this point in life.

Sorry for forcing you off-topic - back to the rear tiller, I think it would be really awesome to run two tillers side-by-side using two PTO axle blocks, PTO shafts etc. but there isn't enough space, and you'd have to flip things upside down, and run two chains off of the PTO, and... anyway, it's basically impossible doing it that way. It would be quite a machine, though. Making some sort of extension like you had originally mentioned still won't be easy, but it might be the best option.

 

[PA RedRider]

For cultivating larger plots, an AC G is the way to go.

 

[Fla Don]

For those who think six foot spacing is big, that is our standard for tomato rows down here. 6' is also the spacing on the wheels of the tractors. That gives you 4 ft of plastic bed with the tomatoes down the center. 2' wheel rows which are slightly less due to the edges of the plastic being under the edge of the wheel row.