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Older Tractor Slow Enough For Rototiller

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jtelander

New User
I have an area that is slightly less than an acre that I currently till with a walk behind rototiller and it is too much for me.
I'd like to buy an older tractor that can run a pto rototiller while moving slow enough for the tiller to work. I'm not sure what types of transmissions will work best with a tiller.
I'd appreciate input on what to look for and what make models would be suitable.
Thanks
 
Using your existing tiller as an attachment on a hydrostatic garden tractor might be easiest. Many used garden tractors can go very slow. and your tiller could be setup to attach to the rear. Jim
 
You will need to operate the rotovator at close to PTO 540 rpm. You need a creeper speed in a lower gear to allow the rotovator to do its job. Check ground speed of the tractors you will consider for this slow speed characteristic in 1st gear.
 
One acre is a lot for a garden tractor,but I would expect to pay less that 2 grand for a L&G with a tiller. By the time you would buy a tractor and tiller I would expect 5 to 6 grand. My time is cheap,I would look for a L&G(I lean toward a JD 300 and up) Simplicity made some very good and sometimes cheap to buy mowers too.
 
I remember a 1951 Model B John Deere had a very slow lowgear and it probably had about 25 HP. Would be fairly agile with adjustable width (rows) wheels. I think it had a 540 rpm pto (not live pto), but if the wheels are set way in to not track outside a tiller, it might to tippy in the hills. Neat little tractor, easy on gas.

Leo
 
I agree with Janicholson. If you are somewhat handy with a welder, get some angle iron and attach your walk behind to a tractor.
 
When you say older do you mean pre 1980s ? Not too many tractors will have a slow enough ground speed to run your tiller at the 540 pto speed. A IH hydro tractor would fit the bill nicely, and many were built through the 1970s. Infinite speeds available with a Hydro drive tractor. What kind of gardening are you doing? The IH Cub and IH A model tractors could be purchased with mid mount and rear scufflers, perfect for growing plants in 48 inch rows. I used to have a IH A with scufflers, and I grew Tomatoes, peppers, onions , corn and many other vegetables on 4 acres of garden. Maintained all of the rows with my IH model A tractor. AC also offered a G model tractor built for market garden, and had many attachments available
 
Have you priced 3 pt hitch tillers? New, they are almost as much
as a used tractor that could run one. I bought and use a used tiller.
I run it behind my Ford 960. I already had the tractor.

As much as I dislike running them, a Ford SOS tractor would be
ideal speed wise for a tiller. They are dog slow in lower gears.
I can walk faster than a SOS goes in 7th out of 10 speeds.
9th and 10th are quite fast on the other hand.

Plus an SOS has [b:55fa22a9be]independent[/b:55fa22a9be] PTO. That's not the same as what is
called "live" PTO, it's better. Other brands had it too, like my John Deere 50.
And, because people poo-poo the SOS, they are usually cheap.
The second generation SOS though, has proven itself to be quite reliable.

As Jim said, hooking it behind a rider might be an option.
Finding a used rider with a correct tiller for it seems to be a good
option around here. I see some on Craigslist for about $500.
No mower deck included with them, so that would be a consideration.
 
I ran a tiller for the FFA years ago putting in lawns and gardens. We had a Massy 35 then 135. It had the regular transmission with Hi and LO. seemed to work fine on rototiller.
 
Thanks. I have zero welding experience. I want to use a pto tiller with little or no modifications to tractor or tiller.
 
The Fiat built tractors sold by Long,AC and Oliver had the slow gears especially the 8 speeds.David Brown tractor were geared low,foreign built tractors were way ahead of US built on creeper gears and differential lock.Large garden tractors like the Craftsman's FF series,Simplicity Power Max,JD 420/430 etc were good running tilers with hydro trans and hydraulic lift but used 2000 RPM PTO on things like tillers not real easy to find these days.I have a Massey Ferguson 1855 and a Craftsman FF 24 I use tillers on do a good job.Small compacts work great and some are geared very slow.My Massey Ferguson 220 with a 3 speed trans X triple range trans is geared very slow,I use medium range in 2nd gear to till with.
 
You all can beat me up, but in my established garden I run my Cub with the sweeps set in with no row spacing, all the way down, several passes through the unplowed soil. It looks like it had been tilled. A Cub or an A with cultivators is less than a 3 point hitch tiller in my neighborhood. Plus you can keep the weeds out later.
 
best bet would be a compact or sub-compact tractor with 3 pt hitch, and live or independant pto would be good . Many of the older ones with 2 or 3 range transmissions had really slow lower gears ideal for tilling. A hydro would also be good for tilling. As traditional farmer said a lot of the larger garden tractors can do a good job too , but you should buy one with a tiller as they wont be 3 point hitch and you dont want to do a lot of chasing around to get the right tiller ,brackets, belts etc. Older Ford , John Deere and Kubota compacts would be good choices. Try to avoid the real wide turf tires as you need a lot wider tiller to cover your wheel tracks. 40 plus years ago my dad owned a John Deere 950 we did a lot of rototilling with, using a 5' wide tiller and it did a good job. The lighter the tractor the less soil compaction you will cause , unless you only run over it once. As mentioned an older Ford with a good working selectospeed would be a good choice if you want to go with an older farm tractor, but I think a newer compact would be a better choice . I see older 2wd compacts going pretty reasonable these days as everyone thinks they need 4wd and hydro these days in a compact.
 

jtelander........ This is my setup for tilling my garden ( 1/2 acre).. Plus I till for several several friends and neighbors. At 6-8 inches tiller depth the tiller turns soil into powder. I have beutiful black topsoil to work with in SWLA. Kubota L3200 (32hp) and TerranForce rototiller sold at Beaumont Kubota as their #1 choice for tillers. I could not be more pleased with it. No chains. All gears. Good Luck. Wingnut
 

cvphoto87787.jpg
 
I have an old Bolens with hydrostatic, and two different widths of rototiller. My
newer set-up is a Kubota 2350 and tiller. Depends on what you mean by older. If you're
talking about an older classic farm tractor, I think the last few years of the Fordson
Dexta or Ford 2000 had about the slowest low gear. Those older tractors are pretty clumsy
for getting on and off.
 
i run a 6 ft gear drive rural king tiller behind my international 240 utility. no live pto, 1 st gear at pto speed. if the ground is real hard, i make two passes. i run a chisel plow innthe fall to break up the ground. heres a couple pics. the 240 has a fast hitch with 3 pt prongs.
cvphoto87788.jpg


cvphoto87789.jpg
 
(quoted from post at 16:31:02 05/08/21) I have an area that is slightly less than an acre that I currently till with a walk behind rototiller and it is too much for me.
I'd like to buy an older tractor that can run a pto rototiller while moving slow enough for the tiller to work. I'm not sure what types of transmissions will work best with a tiller.
I'd appreciate input on what to look for and what make models would be suitable.
Thanks
Click to expand...

If you can find an old Howard select-a-tilth variable speed tiller you can run one with a tractor without real slow gearing, just set them up for the highest speed. I have run them at 1mph with an Allis Chalmers D17, 175D and 185D, they take more power, but I do custom tilling and I cover a lot of ground. I have $3600 into this rig...
mvphoto74945.jpg
 
I just put a 6 tiller on the back of my Case 430. Tilled clay ground that had been rough plowed, took 3 passes. Where it had been a garden last year, worked up beautifully in 1 pass. 40 hp, 4000 lbs, but not particularly slow in low 1st. Just set back flap correctly and go.
 
This works better than a walk behind tiller that you compact ground walking on it.
BOSS likes how it prepares the ground
cvphoto87807.jpg

2 old wheelhorse disks bolted together.
A lot cheaper than tiller.

I have a 30 inch tiller behind JD270 that I don't use because it's a BPIA to remove 48 inch mower and put on. George
 
good neighbor used his FORD 2120 FWA to run 60. friends in mid 1970's used a AC 160D to run 2 row JD potatoe digger to dig strawberry plants to bunch and sell, ran less than 1/2 mph wide open. fun tractor to run!!
 
Something with a hydro-static trans. I've had a tiller behind my B7200 and it would be perfect for 1 acre. Makes a good mower and snowblower tractor also.
cvphoto87830.jpg
 
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