O/T Garden finally dry enough to Till

I got my old Troy Bilt out today and worked the garden finally.

I had this tiller given to me 4 years ago and I completely tore it down rebuilt the transmission and installed a new engine on it. I also sand blasted it and painted with some John Deere paint I had in the shop. Looks Different I must admit!

But who says they have to be red any way?

Just wanted to share the pic with you folks.

Late last Thursday wind had dried a portion of the area I want to plant, enough that I was able to roto-till about 2 acres.

With very heavy rain forecast on Friday and wind I opted not to go ahead and plant. True to forecast we received a half inch of rainfall in short order with a very hard rain.

Forecast for this week is 80s so I will be able to get it worked again and planted. With warmer soil the crops should practically jump from the ground.

Sure been tough to get it dry enough this year for sure. Best wishes with your garden regardless of the color of your machine. Mine is orange on the back of a blue Ford.
Ford blue and orange Caroni

How do you like your 3pt tiller?

I did this one back in 2006. Its been very wet here in the mid atlantic this Spring. Hal

Different, but same kind of JD quality. I've heard a variety of different opinions on the old Troy Bilt's, but if you are not working hard ground, pretty easy to operate, and work with + they seem to have a reputation to last.

We have a mid 80's Kohler 8Hp magnum powered pto model, but it's 30 miles away at the other place, so I've been looking for one for about a year, so I don't have to borrow that one or another friends for the small patch of a garden I do. For about a year or so, never seemed to connect with any local sellers, someone got there before me, one guy had a 5 HP late model advertised, for $150, called, says he's not done using it, has to go out of town again, so uh why did you list it...... well fast forward to yesterday. Finally a day off, but I'm nursing some kind of muscle spasm shoulder/neck real sore & work related, took a tumble saturday, just don't feel like doing a darned thing, but still have chores to do, not been to the store for food, laundry etc. I clicked on craigslist, just for kicks and saw one just listed, called and I was the first one, felt like I was the caller who got through to the radio station and won the prize ! Skipped the chores/errands/food shopping, got er bought for $300 + $10 to have him deliver it.


Never been left outside, tines are in nice shape, 7HP Kohler K161T, ( my preference for a motor on one of these ) 1 owner. Circumstances are always sad when it comes to finding something like this, previous owner is elderly, now with Alzheimer's, but it sure looked like he was into keeping things nice, tinkering, gardening and similar, had a real nice zero turn Grasshopper, 23 HP with front deck and snowblower, 294 hours, looked new, and a late 60's early 70's, might have been a '70 Buick Electra, 2 door convertible, 30,000 miles + or - in original condition, it also looked new. I hope he does not suffer from that darned illness, and am thankful to find this one, will keep 'er just like he did, and being from Troy, N.Y., got a nice specimen from a place a lot of people were proud to work for, really stinks what happened, we lost a lot of good manufacturing jobs in the last 20 years.

Great machines those Horses. I just fixed our old one up and got it back in the garden. We have two, a fairly new one and our older one. The older one (late 70s) has a 7HP Tecumseh. I thought he engine was toast but it just need a little valve attention. It's nice now Dad can keep the new one at his place ans we have one at ours.

We also have a Pony. I don't like that one quite as much. Harder machine to handle, that and if you hit hard ground the tines dig in and take you for a ride. :shock:

I like it just fine and for my sandy soil it is about the right size UNTIL I hit a patch of surface clay, then it is far too much tiller. Being a little too wet the other day made it a really hard pull for the tractor in a few clay spots.

I bought the unit as a demo unit and at an excellent price. A fellow had purchased it and found his 8N couldn"t handle it because of speed mainly. He asked Tractor Supply to take it back and they did. That was when I happened along.

I"ve had it for about 12 to 13 years and it has never given a minutes problem. I think most tillers have the staggered tines so that not all contact the soil at the same time over the length of it and this one is no exception.

I would rate it as a good purchase.

I've had my 8HP Kohler Horse since 1987, always said it works so good it should be green, now I know I'm not the only one to think so. Paid $1200 and it paid for itself many times over doing custom work, only wish I would have bought the electric start for lighting, when it was tilling time I finished many nights by the headlights of the pickup. chris

Last year my neighbor gave me a Troy Bilt with a large hole through the side of the engine block. I would like to replace the engine, which is a B&S flathead, but I can't find a new direct replacement.

What engine did you use on your tiller? I tried to enlarge the photo, but can't really see what the engine is.

While the green paint looks nice, I think I will stick with red, since the paint does not need replacement. Nice job!

(quoted from post at 23:16:28 05/19/09) Last year my neighbor gave me a Troy Bilt with a large hole through the side of the engine block. I would like to replace the engine, which is a B&S flathead, but I can't find a new direct replacement.

What engine did you use on your tiller? I tried to enlarge the photo, but can't really see what the engine is.

While the green paint looks nice, I think I will stick with red, since the paint does not need replacement. Nice job!

Click to expand...

There's a bunch of engines that will switch out. Check out the Small Engine Warehouse (http://www.smallenginewarehouse.com/). Just select Troy-Bilt and then the model you have (Horse, Pony etc).

K