With a front tine tiller you have to lift up on the handles to dig in
harder. With a rear tine, you can press down with your weight to dig in.
Obviously, a rear tine requires less effort on the handler.

"Elliot Richmond" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 16 Nov 2002 01:04:11 -0600, J Kolenovsky
wrote:

I'm starting a native plant consulting and design business and an Aggie
friend says for me to buy a real good rear-tine tiller as opposed to a
front-tine. I have only had experience with front-tine. The rear-tine
with forward/reverse gears and powered transmissions look like precision
equipment and worth the money invested.

I use a heavy-duty front-tine tiller with good results. It is a
Craftsman 5 hp, not that that matters. It has been reliable and
relatively maintenance free. It has forward and reverse gears.
However, the rear-tine tiller is a superior design, in my opinion.
With the front-tine, the tiller tends to climb out of whatever hole it
has dug, while the rear tine tends to dig in. The ads that show
somebody tilling with one hand are more-or-less true for rear-tine
tillers.

On the other hand, for a comparable level of ruggedness and power,
front-tine tillers are much less expensive. I'm not sure why. Since,
at the time I bought my tiller, I was able to horse it around with no
problem, I went for the less expensive front-tine.

Hope this helps.

Elliot Richmond
Freelance Science Writer and Editor