I have 2 garden plots, 1 30x40 and 1 20x125. I am SICK of small, slow, awkward residential sized garden tillers. I have 2 front tine models, which work fine if you have lots of time to spend tilling your garden, which I don't. I also have a Troy-built Econo-horse rear tine tiller given to me by a family member. This thing is a boat anchor. The tines rotate in the same direction as the machine moves, which means every time it finds a root or an area of compacted soil it jumps up on top of the soil and wants to propel itself across the garden at a speed matching the tine speed. Worthless. It is fine if the soil is already loose, but what good is a tiller that only works in soil that doesn't need to be tilled. I've looked at 3-point tractor models, but the cost of a well built model is rather high for personal use, and since I have a WD-45, a wide model is required which puts it in the 3-4 thousand dollar range. Anyone have a rear-tine powerful tiller that handles heavy soil and sod? I've found an older roto-hoe model that looks pretty beefy, but having never used one, I don't want another machine that isn't up to the task. Suggestions? Thanks.
- Thread starter SCHMUCK 1
- Start date
I use a Poulan rear tine. 17 inch. Uses a 7.5 H.P. B&G. Works great and sometimes I even wish it ran faster. You just have to use the depth bar to make it do what you want. If I want it to go faster, I just pick up on the handles and it goes ahead. otherwise it will sit there and churntill it goes out of sight. You probably have yours set wrong or it would do the same.
Anonymous-0
Well-known Member
Hey SCHMUCK1 I was also in the same boat as you my garden is approximately 400 x 60 I found a guy that rototills gardens as a side job and he charged 120 dollars for the initial tilling and came back this spring and charged 70 dollars and I will have him back again next spring he had a nice big tractor with front end loader and a 5 foot tiller and did a fantastic job at that rate he can come back for the next 20 years or so and still be cheaper than buying one, just a thought but it worked out great for me.
Bruce from Can.
Well-known Member
- Location
- Woodville, Ontario, Canada
I was doing 4 plus acres of garden for road side stand up till 6 year ago, and I found tillers not practical. I bought a super A IH with scufflers and planted on 4 foot centers . Worked great!
Traditional Farmer
Well-known Member
- Location
- Virginia
The WD45 won't work with a tiller very well anyway since 1st gear is over twice as fast as it needs to be to run a tiller right.
Look into a rider garden tractor with a tiller I have several of those setups and they do pretty well not as good as my big tractor tiller but much better than what you are using.The older Bolens are tough with good heavy duty tillers,Sears/Craftsman also made a tiller with its own engine that can easily be modified to a Cat 0 or sleeve hitch garden tractor.Plus a good Cat 0 3pt garden tractor is great for other garden implements like a disk,plow.ripper,cultivator,planter etc.
Look into a rider garden tractor with a tiller I have several of those setups and they do pretty well not as good as my big tractor tiller but much better than what you are using.The older Bolens are tough with good heavy duty tillers,Sears/Craftsman also made a tiller with its own engine that can easily be modified to a Cat 0 or sleeve hitch garden tractor.Plus a good Cat 0 3pt garden tractor is great for other garden implements like a disk,plow.ripper,cultivator,planter etc.
carogator,
I think SCHMUCK1 is right about the way his tiller is working. I think he is wrong in thinking he will find a walk behind one that will work they way he would like. When those tines try to engage hard ground, something has to give, either the ground or the tines will become wheels and it will go forward or sit there and bounce if you hold it back. When that ground is hard then the other happens. Your Poulan working they way it does is the ground, not the tiller or the way you operate it. Back on the farm our old tractor would pull 1 moldboard plow. Neighbor 20 miles could pull 2 and in a higher gear with same kind of tractor.
Those advertisements you see on TV of the tiller working so good, it is in ground that doesn't need tilling, just look close.
I think SCHMUCK1 is right about the way his tiller is working. I think he is wrong in thinking he will find a walk behind one that will work they way he would like. When those tines try to engage hard ground, something has to give, either the ground or the tines will become wheels and it will go forward or sit there and bounce if you hold it back. When that ground is hard then the other happens. Your Poulan working they way it does is the ground, not the tiller or the way you operate it. Back on the farm our old tractor would pull 1 moldboard plow. Neighbor 20 miles could pull 2 and in a higher gear with same kind of tractor.
Those advertisements you see on TV of the tiller working so good, it is in ground that doesn't need tilling, just look close.
rockyridgefarm
Well-known Member
Hey Schmuck,
Look into a BCS or a Grillo. They are considered two wheel walk-behind tractors and are just about indestructible. They have no belts or chains - the engine has a cone clutch mounted on it and it drives an all gear transmission in an oil bath. It has a 3 dog drive PTO that runs at 990 RPM and can run many, many attachments like a rototiller, rotary plow, reciprocating spader, chipper, snow blower, sweeper, dozer blade, sickle mower, yard mower, rough cut mower, flail mower, rake/tedder, even a round baler that makes a 22 inch by 22 inch round bale!
I have a BCS 850 with a 11 hp diesel engine and a 30 inch tiller attachment. It will till almost anything. If you're looking to break sod, you can purchase a rotary plow of similar design to the old Gravely rotary plows, but behind the machine, not in front of it. The BCS tiller tines spin at 290 RPM, twice as fast as any other brand on the market. Since it's slicing the ground twice as many times as your current troy bilt, it can handle harder ground.
You can look on Earth Tool's website. They're located in Frankfurt KY and are just about the best dealer in the country when it comes to either BCS or Grillo. Be sitting down when you look at the new price, though...
earthtoolsbcs.com
Like Oldmax said, counter rotating tines. That's what poulan has. the wheels and the tines pull against each other. And I don't think you can find any ground harder than the white clay I dug out of the bottom of my pond, after it gets dry.
I just wish it were wider. Poulan also makes one I think is 33 inches wide to pull behind a garden tractor and has its own engine.
I just wish it were wider. Poulan also makes one I think is 33 inches wide to pull behind a garden tractor and has its own engine.
Jim in Ma.
Well-known Member
I grow cut flowers here in gardens a little larger than yours, Use a Troy-Built horse and love it. But to start in the spring I rototill with a 5' tiller on the tractor as deep as I can. After planting and as soon as the plants come up = I till with the Troy-Built once a week. The only time I ever have a problem is when I let the soil get packed down. No weeds and the garden always looks good.
Before I got the big tiller, I would plow and harrow in the spring.
Before I got the big tiller, I would plow and harrow in the spring.
Find a owners manual for your Troy tiller and read it through and you might find it will work fine for you without alot of expense. I've had mine since 1981 and its done alot of work for me. I'll agree that my 6 foot three-point tiller does the job alot quicker but that troy tiller will do alot of work for you too without the added expense of the bigger equipment.
Traditional Farmer
Well-known Member
- Location
- Virginia
The tillers you have aren't really designed to break most soils,why not get some sort of ripper or chisel plow for the WD45 to tear up the soil and then til it? Thats what I do I even with the tractor mounted tiller makes the job go quicker and much easier on the tillers
I have a snap coupler 3-bottom plow. I don't have fluid in the tires or rear weights, so while I have the power, I couldn't get enough traction to pull it, so I removed one plow. This is all well and good, but even after disking, there are still clods/clumps and places where the depth is shallower. The Troy-Built is simply not up to the task, as I stated earlier it wants to jump out of the soil and run across the top, and the front tine models are S-L-O-W-W-W-W-W.
Perhaps the soil in your area is different than what I am dealing with, perhaps not. It needs organic matter and sand/lime to loosen it up most certainly, but that doesn't do me any good when trying to work it right now. I have seen a Frazer tiller a friend at work has that has tines that are completely different than bolo-style tines sold today. This thing WORKS. Problem is, it is old, a '50 model I think and he doesn't want to part with it. I'm not having any luck locating one that isn't a basket case, and I learned long ago, you have to be careful buying old machines like that or by the time you have everything fixed, you could have bought a new piece. BCS and Grillo walk behinds are well made, but by the time I buy the tractor and 2 or 3 attachments, I could buy a used compact tractor, and I really don't want to do that due to storage space. Surely there is something out there that will do the job without having to spend $4,000.
Traditional Farmer
Well-known Member
- Location
- Virginia
See if you can find an old pull type disk harrow to hit it with a couple times after plowing or you might get lucky and find a snapcoupler disk for your WD45.BTW I'm in red clay land and if I'd plow sod land now it'd be just about impossible to work down.Also a good offset disk would really do the trick
After reviewing your thoughts and a little more research on my own, I think the best plan for my situation is to build a subsoiler for my WD-45 and sell the 3 tillers I have and buy a counter-rotating model with an engine in the 8 HP range. I appreciate all the comments and apologize if some of my replies were "snippy". I have just lost my patience with the tillers I have now. Again, thanks for the replies.
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