I have pretty much ran the gauntlet of tiller sizes over the years. The old front tine 5hp chain driven tiller where all we had back in the 1960's. They where pretty good for smoothing up the soil once it had been plowed, but would beat you to death on hard packed soil or hitting a rock. As time went by, I finally bought a 3pt, 6ft gear driven tiller. Man that sure made prepping a garden fast and the hardest part was hooking the tiller to the tractor. I bought a used southern states rear tine for the hand tilling needs. I finally found a troybuilt red horse rear tine. 8hp beast. It had a few carb issues but once I got that fixed, it cranked and tilled excellent. My biggest problem with it was my garden spot was fenced in and when you got to the end of the rows, it was a beast to turn around because of its weight. Since I sold my house and bought another, I no longer have the need for the big heavy tiller, all my gardening is in raised beds. So enter the new Mantis tiller. Pick it up with one hand and set in the bed. I was given a can of premix fuel with it and haven't used it all yet, so my experience is limited with the Mantis. I don't really like having to pull it backwards to make it dig. I have found that letting the tiller run forward and holding back seems to break up the top layer of soil so that going backwards for the deep till is a little easier. Maybe I am doing it wrong, but something about walking backwards and dragging a tiller thru the soil just doesn't seem right. I suspect the soil in these raised bed isn't that great. It look nice, but it doesn't drain at all. My onions are already rottening in the ground. I have never had that problem before. It is what it is for this year since I don't have time to redo the beds, but I will be mixing in organic material and mulch this season hoping to Improve the soil drainage issues. The mantis is supposed to dig 10inches, but I don't like the way the tines leave gaps of untilled soil and then bottoms out on the frame of the tiller. Never had that problem with any other tiller I have used. Yea I can wiggle the tiller side to side and get rid of those ridges, but that is a lot of dragging and wiggleing to break up the soil. Any suggestions as to what I might be doing wrong using the Mantis.