Roto-tiller

Thinking about upgrading from the garden hoe. What is everyone's preference? What to avoid? Considering something in the area of 5 horsepower and 24 inch working width. I will probably bide my time till the annual spring auctions pass.
Also, just wondering what is going to be out there for blight resistant tomatoes (canners).

I would suggest a rear tine. I used to have a JCPenney rear tine that was real nice. It was old enough (some, or most, of the newer ones have the tines driven reverse of the tires) that if you were cutting sod it would jump at the worst time! A reverse direction rear tine would be my first choice! Greg

I still like the troy built horse, realizing they can be jumpy on sod or unbroken ground, just takes more passes or just use a moldboard plow first, disc, then till, I did that on my sweet corn patch, which had been in sod for 10 years. Once you have an established area, they work great, though I am a bit biased not having owned or tried other types, never really had to.

Definitely think it will be a rear-tine unit.

I definitely like the Troy-Built but the only way that will happen is if I get lucky at the auction.

i finally retired my old front tine tiller last year, burned more oil than gas, and bought a troy built rear tine tiller. wow, what a difference, starts first pull, power driven wheels and power reverse. got mine from big r's on sale for about 600 or so.. heres a link
roto till here

I have operated a Troy-bilt and own a BCS two wheeled tractor with roto tiller attachment. By far the better is the BCS but they are costly.

If you can justify the cost over many years of future gardens then that is the way to go. Not many can or will. I see the NY in your moniker. Seems to be quite a few BCS tractors in NY show up on Ebay, some from rental agencies switching out units. Might take a look there.

If you don't feel like a BCS expenditure then Troy-bilt would be my next choice if I were buying.

The tines on a used tiller will probably be worn out. The end should be square, not pointed. It won't work right with worn tines.

I like the Troy Bilt's too. I've had about 30 of them. I was buying them and fixing them up and then resold all but one. Hal
PS: This one needed a lot of work new seals, tines, paint job and a new 10hp engine. Only gave $100.00 for the tiller and sold the engine for $60.00.

Here's what a new tine on a Troy Bilt should look. If they get to a point you either need to install a new set or have the old tines built up with hardfacing. They will wear a lot longer then. I sure miss all those fringe benefits.
Hal

In this hard Alabama clay I have to disc first and then roto till. Don't forget a few years of
roto tilling will cause hardpan. I subsoil every year or so.

I suppose we are fortunate in the Albany and surrounding area, because they were made here, lots of them around. Often times I find them listed in craigslist for a few hundred, running and not running etc. I looked around for years, then kept on craigslist for about a year, finally was able to be the first caller, other times I missed deals, they sell quick. I was out sick that day, darned almost flat on my back, neck or back or something not good, but knew I had to get off my butt and get this done.

Was hardly used, 25-30 years old, always stored in a dry garage, not a speck of rust where the paint wore off from the soil abrasion, got it for $310.00 delivered to my house. Just needed to adjust reverse, oil was clean, I changed er anyway, has the 7HP Kohler, starts on 1 pull, runs great, you don't even need full throttle, 1/4- 1/2 does the job, tines were hardly worn, ( though I have a new set, OEM too)

Great thing about them is that they sell, you find em off season and fix em up like Hal mentioned above, you will double your money, I could have re-sold this one immediately for 2x what I paid, the guy had 3 calls while I was there !!! I felt like I was the winning caller on the radio and got free tickets to the show.

These are tough, not the easiest to operate in hard rocky soils, rocks will make em lurch forward real hard it is best to get that moldboard in there initially, establish your area, then let that troy bilt do its thing, once that soil is loose, no problem at all, if your soils are sandy loam, or similar, should work well from the get go, all of this you are probably well aware of anyway, I like talking about these, sure was nice when they were made here, just over the hill and down the valley !

Get a Troy Bilt as pictured below. You'll never be sorry. Even though they're now owned by MTD they're still built the same way. The rear tines and the way they're geared and balanced make them the "cats meow".

Yep, I live 30 miles from Troy, I have a Troy Bilt Pony, dad has the Horse with a 7hp Tecumseh. For the money, they are great tillers. As far as tilling, I dont know a BCS is any better. Swing handles to right or left? Not that BCS isent a great tiller, but I think a Troy Bilt will till just as good.

Wife purchased a Sears 17" rear tine counter rotating tiller this last spring for her 1/3 acre flower garden, works just fine, lots of power & handles nicely with decent balancing.

This is the same unit offered by Husqvarna & other brand names...

For the larger stuff we have a 40" PTO driven tiller on the back of a garden tractor.

Your not too far from here, town of brunswick that is, yes they sure do perform well, my fathers is a bit newer, 8hp magnum kohler I used that one for years til he moved further north, was nice to find one for here. It's funny to go from doing field tillage with my neighbor to my small gardens and the troy built, but I really enjoy having a vegetable garden right outside my kitchen door, under the bow window, that tiller makes short work of it too.


PS, a friend of mine used to work in the test patches for Garden Way, he knew some of the people shown in the old black & white photos in the owners manuals.

I have a rear tine MTD and it works great if you turn the drag stinger around backwards. Less fighting it.

Hey Hal,

A friend of mine has one just like yours. He brought it over last spring and it was a brute to use, so much so that it made me think something wasn't right. Had no reverse? Would only move the tines forward, and on virgin ground it would pull you around and barely break ground. I told him I didn't think it was right that it was so difficult, but he'd been using it for years and didn't believe me.

Does that unit have a reverse gear for the tines?

B

Red - you have to set the depth guage for a minimum cut in "virgin" ground. It takes several passes, at increased depth each pass, to till up a sodded area. If you try to till a sodded area with the guage set too deep, the tines get too much traction and overpower the wheel resistance. Then it's a rasslin match, with you the loser. You want the machine to work for you - not you work for it.

The reverse works good on them if properly adjusted.

Paul

Stay away from the CubCadet-branded MTD rear-tine tiller. It looks like a good machine, it's cheaper than a Huskie, and even has a Honda motor. However, it is apparently a very problem-prone machine. If you look around for a used one, you will usually see someone selling one for parts because the transmission is broken. I also hear they burn belts off like crazy.

The best ones around are the big ugly pre-MTD Troy-Builts.

Greenbeanman- you saved me the trouble of posting- my experience (and recommendation) is exactly the same as yours.

Don't the BCS tines run in reverse, so they're not always trying to pull the unit, like the Troybilt? Can't remember- have only used the BCS once, on an established garden spot, but it was much better than the Troy.

No, the BCS tines do run forward, i.e. to say they will pull the machine forward on rare occasions if they grab.

I added tire ballast this past summer for tractor traction for pulling a cart. I do wonder if it will make a tilling difference as well?

Thinking about building a straddle row cultivator for it for closer work than with my tractor.