Wheel Horse Pto Tiller

[Rick Stanley]

I have zero experience with these tillers. Hopefully someone here can educate me. I bought a used 7-1260 Wheel Horse tiller that seemed a good match for a Honda H6522 tractor that I have. It's a 50", perfect width (which is why I bought it), category 1, fits great. The problem is that it won't till. Either the tractor is moving too fast or the tines aren't turning fast enough. The tiller will bury itself to any depth you want while sitting still. As soon as I move the tractor forward, low range low gear (REAL slow), regardless of engine rpm, the tiller walks up to the top of the ground and barely scratches the surface from then on. I even tried adding weights to hold it down. No good. Draft it set on heaviest setting.
Anybody got a clue as to what the ****! is going on. Very frustrating.
Thank You!!

 

[SolarAndWood]

My buddy has an old school tiller that probably weighs more than my tractor while I have a lightweight import I bought a few years ago. His is heavy enough that you set it to any depth you want and we call it the land pulverizer. Mine does little more than till the surface under and clean up the seed bed. I compliment the lightweight tiller with a cultivator when I want to do any more than clean up the seed bed. The combination works pretty well.

 

[gpcollen1]

It sounds like you just don't have enough power.

 

[lukem]

When I worked for a landscaper we had a 3pt tiller we used behind a 20HP or so Kubota. On hard-packed ground the tiller didn't have enough weight to dig in. Sounds like what you have going on.

Couple things we would do, sometimes all of them:

1.) Put 3 or 4 concrete blocks on the tiller for additional weight. Just make sure you tie them down...lots of vibration. Note: than manufacturer will probably frown upon this, but I personally never had an issue. Your results may vary.
2.) Water the soil / wait until it rains to soften it up.
3.) Make several passes in alternating directions...it should get a little deeper with each pass.
4.) "Break" the soil before tilling it. We used a 4 shank ripper pulled behind a 40 HP tractor to get down about 12". A disc, plow, or cultivator will work too....just working with what we had available.

 

[Rick Stanley]

Just got a reply from a Wheel Horse site I found http://whtractor.15.forumer.com/index.php?

They say that model tiller need 2000 rpm pto. That would explain the way it acts.