I live in the NE with rocky, heavy, clay based soil. I use/used my tillers to break virgin sod as well as create and maintain garden areas. I have only owned forward rotation tillers (Woods T42, CCM M-160), but I put some "thought" into the CCM purchase as it related to forward vs. reverse rotation tillers:
Foward Rotation- bounce you forward over immovable objects , throw rocks away from tiller, "push"/"paddlewheel" you forward through heavy material, "works" in tractor's direction.
Reverse Rotation- pulverizes soil finer, mixes soil better, would probably work much better in established gardens.
I will add: works against tractor.
I "theorized" that the Reverse Rotation tillers would tend to jamb on bigger rocks as they tend to be thrown up and forward causing the rocks to jam up in the tiller housing and would not bounce (but jam) when "interacting" with immovable objects.
With your
PTO HP I would go with a forward rotation tiller.
Jay
