I am in the market to purchase a used rear tine tiller. I have seen a BCS Model 715 with a 8 hp engine advertised for sale at $600 locally. Anyone know about the BCS tillers and does this sound like a reasonable price? Supposedly it works fine.
Make sure you check the oil in the tiller gearbox, stuff wrapping around the shafts can ruin the seals. The gearbox seems to be almost indestructible, but must have oil in it. Seals are not expensive, but a little difficult to replace. There is a good how to here on doing it.
Make sure the transmission has oil in it too.
Check the tines, if they are wore down to a point they need replaced.
If it is good shape it is probably sold. I spend 6 months tracking one down.
I bought it today. The owner told me he was the second owner with the original being a farmer down the road. Everything looked ok except the tires had pretty good dry rot but are still servicable. I/we could not find how to check the transmission oil. The owner told me he had not been able to find where to check it and I could not find a place either and he had no book on the tiller. There is a cap on top of the transmission area that looks like a vent cap. Nothing was leaking and I saw no signs of previous leaks. The tiller cranked right up and the transmission engaged in all gears forward and reverse. He tilled up a small area and the tines worked fine. The tines looked ok with no broken or worn down tines. When the tiller first starts up it runs on a high rev for a bit and then slows down. He said that it had always done that. Is that normal. I am hoping I did not get screwed on this but everything seems to work. It has some minor rust but overall looks good.
Thanks. I will look for the tiller oil plug. I still cannot find the transmission plug to check that.