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1025R | CountyLine Rotary Tiller - 5ft

19K views 19 replies 10 participants last post by  636mullet 
#1 ·
Well gentlemen, yesterday my old MTD walk behind tiller seemed to have dropped its gear box. After talking about it with the wife I somehow managed to get the go ahead to purchase a 3pt tiller for the 1025R. I was hoping to find a 4ft but all of our usual stores were closed (Sunday) so we headed to TSC, where they only had 5ft & 6ft CountyLine in stock. Setup of these things is fairly time consuming and the instructions are just short of useless. That said, I just tilled our 50' x 75' garden the fastest its ever been tilled.. and probably the deepest. At one point I climbed off the tractor to see what my wife needed and sank half way to my knees.. can't believe how aerated the soil is now.

I know this tiller is pushing the 1025R right at, or more accurately a little beyond, its limits.. but it certainly got the job done.. perhaps I should have sprung for the 2032R :unknown:
 
#2 · (Edited)
:laugh: Yep, those tillers are awesome... Did you till with the skid shoes removed or left on? I till gardens with the shoes off.. I only use them if Im tilling sod till I break thru and then take off and go deep..

Also, on my 2305 I have to have at least the loader frame on to keep front wheels on the ground all the time.. BTW, my 2305 and tiller have a war when tilling with my 5'er.. 2305 looks like a steam locomotive with the smoke that rolls..
 
#3 ·
I left the shoes on but had them set as deep as they'd go. To me it felt like the 1025R had plenty of power, had it at probably 3/4 throttle most of the time.. but you could definitely hear her growl a bit when I got going too fast through virgin ground.
 
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#10 ·
I'll try to get some pictures when I put it back on to re-level some of the garden this weekend. I had to dig out a walking path we had last year to get more length on our rows and was working past dark.. didn't realize how deep some of those divots were until morning. Guess I can justify buying a few additional lights now... :bigthumb:

As far as weight is concerned, I left the FEL on. In some areas I had to lift the FEL all the way up to turn (9ft tall bamboo fence surrounding the garden - lots of deer here). When the FEL was lifted I could certainly tell the tiller was back there but it never felt unsafe. With the FEL lowered it felt more stable than with the 260 on the rear, which still feels safe for anyone afraid of the 260.
 
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#5 ·
Tillers on a tractor are the only way to go if you are doing a large space,IMO. Now you just have to convince the wife that you could actually do more work faster if you upgrade to the 2032:thumbup1gif: You might want to mention it from a safe distance though:nunu:
 
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#6 ·
Yep, I have a 5 footer too. It does a great job and the only problem I have is hooking up as it is heavy and not iMatch compatible and I don't have an iMatch. But for tilling I put my RPM at 3200 as that is where the rear PTO is at 540 RPM. I've always tilled with the shoes all the way up to get the deepest cut and never thought about taking them off. I'll have to look into this even though I cut about 8 inches deep. Thanks for the tip NEWT. :bigthumb:
 
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#9 ·
The 1025R has an icon on the tach to indicate 540 on the PTO in addition to the LCD display displaying PTO RPM when the PTO is engaged.
 
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#11 ·
I initially purchased the 5 ft one from tsc. It was doing great but it left the front end a little to light. Also sometime I would go a little too deep and a little to fast and it would start to bogg the 1026 down. Went back to tsc returned it and purchased the 50 inch one. IMHO it just works better for the 1026. It by far is the best way to till a garden. I used to get bounced around with an old sears 5hp front tine. No just sit there and enjoy a cold beverage.
 
#15 ·
You gents that are removing the skids..if I may.

Leave the skids on, drill another hole and raise them flush.

They protect the gear box, and more importantly the gear box cover gasket, that can get eaten through rather quickly.
You DON'T want to find out how fast 90wt can drain from a chain or gear box when it's warmed up.
I have seen it more than a couple times, and it's never pretty.

If you want to go deeper than deep, take multiple overlapping passes. Too much bite all at once is rough on things, and doesn't break up soil as well.
At the bottom, under all that fluffed up soil, is COMPACTED soil from the tines, and a ridge between passes that has to be broken up.

The ridge that forms affects drainage along with the compacted soil, and can be used to your advantage somewhat with progressive depth of tilling, to create a slope of sorts if the ridge is busted, or delay in drainage if the ridges are maintained.
 
#16 ·
Found out years ago the a tiller ,beats the walk behind . I have left the fel on while tilling but one year wiped out a fence post and a strand of electric fence wire. While backing up turned the steering wheel slight little bit.:dunno:
Since I have the front quick hitch and hardware on the tractor , I use my barbell set. I place the barbell behind the curved metal plate and then use some cable ties to help hold bar on tractor. Personally I think it would stay by it self, just in case. Take and place 2 of the heaviest weights on each side , may try 3 this year.
 
#18 ·
Wouldn't making multiple passes with the tiller make "plow pan" worse than with one single deep pass. I'm not going to disagree that leaving the skid on is probably a good idea even though I don't. My 6 tine 48" tiller will turn lawn sod to fluffy ready to plant seed bed in one pass. The only thing keeping my tiller from going any deeper is that the gear case slids along the sod preventing it from going deeper. The "Right" side has nothing stopping if from digging even deeper. When I till east/west after tilling north/south the gearbox pushes pretty deep into the freshly tilled soil giving me an even deeper pass. These are just my observations and not really anything more. My Gearcase is pretty stout cast iron and the cover is pretty thick plate steel. I wouldn't worry much about it getting caught on somthing and breaking the seal. I'll try and take some pics to show. That way everyone can see how my Behlen built unit stacks up. When I see the JD built unit it looks like the chain cover is just stamped steel. Is that correct? I could see that being dented or torn by a piece of rebar planted and never grew into a rebar tree. :lol: I'm open to what everyone thinks as I'm only old enough to know I've been wrong before and could be again... :thumbup1gif:


-636
 
#19 ·
You're gonna get the compaction from the tines, no matter what you do.
Running a 3' middle buster through allows drainage if it's needed.

Not sure what the Frontier covers are, but I'm guessing more than adequate for use with the shoes on.;)
The gasket is what gets chewed more than anything with the shoes off.
Have had a chunk of pruned cane wedged through the gasket a time or two as well, and Woods Tiller covers are darn heavy.

We wear the factory shoes thin, to the point of breaking in 2-3 seasons with honest use though, so YMMV.
 
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