rototiller.....front or rear? and other things...

[U&A]

some may remember a post i did regarding the location of my new garden. well i still haven't figured that out. only have about 2-3 weeks to get it done now .

anyway, my dad used to use a rear tine tiller and loved it but it always looked like he was fighting it and he would never let me do it so i have no experience with one beside the little 2 stroke things. We will be starting with a smaller garden this year but it will keep growing for the next few years. we eventually want to be self sufficient on the veggi category for most of the year (3 people). ...back on track. you know the question...

which do you prefer, front or rear and why? ( I know, thats what she said...sorry could help it)

what brands (no wars please) do you recommend for reliability and ease of repair/maintenance?

what horsepower do you recommend for what I am trying to achieve?

Thank you much for the help and suggestion. if there is anything else you need to know about my plans to help you help me let me know.

 

[Frogfarmer]

Size matters. Smaller plots a front tine in the 5hp range would be my choice. Large scale I use a rear tine. My Troy Built Horse has been dead reliable for over 20yrs but they are expensive. My front tine is an old belt drive Montgomery Ward but it's heavy and works well.

 

[CentaurG2]

A lot will depend on the size of your garden and the composition of your soil. If you have the same stuff I do which is mostly shale and clay, you really need a good rear tine tiller. I have 2 old Troy built tillers (a 6 and 7HP) and they do a good job on tilling in an already worked over area. They will fight you breaking in new ground. I also have a little 2 stroke Mantis. It does and excellent job even breaking in new ground but it is limited by its size. Great tool if you are going to try Mel Bartholomew square foot gardening.

For breaking a large patch of new ground, you probably want to rent a big tiller or hire out someone with a compact utility tractor with a tiller. Local rental places here have big beefy Barreto 13hp hydro tillers with counter tine rotation. If you plan to use cover crops to improve your soil, your best bet is a tractor and tiller. Good luck.

 

[chuckwood]

Size matters. Smaller plots a front tine in the 5hp range would be my choice. Large scale I use a rear tine. My Troy Built Horse has been dead reliable for over 20yrs but they are expensive. My front tine is an old belt drive Montgomery Ward but it's heavy and works well.

With my particular front tine machine, I've found I can get a bit closer to my plants because I can see just where the tines are working. With rear tines the whole assembly is hidden by shields that get in your line of sight. Years ago someone gave me a vintage Montgomery Ward rear tine tiller with an 8 hp Briggs. This machine is built like a tank and is very heavy. No comparison between it and the newer models with much thinner steel. I used it yesterday for tilling in a big dump truck load of leaf compost. It digs deep because of it's weight and is counter rotating. I have another large and heavy vintage Ariens rear tine that I use for final till, it's not counter rotating, won't dig as deep, but leaves the surface nice and smooth, ready for seeds. Recently I got one of those little Mantis tillers with one foot tilling width, nice for tilling in between closely spaced rows of leeks. Those old original Troy Bilts are very good machines, you still see lots of them around with newer engines on them, they have a high resale value. If I was looking for tillers, I'd avoid most the newer ones, they are too lightly built and tend to hop around all over the place if your soil is packed or hard. I saw a bad review on a new TroyBilt Bronco, the reviewer said the machine bucked and hopped all over the place just like a bucking bronco!

 

[Marshy]

Great advice, not much to add IMO. Check you local craigslist posting for Troybilt horse tillers, they can be had for 3-500 and will last a life time. Things to consider when buying one is how sharp the tines are and if it leaks any oil. Parts can be easily found as they were made for a very long time with no changes but, if you need to start replacing shafts or gears it will get expensive quickly.

 

[Backyard Lumberjack]

Size matters. Smaller plots a front tine in the 5hp range would be my choice. Large scale I use a rear tine. My Troy Built Horse has been dead reliable for over 20yrs but they are expensive. My front tine is an old belt drive Montgomery Ward but it's heavy and works well.

my TB Horse PTO has be dead reliable also since new in 1983! still fires up before one full rev off the starter, then just purrs... and... I have also used a MW front end tiller... at the time it did the job ok, and got the tilling I needed to do done.

with a lot of experience in tilling, I would say this is how I see it:

for the home garden the TB Horse is a good choice. as would be any rear tined tiller. new, used or restored... but a front ender will do the job, too...

for larger gardens, and I have seen some nice ones here on the AS... near 'truck farm ops' lol... for me, it would be a PTO tiller, 4 - 6' wide... driven by my diesel tractor. not even an issue. they can chew up stuff with some serious command authority! lol... plenty impressive vids on the utube...

given a serious home garden operation... many years of tilling in bio-degradable... pine needles, leaves, etc... and/or compost items... a rich friable soil will be achieved... in my case, most of my 'tilling' these days is done by hand with a garden fork... my soil is so friable.

for the Troy Bilt tiller owner/operator/enthusiast... there is the TB Tiller Club

[email protected]

 

[U&A]

thank you for the advice. I have decided to steer away from the troy built bronco ( i like the brand though) as it does look like a light weight that will dance all over the place.


I found this one and am starting to lean towards it more. I really like that it has the weight in the front and the big tires. the brand helps a lot too and my chainsaw dealer can sell and service it witch is a plus I found out that my out-laws (in-laws) want to go in on it 50/50 so we both can use it. they have been doing it by hand an using the little 2 stroke cultivators of years. they are ready to make it easier being they are in their mid to late 60's.

http://www.husqvarna.com/us/products/tillers/crt900/960930024/

do any of you know of or have any experience with the husky tillers like this one?

 

[U&A]

I did just find just one used (looks heavily used) troy built horse in my area that you guys talk about but he wants $850 for it!!

 

[USMC615]

TroyBuilt Horse/rear tine...brothers and I have been using our dads' 16Hp rear tine TB Horse for nearly 40 yrs...simple basic maintenance is all its ever needed. Been dead nuts reliable.

 

[Brushpile]

With my particular front tine machine, I've found I can get a bit closer to my plants because I can see just where the tines are working.

Yep.

 

[CentaurG2]

Both of my troy bilts are from the 70’s. I paid $100 bucks for the 6hp model. Needed some welding, carb kit, new belts and a reverse disk. Smokes a bit on startup but runs and tills like a champ. I put way more hours on my snowblower than the tillers. As mentioned, once you have your soil properly conditioned, you really don’t the tiller as much. Heavy weeds and cover crops are too much for my units thus we compost everything first and feed the gardens heavily in the fall. A quick till and the gardens are ready for spring. Right now, with the exception of the asparagus patch, they are still a sea of mud.

 

[chuckwood]

given a serious home garden operation... many years of tilling in bio-degradable... pine needles, leaves, etc... and/or compost items... a rich friable soil will be achieved... in my case, most of my 'tilling' these days is done by hand with a garden fork... my soil is so friable.

This is what I'm slowly doing on my garden plot, which has been in near continuous use since 1892. For a while, soil quality became so poor that something had to be done or I'd have to work up a new plot. I'm real lucky in that not too far away is the city's leaf dump for fall leaf pickups. The dump is owned by a paving company and they compost the stuff for about 5 years or so and then sell it as mulch. It's rich and black and loaded with trace minerals. Since I'm so close by, I get a big three axle dump truck load for $225.00 delivered. I've worked a number of loads into my garden and it's worked very well, much cheaper than mushroom compost. I also get fresh dump truck loads of new leaves from the city for free, and spread leaves between rows before my plants are too big for me to drive over them with a four wheeler pulling a trailer. The fresh leaves keep the ground cool and moist. All my woodheater ashes, and several neighbors woodheater ashes also get mixed in, along with some lime, to keep things from getting too acid.

 

[CentaurG2]

I have always been a little leery of taking stuff for the veggie garden that I don’t really know the origin of. My town has a composting site and you can take as much as you want for free but between the town and the contractors God only knows what they mix in. Fortunately, between my own lawns and my animals, I usually have enough to keep two or three compost piles cooking at any time. Flip them over with the loader when you remember and you will have black gold filled with red wigglers in no time.

 

[chuckwood]

I have always been a little leery of taking stuff for the veggie garden that I don’t really know the origin of. My town has a composting site and you can take as much as you want for free but between the town and the contractors God only knows what they mix in. Fortunately, between my own lawns and my animals, I usually have enough to keep two or three compost piles cooking at any time. Flip them over with the loader when you remember and you will have black gold filled with red wigglers in no time.

Well, my leaf mulch is composed entirely of the stuff that people rake or blow off their lawns and pile up next to the curb. The city goes around with machines that are basically giant vacuum cleaners and suck the piles up and blow them into the dump trucks that tow the machines. I asked the crews about this and they check out the leaf piles first to make sure there's nothing else in there besides leaves, the machine isn't designed to suck up trash, limbs, etc., and when it happens, sometimes damage can result. When they find a pile with debris in it, they pass that one on by. I just pulled a mangled garden rake out of my leaf compost, and was lucky I didn't run over it with a tractor tire. Every now and then you find some plastic or metal that doesn't belong.

 

[U&A]

Well, my leaf mulch is composed entirely of the stuff that people rake or blow off their lawns and pile up next to the curb. The city goes around with machines that are basically giant vacuum cleaners and suck the piles up and blow them into the dump trucks that tow the machines. I asked the crews about this and they check out the leaf piles first to make sure there's nothing else in there besides leaves, the machine isn't designed to suck up trash, limbs, etc., and when it happens, sometimes damage can result. When they find a pile with debris in it, they pass that one on by. I just pulled a mangled garden rake out of my leaf compost, and was lucky I didn't run over it with a tractor tire. Every now and then you find some plastic or metal that doesn't belong.

try and find a horse farm and get some manure... EDIT :composted

on a side note, dose anyone have experience with the newer husqvarna brand tillers?

 

[CentaurG2]

Sorry for the derail. Nope on the husqvarna tiller. If it is anything like their lawn mowers, you are pretty much getting what you pay for. If you are going to take the plunge, you might want to consider something a bit more commercial. BCS has a good rep and like the old Gravleys, you can use the tractor to power a number of different attachments. You can also try to locate an older garden tractor like a simplicity. Many of them had tiller attachments that worked very well. A hydrostat tranny is key for this type of tractor. I have seen them go for around $1k at shows in good shape. Tiller would be an additional $500 or so. A john deere 318 would be another great tractor to consider. Expensive to get into but it would forever hold its value. Lots of 318 parts on ebay as well.

 

[U&A]

thanks, ill look into bcs

 

[Philbert]

Rear tine tillers are better for heavier duty rototilling; especially for breaking up new ground, or mixing amendments in deep.

Front tine tillers let you till closer up to fences, walls, barriers, etc., since the operation is up front. This can be important in some gardens.

You should not have to fight either one. Learn how to rock them forward and back to control the depth of till and forward motion. Some front tine tillers have a rear stabilizer bar that helps.

I have used both, but no longer have a place to store one, so I use a small, electric one that I found at a garage sale. Works well on our small, existing garden, but I would not want to break in a new one with it.

Philbert

 

[Greenthorn]

You should not have to fight either one.

Exactly right, learn how to set that depth regulator, then you work the machine, not the machine works you.

 

[amberg]

I think the rear tine tillers are easier to control. I could run our TB horse with 2 fingers while standing in the next row over while cultivating until it would hang one of the many baseball size rocks that we have here, and then I am chasing it down a row of snap beans about 3 days until they are ready to pick. It did work real good at laying off rows and digging potatoes with the V plow.