Tiller Question...

[Sam_I_Am]

Not sure if this is the right forum or not.....

I am in need of a tiller for my 600 sqft garden...being in Zone 6, I am going to till probably in the next two weeks to get my snap peas, spinach and lettuce in 4 weeks before the last frost date..

I have looked at both the Mantis (2 Stroke) and Stihl Yard Boss. I am leaning toward the Stihl and I am wondering if any of you have any experience or could provide some guidance it would be appreciated.

Thanks

[dcarch]

600 sq. ft. is sizeable. I am not sure either one is good enough.
You may need to invest in something a little bigger.

Worth1 (a member here) will be able to give you some good advice. He doesn't comes around everyday.

dcarch

[flatlander]

I have a Mantis, and my daughter has a Stihl or an Echo, I can't remember which. The Mantis is the most tempremental engine I've ever encountered. The carb is very touchy and it's extremely hard to keep running. My daughters seems to start easy and runs good and when i need a tiller, I end up borrowing hers. BTW, i've basically given up tilling and have gone to raised beds...you might give that a thought.

[worth1]

Hi there I'm here.

I saw a guy just the other day trying to till with one of those little 2 stroke tillers.
He looked like someone with a boat motor trying to till a parking lot.

Those tillers are meant for flower beds to keep out weeds, they are not meant for a sizable garden.

The question I would ask myself is that as much as I plan on using it, just 600 square feet?

I spent the bucks and bought a dual rotating tine tiller from sears and am happy with it.

I have busted a few shear pins but that is due to some large rocks I encountered.

What I like about it is the fact that it will go forward with the tines going forward or backward.

In other words it will till or cultivate all in one tiller.

In my opinion you need to go with a Stihl or the Echo they are far better that the mantis.
That is if you just have to have a very small tiller.

Rent a tiller and see what you like before you buy would be my best advice.

Worth

[dcarch]

Pay attention to what Worth is saying. He has a lot of mechanical know-how.

Also, if you buy a brand, it would be a good idea to check if there is a place near you where you can get service and parts.

The clutch wears out on a small tiller, and the pins are meant to break to protect major parts from breaking.

dcarch

[worth1]

Originally posted by dcarch:

Pay attention to what Worth is saying. He has a lot of mechanical know-how.

Also, if you buy a brand, it would be a good idea to check if there is a place near you where you can get service and parts.

The clutch wears out on a small tiller, and the pins are meant to break to protect major parts from breaking.

dcarch

dcarch what a nice thing to say, thank you.

The advice on the service is very good.
I bought an Echo tree trimmer and that is one of the reasons I chose it we have a distributer/dealer in town that services them (NOT Home Depot)

I have also shied away from the cub cadets and Troy builts as they were bought out by MTD.

I don't know how well they are made anymore, at Lowes and Home Depot they let their equipment sit out in the rain and weather with rust on it.

My stuff doesn't sit out in the weather at home so why should I pay full price for something that has.

One thing I have to say A tiller is not a wonder tool.

If you have hard packed soil with lots of rocks in it it will not break it up.
I don't care what you pay for it.
You will break things.

You would be better off having someone come by with a tractor with a plow or big tiller on the back and have them do it first.

Just something to think about.

Worth

[Rena]

I have small Honda tiller and I have tiller envy. It is ok. Just that. I wish I had just used the money to rent tillers. If they break down then it is on them. I have stihl everything else and I love the brand.

[melody]

I have a Snapper similar to the one Worth1 describes. It will go forward while tilling in either direction. While it is a full sized tiller, I can start it with no problem and handle it in the garden easily, and I'm a 51 year old, 140 pound woman. The little guys are too small to get much done. You'll work yourself to death. It's like trying to cultivate a flowerbed with a dinner fork.

[weedwarrior]

I bought a troybilt pony with the "refund" check from Unc Sam - what, six years ago now?! Purch from a local dealer, who closed down two years later. But so far it hasn't needed anything 'cept air now and then. I might use it twice a year.

Before that I rented and _those things_ were real back-busting machines. The rental rear tillers never seemed to go as deep as I wanted. The front tillers went deep, if you didn't mind walking the next day all stooped over! And seeing double for a while after, as the vibrations could wind a watch!

No, even though it sits out in the shed mostly, give me that 'ol one-handed troy bilt any day. Got one spot she likes to take off on me, but other than that, worth every penny. Clay soil, raised beds - not a big deal with that machine!

[mjkd]

We have a Snapper that my wife bought in 1997, when I was in Bosnia, for the military. It has been great. Last year I called the dealer, next town over, who sold it to her/us, and said it was time to buy a new one. He said, if you do, I have a list of customers who want yours because the company got sold out and they cheapened the engines up and they are not very good now. So, we will keep it, it is great shape.

Then, we have a minature tiller, not sure what brand, and it is okay, but it is truly what everyone above says, not for real work.

Lastly, I have a Land Pride tiller on the back of my 24 hp Kubota, both about nine or ten years old, the Kubota is one fine machine. The Land Pride is okay, made in Kansas, near us, and it helps on the really big tilling jobs - we have a bit over 20 acres of dirt to play with.

A good friend in Iowa has a BCS tiller, made in Italy. I think the website is www.bcs-america.com - we can rent them in Omaha. They sound wonderful and our friend absolutely loves his.

So, try to borrow or rent one that you are interested in and see how it works for you. About 20 years ago we bought a Troy Pony model and hated it so much we gave it away, it just did not work for us, but others love them!

Good luck!

P. S. Buy the best and cry once!

[weedwarrior]

"P. S. Buy the best and cry once!"

Amen.

[mjkd]

Thanks, that's one the nearly always works for us!

[kellysgarden]

600 square feet? That is not big by my standards. My garden is 3,000 square feet and I just love to section it off into smaller areas and till it by hand with a shovel. The shovel certainly reaches deeper than my Troy-Bilt Pony will, and gives me good exercise while saving gas.

But my soil is already good, and so spading it up manually as I need to work a patch for planting or incorporating organic material is no problem. Sometimes I need to fire up the Troy-Bilt because I'm needing to do like 1,000 square feet all at once. But I find that the tines still are only going like 6 inches down, and so before I plant seeds into the seedbed, I'll still reach down into the seedbed with my shovel even after I've tilled. I'll get an extra 4 inches deeper than my tiller can penetrate.

I use a normal cheap shovel with the cheap handle removed. I attach a handle to the shovel blade that is a foot longer than the original handle. Makes all the difference in the world for leverage and saving your back from bending incorrectly. Those handles that normally come on a shovel are only for people who are under 5 feet tall!

[WI_HO_C]

Over the years, I've had a lot of large gardens, presently over 10,000 square feet. Except for my first small gardens in the 70's, I've always used a power tiller of one type or another. The first one was the $300.00 back-breaker; I got rid of it after a few years, when I read about the powered walk-behinds. Had a BCS for several years, and was fairly happy with it... but I upgraded to a larger Mainline 2-wheel tractor, which I have used for over 20 years now. I can't say enough about it, the machine just won't break - and not for lack of punishment.

During that time, I also purchased several of the small hand-held tillers, two of which broke after only two seasons. They're only good for weeding, or preparing seed beds on ground that has already been cultivated... but for that, they are very handy. All but one doubled as weed eaters. At present I have a 4-cycle Ryobi with the snap-on tiller; it has been much more rugged than the others, going on 6 years now.

Since I have a lot of ground to break & often little time to do it, I purchased a used Bolens tractor with a rear tiller. The tractor is a workhorse, and all of the attachments (including the tiller) are solidly built... but the driveshaft is a nightmare. Very poor design, it slips off easily during operation & destroys itself. Over the last 3 years, it has never finished Spring tilling without breaking down. So far, when it breaks down, I have been able to finish tilling with the Mainline; but ground breaking is back breaking work with a walk-behind, and I'm not getting younger.

I'll be shopping for a tractor (possibly a Kubota) this Winter, so I can prepare the ground more quickly in the Spring. It would also allow me to expand the area under cultivation, so I could begin growing grains.

[dcarch]

I don't recommend anyone doing this, unless you are very familiar with mechanical work.

I have turned my rototiller into also a hole digger. It can do both.

I use it to dig as deep as 40" to improve my soil.

The video was taken with the ground still half frozen.



dcarch