The mighty tiller that... quit

I like our roto tiller. A land pride 5 foot reverse tine tiller that plows through just about anything. Yes, it is the best tiller we have ever tried! it can take a decent plot of land and turn it into a beautiful seed bed in one or two passes.

but, alas, sams valley soil is giving it a challenge.

In the middle of a bunch a bailing twines, you can see the break through the pipe.

Last year you may recall we tilled up about 2 to 3 acres of the back pasture to grow pig food, and in the middle we lost the main bearing.  Well, this year we were tilling up a new area that the garden is moving to and, the main shaft split in two. a solid pipe, not even a weld, and it split right in two.  This is some HARD ground!

We attempted to weld it back to keep going between the rains, but no. Where it broke was right next to the weld of a tine plate, so there is no room in there to line it up straight. IF we attempted to weld it, and were off just a little, the wobbling would surely take out a bearing again, or worse.

So, replace. But there is only 1 spare part in all of north america! and they are not cheap.

So next week will be tilling week.