Home |
Search |
Today's Posts |
#6
|
|||
|
|||
Well, I like my Mantis. It's light, easy to maneuver. The edger blade is
not all that great. It cranks, first time, every time for me. But I use it often, and the carburetor doesn't have a chance to gum up on me. If I had to buy another small tiller, it would be a Mantis. Perry "Doug Kanter" wrote in message ... "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. |
Thread Tools | Search this Thread |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Forum | |||
mantis Tillers | Edible Gardening | |||
Query re Mantis Tillers | United Kingdom | |||
Earthquake Tillers | Gardening | |||
Tillers | Edible Gardening | |||
Tillers | Gardening |