roto tiller


We bought a brand new Craftsman rear tine tiller just this year. It is black in color. The Craftsman replaces an ancient Troy-Bilt Horse that finally laid down and died.

The Craftsman is not quite the same as the old Troy-Bilt, but it is darned close and is MUCH easier to operate. The Craftsman also has the feature that allows the tines to run either forward or reverse, which the Troy-Bilt did not. Running the tines in reverse is GREAT for breaking up new ground.

The Craftsman retails for around $800 to $900, but you might catch one on sale for around $750.

A comparable Troy-Bilt retails for around $1,900.

I've used the Craftsman enough to go through 4 full tanks of gasoline, and so far, I am very well satisfied.

I believe that the Craftsman, Cub Cadet, and Husqvarna are all made by the same company. Some have Briggs and Stratton engines, some have Kohlers. My Craftsman has a Craftsman engine? Probably a Chinese knock-off, but it seems to be good.
 
If your talking about a walk behind tiller a rear tine one is what you want. Troy built was the top of the line but has gone down hill a bit. I use an old as in new in 1972 troy horse. Easy on the person and does a great job but it is on its 2nd engine and has had the transmission rebuilt 2 or 3 times.
 
Another one to consider is the BCS. Rear tine, 3 speed transmission, separate control for tines. You can also get other attachments (bush hog type mower, sickle mower, etc.) Works much better than the Horse Troy bilt, IMHO (I had a Troy for many years before). It is heavy, and kind of a chore at the end of the row. Just don't get an early one with the Acme engine- mine has Briggs, and it works fine.
 
I have both kinds of tillers, a troy build pony and a JD counter rotating tiller. Like the counter rotating the best.
George
 
I have seen some of the Craftsman tillers that the transmission would go bad, with a broken gear or chain, or whatever, and since the transmission case was welded together, there wasn"t any way to repair them. Don"t know if they have been changed, but the ones i saw seemed very complicated to try to fix. RJ
 
Ihave an Aerins rear tine unit. Belt driven to drive unit for both wheels and tines (rear). Reverse handled by secondary drive pulley on rear of engine. (Unfortunately they discontinued that design.) Two speed adjusted by simply moving v-belt to secons set of pulleys. I would buy another in a heartbeat if one came up for sale. One modification I made, made a difference in operation, I put a small skid at bottom of the rear spike, so it floats on the bottom of the tilled soil, doesn't dig in. Really helps in keeping tiller level, depth constant.
 
(quoted from post at 08:57:38 05/12/13) Another one to consider is the BCS. Rear tine, 3 speed transmission, separate control for tines. You can also get other attachments (bush hog type mower, sickle mower, etc.) Works much better than the Horse Troy bilt, IMHO (I had a Troy for many years before). It is heavy, and kind of a chore at the end of the row. Just don't get an early one with the Acme engine- mine has Briggs, and it works fine.

I priced a BCS. Scared the heck out of me. Seems like the basic power unit was somewhere around $2,500? The tiller unit is seperate and was another $500? It was going to cost me right at $3,000. Just to do what my $800 Craftsman will do.
 
We have 4 troy bilts. What ever you get make sure it is rear tine and you can get parts for it. I guess there is about 6 or 7 sets of worn out tines hanging in one of the shops.I rebuilt one of the troy bilt transmissions last year and a new set of tines for abour $500.
 
What's it's use; preparing a seedbed or cultivating. Since you have a plow and disc i would get a front tined in small size. Sure makes for easier cultivating.
 
I know you said new, and though I cannot really help on those, I can say if you find a decent pre MTD troy bilt horse, its well worth the money.

I am a bit biased since they were built here for a long time, and a long time friend worked in their proving ground, between us, we're knowledgeable about the use of these.

I do the same, but just moldboard plow the garden, then send in the horse and I have rocky top soil, on top of a clay/gravel mix. even then used properly, it does a great job.
 

I agree with what several others have stated. An OLD Troy-Bilt Horse is probably as good as it gets, but I'm here to tell you that I was not too unhappy when my old Troy-bilt gave up the ghost 'cause it was just getting to the point where I couldn't handle it anymore. A young man would get along just fine.

That Troy-Bilt is now taking up space where a tractor is supposed to be living, and the tractor is living outdoors. I would like to be rid of the Troy-Bilt.
 

I have an old Honda that works fine, cranks good, can steer with one hand usually and am able to walk beside it on the unplowed ground. I hate to try to plant around my big footprints.

KEH
 
A good older Troy Bilt will do you well if it is one built by garden way. My horse I bought in 1989 elec start 8 hp Koehler and its had lots of use and works as new today. funny thing though it"s a lot heavier now that I"m 60 than it was in my mid 30"s. Lol
 
Go with a Husquevarna DRT 900. Nice machine, have been using mine for 3 yrs, no troubles. DRT means dual rotating tines (forward or backwards. Around $700. They also make a CRT-900 model (counter rotating tines) which is mostly used anyway....for around $600. Good Luck.
 
I have an early 90s Troy-bilt Horse with the 8hp electric start Kohler. It was built before the Gardenway bankruptcy in 2001 and the name was bought up and cheapened by MTD. It works great.
tiller.jpg
 
(quoted from post at 10:42:57 05/12/13)
(quoted from post at 08:57:38 05/12/13) Another one to consider is the BCS. Rear tine, 3 speed transmission, separate control for tines. You can also get other attachments (bush hog type mower, sickle mower, etc.) Works much better than the Horse Troy bilt, IMHO (I had a Troy for many years before). It is heavy, and kind of a chore at the end of the row. Just don't get an early one with the Acme engine- mine has Briggs, and it works fine.

I priced a BCS. Scared the heck out of me. Seems like the basic power unit was somewhere around $2,500? The tiller unit is seperate and was another $500? It was going to cost me right at $3,000. Just to do what my $800 Craftsman will do.

Not even remotely the same type of tractor. The BCS is the modern equivalent of a Gravely, which was a real 2 wheeled tractor. The Crapsman is just a tiller, that's it. $800.00 and it will do one job, probably not for too many years at that, and that's if you are lucky. The BCS/Gravely you have a real tractor with a variety of attachments that's good for more than one job. Yeah, it costs 4 times as much, but you get 10x the tractor.

It's all in what you expect out of things. Personally, after spending over $2K on a Crapsman lawn tractor and the nightmare that's been...I'd never buy another new piece of Crapsman power equipment.
 
If you are looking for a new tiller buy a Honda rear tine and don't look back. Best rototiller that I've used besides the old Howard Rotovator. My Honda is a 2003, but I know that the new ones work just as good. I know they are pretty expensive, but worth it. Home Depot is usually selling their couple year old rental tillers in the spring(they only rent out Honda tillers except for the tiny Mantis). They will haggle with you too. They have surprisingly strict maintenance practices on their rental equipment at least at my home depot. I wouldn't be scared to buy used from them though. Most have hour meters that you can check too.
 
i bought a new troy built super bronco a couple years ago from big r's farm store. real happy with it, no problems. was about 500 dollars .its a rear tine
 
What ever you buy, make sure the tines are on correctly. I've borrowed two rototillers and both had the tines on backwards. All they did was bounce. They weren't new either.
 
If it is just the engine that wore out, you can buy a 6.5 horse engine from Harbor Freight for about $100 that will bolt on (with metric fasteners) very easily, and will work very well. The "roll bar" around the engine even fit mine without any alteration. My Troy Bilt was given to me after my neighbor blew a rod through the side of the old B&S flathead engine.

The old Troy Bilt is a beast, and is really too large for small gardens, as it IS some trouble to turn around at the end of a row. And the old advertisements showing little old ladies running a Troy Bilt holding on with one hand were exaggerating a bit. Just try that in my garden when you run into a rock! But for getting a fair sized garden ready to plant, I have never used a walk-behind machine that worked better.

And repowering an old Troy Bilt is easy and cheap. I have seen several old machines at garage sales that they wanted less than $100 for. With a new HF engine, I believe they would till for years. Good luck!
 
I would agree. The problem with rocks are that the ones in the subsoil under the top soil you are working, being embedded and held firmly in that subsoil, tines will grab or leverage quite a bit off them. In that case, its better to raise the depth up, tines won't hit so hard. Another thing is being smart with the throttle, the 7HP kohler K161 in my horse is just perfect, it has enough torque at lower RPM's to cut just fine, slower but so much easier on the operator. Once you have that soil worked up, or you have cleaned or excavated out the rocky soil, replaced with clean top soil, they work flawlessly. I moldboard plow first for more than one reason here, one is to displace large rocks underneath, part of one garden was loaded with them, the other side you can run full depth and full throttle if you like, soil was deeper, and cleaner. Favoring the throttle per the conditions is one of the secrets of using these in less desirable soils. I would state that using one of these to break new ground, that is sod bound with rocks, will be a long tedious endeavor, with lots of jerking and pulling, but even with the rock laden soils I can run it with one hand, just not at full throttle or depth in some areas. Soil with moisture, like the clay/loam/gravel here are a lot easier to till, let it dry out too much, its a chore, best left to a plow or similar if can be done. We have a patch of soil at the other place that is literally old horse manure and bedding broke down, 4 feet thick or so, and its like walking on a soft sponge, roots take no time to go deep, the other Troy Bilt in our family, a 8Hp kohler magnum, is so easy to use in a patch like that, almost hard to get traction, just sinks in, sure as heck wish my garden plots at home were like that, you can easily hand cultivate it to remove weeds.
 

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