"dps" wrote in message
...
Doug Kanter wrote:
Anyone have one? I'd appreciate comments pro or con. They're cheaper
than
renting one three times around here, and at least according to the promo
material, they're much easier than trying to wrestle with the bigger
units.
I'll be using it to create a 40x40 vegetable garden, and as many flower
beds
as I can find time to fiddle with.



I have a Troy-Built version that I use only occasionally. For a small
garden it's probably sufficient. For a 40x40 I'd rate it seriously
undersized. It's basically a 2-cycle chainsaw engine driving the tiller.
Small buzzy thing. It digs OK, but I find the tillers with driven wheels
easier to keep in line (although the line is wider). My small Troy-Built
has no wheels -- just a bar that drags to keep the machine from running
away. Nothing to keep it from moving sideways except the skill (?) of
the operator. If you have rocks, it will bounce in random directions.
This is true of the larger tillers also, of course, but they're heavier
and able to withstand moderate sized rocks.

I also got an edger attachment for it. Don't bother. It turns too slow
and gathers debris on the edger wheel, causing the line it cuts to widen
and increasing the force required to hold it back (you don't use the
drag bar for edging). I got an edger that goes on my brushwhacker and it
works much better.

The bigger rototiller I have (Troy-Built horse) takes a learning curve
to operate easily. Initially it was a real struggle to turn it, but I
find that if you lift the tines out of the soil at the end of the row,
step to the side and push one handle up and sideways so it's balancing
on the opposite wheel, it turns fairly easily. It does take some
strength to lift the handle (my wife can't do it) but not nearly as much
as it does to try to horse it around with both wheels on the ground.

If you don't want to buy your own, consider hiring someone to do the
work for you. It's probably competitive with renting a machine (and
dealing with getting it from the rental place and back) and definitely
much easier on your back.

I've been trying to find someone to do it for the past two weeks. It's
unreal - I've called 32 landscapers so far, with no luck except for one guy
who said he does rototilling, but will be out of work till December due to a
back injury. Great. The ground will be frozen by then.