Rototiller advice

[Ken Werner]

I'm going to buy a new rototiller and retire the ancient 5HP front tine unit.

I'm going for a rear tine, and am wondering if any creekers have experience with:
counter rotating tines
troy-bilt
cub cadet
poulan

any suggestions for a specific model or engine size are welcome.

Thanks,
Ken

[Lee Schierer]

Troy bilt tillers are now made by MTD. Their product isn't quite as good as the old Troy-Bilt, but still a pretty good product. We have a 25 year old Troy Bilt 7 Hp horse in our garage that has tilled many miles of garden. It still is going strong and probably good for another 25 years. The only parts replaced are a couple of belts and several sets of tines.

The rear tine tillers are far superior to the front tine type for any number of reasons. Busting fresh sod is pure torture with a front tine machine, the rear tine machines do it with relative ease.

[Joe Mioux]

BCS!

This is an Italian made tiller, but comes with several different types of engines, B/S, Honda, Kohler.

Lots of attachments for them as well.

[Kyle Kraft]

Ken,

I'll echo the Troy Bilt comments with one exception. Busting pure Michigan sod with either unit is pure torture. The TB just gets launched across the sod by the high speed forward rotating tines...quite entertaining to watch someone try this!. The front tine tiller will break the sod up without taking you for a brisk jog, but will beat the snot out of your arms, upper body, and back.

Get a Kubota compact tractor with a PTO driven 3-point mounted tiller. You can sell the idea for this just on the safety/ergonomic issues alone!!!

Good luck!

[Bob Childress]

A vote for the Troy-Bilt. Even though they are not as robust as before, my 6HP rear-tine, counter-rotating tine, TB breaks up the soil very well with a minimum of effort. This is the third year in my garden and the soil is now so well-tilled that I can walk beside the tiller and guide it with one hand. :)

[Errol Wentworth]

If you are set on buying, then I would vote BCS for a smaller unit, or a Baretto hydraulic if you have a lot of ground to cover. Baretto's are serious machines, 13HP, weight about 650lbs. But nothing is better for large gardens. For a lighter weight rear tine tiller some seem to like the new Hondas, but I don't have personal experience.

But perhaps you should take a look at renting. For what these things are going for new you can buy a new shop tool. Full day rental here is about 50 bucks; half day around 30. We till for 1/2-day twice a year. It would take a lot of years of rentals to pay for a new tiller purchase.

Errol (who only wishes it was time for tilling; fresh foot of snow here)

[Ken Werner]

Lots of good answers - thanks.

Do the counter-rotating tines work well? I read one review that they tended to clog up with organic matter.

Trying to decide if I should go with a forward rotating Troy bilt, or a somewhat smaller counter rotator.

As for the suggeston to rent, my wife loves gardening like I do wwing. We use a tiller several times a season both in the veg garden and in various flower gardens....so owning it is fine.

Thanks again.
Ken

[Robert Mickley]

I'm not walking behind a tiller, I have 31 inch tiller for the back of the JD garden tractor :D

[Joe Mioux]

Troy Bilts are to Unisaws, what BCS is to minimax.

[Leo Pashea]

A neighbor has a Honda rear tine tiller. He told me one day that it would, in one pass, till established sod to a fine, pulverized soil bed. I wasn't buying that since I have been drug around many a garden plot by front tine "killer tillers". Well, at the neighbors insistance, I tried his Honda tiller, and I must say I was astonished. I have no idea what he paid for this tiller, but it has a wonderful transmission, quiet and powerful 4 cycle Honda motor, oil bath air filter, and solid castings where it counts. Properly cared for, I can see a tiller of this quality lasting a lifetime, or more. Joe is correct as well. A well equipped BCS tiller is a joyful machine. If you are a serious gardener, you should own a serious tiller!

[Lee Schierer]

Ken,

I'll echo the Troy Bilt comments with one exception. Busting pure Michigan sod with either unit is pure torture. The TB just gets launched across the sod by the high speed forward rotating tines...quite entertaining to watch someone try this!.

If your Troy Bilt is adjusted properly for depth it will not lauch itself. Launching is caused by trying to till too deep too fast. I've busted heavy clay oil that was sunbaked with no problem. It did require more than one pass however.

Tilling is sort of like router work. Don't try to take it all off in one cut.

Speaking of entertaining.... When I lived in South Carolina we wanted a garden in the back yard. Noting that the telphone line seemed to run under the area where we were planting the garden, I called the phone company at LOML's insistence to see how deep the phone lines were buried. We were assured by the phone company that they were deep enough that no tiller could ever reach them. With that knowledge, we rented a front tine tiller from the local rental place. About the second or third pass across the proposed garden plot, the tiller jerked out of my hands and was taking its own path across the yard. I also noted that there was a sort of a dust devil developing just a foot or so in front of the tiller and it was rapidly progressing toward the house. When it reached the house in a matter of seconds, the junction box on the outside of the wall came free from the wall and the tiller abruptly changed attitude and started trying to dig itself to China. The telephone terminal post located in the intersection to the four back yards started to tilt. About then I managed to get the thing turned off.

We tried to call telephone repair, but all the phones were out. We ended up going down the street a few houses to call it in. The phone company wanted to charge me for the repairs (took several days), but I remembered the name of the person I called and they remembered me calling.

It seems the phone company had buried their wires before the final grading of the lot was done. The final grading removed over 18" of soil, leaving all the wires in the neighborhood within 3-6" of the ground level.

[Curt Fuller]

Before you buy a rear tine tiller you might consider renting one to see if you like it. I had an old 5hp front tine tiller that finally gave up the ghost and I replaced it with a 5hp rear tine model from Sears. I like how it tills the garden in spring when that's all I'm doing. But later in the summer when it comes time to cultivate, weed, etc I wish I still had the old front tine machine. The rear tine machine is pretty cumbersome and I've tilled up a lot of things that I didn't want tilled up.

[Roger Bell]

I have a "Big Red" 10 hp Troy Bilt Horse that is ten years old this year. It was quite expensive new, I thought at the time, but it is a quality machine, and, in retrospect, a good purchase. I bought it with the money I might have paid a landscaper when I built my home. I put about a half acre of lawn from dense woods after I cleared and a trac-hoe pulled the stumps and rough-graded. That was quite messy work, but the tiller handled it. We own acreage and my wife is a large scale gardener and native-plant enthusiast....always wanting new planting beds somewhere. I have busted field grass with it, torn up aggregate surfaced driveways, etc. It is heavy, solid and well built. Have never had a problem with it and it has never been shopped.

Once your garden is broken in, you can run it with one hand. You might look on the craiglist for a used one by the original manufacturer. I would recommend the larger ones (6 hp plus). The only thing that will really "launch" this tiller is hitting a large rock, or having the depth set too deep for the soil conditions.

[Steve Clardy]

We have the rear tine troybuilt, 5hp, about 7 years old.
Tiller is great, but that Briggs engine is a pita. Every year its something.
Carb clogged, pull rope breaks:( :( :(
I drain the gas every fall, add a dab of oil before its put away.
Every spring, I go through the carb to get it to run.

[Jeff Cybulski]

I have a 6.5 hp Craftsman ( not a big Sears fan but...) rear tine tiller that I bought last spring on close out. Not sure who is building them but it works for me. Tilled a 40x70 plot a few weeks ago for a garden and had a lot of sandstone in the dirt and had no problems. Got mine for $500 with the craftsman club discount.

[Ken Werner]

Went to the local farm supply today and picked up a Troy Bilt Pro-Line FRT. It's a nice rear tine unit with a Honda engine. Looks and seems to run nicely. Now we just have to batten down before the Nor'easter hits us with a foot of snow.

Thanks to all for your advice. Several creeker comments about good experiences with the T-Bs helped us make what looks like a good decision.

Ken