This is one of the jobs I do on the course . Some off the staff get a little weak in the knees watching this machine work . You should never let staff run a piece of equipment like this if their not comfortable using it . We hook our Vertidrain to the 5040 Kubota tractor . It has 600 lbs of weight add to the front to help offset the weight of the Vertidrain . They recommend to let the air out of rear tires ( turf tires ) to 6 psi . I lower mine to 10 psi . You need a tractor with at least 40 hp @ the pto shaft . The machine I find sits really close to back of the tractor I'm assuming there is a lot of torque on the PTO shaft so they kept it as short as possible . Hooks up to the 3 point hitch . To adjust it to the tractor you have to set the vertical part of the side plate 90 degrees to the ground . Top pick shows it tipped towards tractor on initial hook up . I had to lengthen the top link to make it work .
The lower you get the top link on the tractor side the higher it's going to lift it up . The PTO drive shaft is a clutch type . Your better of having a little slippage when it hits something hard than snapping /twisting the PTO shaft or breaking parts in the transmission on the tractor .
Read the instructions for depth / shatter adjustments . We are shattering at 85 degrees and using 10 "x .5"tines going 8" deep . ( this is our set up for greens )
Before you start tining try it in an area of to the side to polish up the rusty tines . There are many settings to try . After some trial and error we went with low range 1st gear running around .9 ( yes that is .9 not a type o ) that gives us the top PTO speed of 500 rpms . The transmission on this vertidrain has 3 different speed settings . Ours wound up in second . The idea is to vertidrain leaving a clean round hole ...not oval . To start off lower the vertidrain a little . Put the PTO on at idle then lower it and speed up to your speed of .9 mph or 500 mph pto speed . As you get ready to exit let off throttle wait for the tines to just clear turf and turn pto off as you continue to raise them all the way up . With the large tines like the ones where using if it is not done this way the machine will let you know by either denting shields or tines banging on rear roller . They recommend to have no bystanders within 14 feet of operating machine .These instructions are for the longer heavy tines . Having so much centrifugal force they will flip out or up if not used properly .
With shorter tines doing fairways would be a lot quicker process with the correct settings .
With shorter tines doing fairways would be a lot quicker process with the correct settings .
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