Hi all,
For anyone that is having concerns with the ability of a reversing tiller to eat really hard soil, I've been playing with mine have have developed some techniques for dealing with it.
First off, if the soil is that hard that you might not have the necessary
HP at the
PTO to drive it, I would suggest making the first pass of the reversing tiller with the depth lightly set, either through the depth pad skids on the tiller itself, or simply by using the quarter-inching-valve to lift the tiller off the fully grounded position. The tiller will now only bite the top inch or two of the soil, and by doing repeated passes at increasing depths, you can work you're way down into very tough soil.
All this takes time of course, but if you can go slow, and approach the tillering with some patience, there is little question that eventually you will have the soil tillered.
On another note, I've found that the reversing tillers ability to kick soil out ahead of itself does a wonderfull job of filling in depressions and uneven surfaces. I've bladed and run the
FEL over some washed in ditches in a effort to excavate them, and afterwards the surface is very uneven. Running the tiller over it not at full depth pushes the soil into the depressions and takes the top off the hills, leaving behind a much leveled surface.