Field TuffFTF-60PA3PT 3 Point Plug Aerator, 60"

Item arrived in an undamaged shipping container but frame badly bent such that spindles won't turn.Someone obviously never inspected the Item for obvious damage. In a way, good thing they didn't because it was made clear how flimsy the frame and spindles are.

The aerator was shipped to me by Old Dominion Freight Line. The dispatcher called four days ahead to setup a delivery appointment, with a window between 12PM and 5PM. She asked if I would like the driver to call ahead before delivery, and I asked for him to call 1 hour ahead. A five hour window wasn't ideal, and neither was the driver calling ahead to say he'd be there in just 15 minutes (ended up being 30 anyways). Actual delivery was with a 53' trailer which required driving my tractor out to the main road to pick it up. Driver did have a lift gate.Once I got the aerator home I was able to lift it out of the crate using my boom pole. I then found that on each of the 11 spindles, 2 of the 6 spoons were folded down to fit in the crate for transport. It is pretty simple to fold them up and lock them into place, just a bolt and a nut, but you will need to do this for 22 spoons. I also found most all of the other nuts and bolts holding the other spoons were also a bit loose, so all in had to check and tighten 132 nuts and bolts. Simple work but tedious and required a lot of time spent bent over.You'll also need to attach the lift bars for the 3 point hitch and the stand legs. Not difficult, just have patience and follow the instructions and refer often to the diagram to make sure everything is oriented and aligned correctly.You'll be very well served to have a set of 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, and 20mm sockets, and a set of 13mm and 14mm wrenches. Sometimes it is difficult to access the nuts and bolts on the spoons because the welds or grease fittings get in the way, so being able to alternate between sockets and wrenches is helpful.Quality wise the aerator appears to be made of sufficiently thick steel and the welds are mostly clean. Of the 11 spindles, 6-7 were welded up reasonably true but 4-5 were not, and 2 in particular were noticeably skewed. Not sure this will have any immediate affect on operation but I expect it will cause those spindles to need grease more often and the spoons to wear faster in the long run.The aerator IS setup for both Category 0 and Category 1 hitches. It has 2 top link pins, one larger than the other, set at different heights to accommodate both hitch sizes. The pins for the lift arms are Category 0 pins with a sleeve to fit Category 1 hitches. I will probably at some point replace these with true Category 1 pins, as the sleeves are inconvenient and slide right off when removing the pins.All together it took about 2 hours to uncrate and assemble the aerator when working at a moderate pace.Once assembled I did test the aerator on several different soil types to see if additional weight would be required. I found that even on reasonably loose, moist soil the aerator did not have enough weight on its own to aerate effectively. I expect it may work on very loose, rich black soil but then you very well may not need to aerate in the first place. Do expect to add weight to the aerator before using.Overall the level of quality was about what I expected when ordering based on price and by comparison to other aerators on the market. I would have liked to see the spoons all run true, and would have preferred to not have to spend quite so much time on assembly. It would have also been preferable to have true Category 1 pins included for the lift arms. Delivery was not convenient, but in line with expectations for economy LTL freight.

I liked an aerator that I could use with my tractor.

missed return date by 1 day due to family death. Cannot get manufacturer to respond on warranty info.

Did not match up to my tractor looks like it may be a good unit if they fix the problem with it not matching up

Works great , added a little weight and greases , does a good job and seems to be well built .

Not very well made and way overpriced