The tale of the roto-tiler

[Rustaholic]

My garden tractor towable tiller has the counter rotating tines and it spits up all sizes of rocks.

[Rustaholic]

Thought you guys would get a laugh at my expense....

Flash back to 38 years ago and my folks bought a Mongomery Wards roto-tiller.
BIG SNIP

It is clear that the dealer back in 78 installed the two outboard tines holders on backwards. If only all 4 had been backwards then I think we would have caught on.
little snip

And now it works like it should...

Anyway... Stories....

Please check your math.
1978 to 2012 is 34 years not 38.
I was married in 76 and next month we will have our 36 th anniversary

[JDgreen227]

My garden tractor towable tiller has the counter rotating tines and it spits up all sizes of rocks.

How deep can it dig? By removing the wheels on my tiller it will dig down until the tine shield is level with the ground. A walk behind rear tine tiller cannot get anywhere near that deep because the wheels limit digging depth. The only problem with running my tiller that deep is that the grit kicked up eats the drive belt very fast.

[Rustaholic]

If I stop the tractor the tiller will dig down until the shield is holding it up.
I was looking at an $1100 towable tiller at Sears about 15 years ago.
What I saw was my front tine tiller turned around with some different wheels and hardware attached.
I wrote down it's numbers and ordered a manual for it.
I had a list of parts made up and it was going to cost me about $145 to convert my tiller to one of those. Seemed like a good deal.

Well,,,, There was that farm auction I went to the next weekend.
Everything there was big scale stuff for the shutting down of a buffalo farm,
EXCEPT that very nice looking towable tiller.
It had a service tag on it showing the tuneup it just had and I got it for just over $50 .
Money well spent, It is a great tiller.

[crazyal]

Thanks for dragging up one of those childhood memories I long since forget. My parents love to garden and one day finally broke down and bought a 5hp front tine tiller (don't remember the brand, just that it was an orange frame with white briggs engine). The wheels on it were the same plastic ones you find on a push mower.

Anyway it quickly became my job to till the garden. I called it a jumping jack because that's about all it did. I would spend hours doing my best to force it to actually did. Come to find out that maybe it was put together wrong and all those years of punishment could have been avoided. I think it answers why I now have an urge to buy a bottom plow for my Kubota.

[ustmd]

Roto-tillers--you all were livin' high off of the hog.

I remember one year my mother rented a roto tiller, but that was it. She had 7 boys and felt no need to bring in extra equipment.

[Rustaholic]

Roto-tillers--you all were livin' high off of the hog.

I remember one year my mother rented a roto tiller, but that was it. She had 7 boys and felt no need to bring in extra equipment.

Funny,,, You wrote Roto-tillers.
I own three Rototiller tillers.
1940s right after WW II they were made.
A 2-cycle engine and rear tines that are more like claws.

[IndyIan]

Thanks for dragging up one of those childhood memories I long since forget. My parents love to garden and one day finally broke down and bought a 5hp front tine tiller (don't remember the brand, just that it was an orange frame with white briggs engine). The wheels on it were the same plastic ones you find on a push mower.

Anyway it quickly became my job to till the garden. I called it a jumping jack because that's about all it did. I would spend hours doing my best to force it to actually did. Come to find out that maybe it was put together wrong and all those years of punishment could have been avoided. I think it answers why I now have an urge to buy a bottom plow for my Kubota.

That sounds like the tiller I have now, it acutally works pretty good once you get the the rear depth gauge/anchor set to the right depth. But after an hour or two of that I'm probably as sore as if I was turning by hand, but I have maybe 5 times the area done... Fortunately I only have to do a saturday mornings worth of tilling every year.