A metering system for an agricultural vehicle includes a meter rolleroriented substantially parallel to a direction of travel of the agriculturalvehicle. Themeter roller includes multiple protrusions, and each protrusion is configuredto driveagricultural product downwardly in response to rotation of the meter roller.Themetering system also includes a drive shaft configured to be driven inrotation. Inaddition, the metering system includes a gear assembly having an input coupledto thedrive shaft and an output configured to drive the meter roller to rotate. Afirstrotational axis of the input is substantially perpendicular to a secondrotational axis ofthe output.