Help me justify a TILLER.

[Bird]

Tony, I just had an RTS40 Bush Hog tiller (40" wide; tilled 38") that I bought when I had a B7100 Kubota. After the front end loader, it was undoubtedly my most used implement. I had one garden spot that was 83' x 103' where I planted 80' rows 5' apart so I could easily till between the rows even after the crops were firmly established. I know some say you can till too much, but I tilled between the rows when it got dry enough after every rain. And I tilled during the off season to keep grass and weeds from getting established in the garden. I later tilled an additional 15' x 85' garden spot for cantaloupes and melons. I tilled one neighbor's garden pretty regularly and occasionally three others. I was hired to till a fire break around one house that had been vacant awhile. I had no rocks on my place but that clay could make some hard clods that were hard to work with. The tiller would break them up so I could smooth and level areas. I even tilled an old pond dam to loosen it and get rid of clods before pushing the loosened dirt into the dried up pond to fill it in. A tiller was an expensive, but almost indispensable implement as far as I was concerned.

 

[charlz]

I'm working on a vegetable garden (our first) for next season. The garden will be 3 rows at 4' x 70' or so. This is too much dirt to work by hand, but tillers are a little expensive to be a one dimensional implement.

A 4' tiller in a garden that size will be the best 10 minutes you spend twice a year

I picked up a used LandPride 50" for $400 and put another $150 or so in for new tines. Take the money you would use for a walk behind tiller and find a used 3pt tiller.

As for other uses, I have rehabilitated lawn with it, put in new lawn where we had weeds before. I till up my kids dirtbike track every now and then. The track can be a little hard on it when it is packed down and dry. I am thinking of either getting a small disk or maybe a box blade and use the rippers for the track and save wear and tear on the tiller. I also use it to work over my compost piles, really helps chop stuff up and mix it together.

Since the tiller is pretty compact it is my preferred counterweight for the loader.

Charles

 

[jake98]

I wouldn't argue with Mr. Rabbit. My dog Piper says rabbit is the origional fast food...

Jake w/rum 12/31/07 @11:26 in Winchester VA

 

[john_bud]

Look in the local papers and maybe craigs list for the closest people that sell grey market tractors like Yanmars etc. They usually will have rice paddy tillers for 2-400. Around here, the KK 60" gear tiller is $1099 this time of year. About to jump up to $1299 in spring. KK 6 1/2 ' disc's are $799.

For what you are looking at, search the for sale's in the paper and yard sales and buy a $50 24" wide walk behind tiller. Have your wife run it. When 1/4 of the garden is tilled, take her to the farm store and bring home a tiller.

jb

 

[tomd999]

Hiya,

Too bad your not in snow country....

I was able to justify my shiny new 655 Deere tiller to the other half by ripping up over 250 feet of grass along the driveway with the new Curtis blade I justified by not getting a new snowblower....

Good luck,

Tom

 

[srjones]

Here's a strategy. 1st, rent one from Sunbelt rentals. It's a standard item and there are many in your area (closest one seems to be Greenville).

Sunbelt Rentals: Locations

I did this last spring and it was about $50 per day.

After you've done an amazing amount of beautiful tilling, take it back and look for the next opportunity to rent it again. $50 per day adds up pretty quickly and it's not too hard to justify the investement at that point.

Some specific projects/tasks to justify the investment:

• flower beds.
• new lawn
• expand the garden
• tilling the neighbors garden for $$ or favors.

Good luck

 

[ronjhall]

I use a tiller for many landscaping jobs. Latest one was to till a 16' X 40' area for a RV pad. Tilling the area made it very easy to remove sod and put dirt in low areas of our yard. By tilling a second time after removing first 6" gave me the correct depth for putting in fabric and base. MY Kubota dealer sells more tillers to landscapers than gardeners.

 

[Blagadan]

For what you are looking at, search the for sale's in the paper and yard sales and buy a $50 24" wide walk behind tiller. Have your wife run it. When 1/4 of the garden is tilled, take her to the farm store and bring home a tiller.

You beat me to it john...! lol

To justify a tiller is simple. If you're strong as an ox then a walk behind tiller will do you fine. If you're like the other 75% of real people with average build, a walk behind tiller will hurt after you're done esp with the area you're talking about. Back, arms, shoulders aching for a few days.
I like the idea of using a middle buster/sub soiler to loosen the soil before using the tractor mounted tiller, sounds like a good plan.

BUY the tractor mounted tiller, You can smile as you are making you're passes, not sweating and cursing the walk-behind as it jumps and bucks.

 

[Kernopelli]

I have to agree with purchasing a grey market tiller. They are very inexpensive and can offer very good performance. Around here, used name brand tillers sell for only slightly less than new so the grey market ones are typically 50%-75% less than a good used brand "XYZ". The one caveat is that if you are breaking hard clay etc for the first time, it is best to loosen it with scarifiers or a middle buster. The rice paddy tillers have thinner tines than "conventional" tillers and WILL break more easily. I have had mine for 5 years and use it to put in my garden every year but mostly used it for preparing lawns and blessing my neighbors and friends with tilled garden plots that they wouldn't have been able to have otherwise.

I had a coworker in your same predicament and had a hard time justifying buying one. I found him a used 5' grey market tiller that was in perfect condition for $500 and he paid for it the first spring by putting up flyers and a newspaper ad to till gardens. He established a minimum fee of $50.00 and said he ended up turning down work. There are a lot of people that would love to have a garden but no way to put one in...if you wanted to go that route it is easy to justify the expense by considering it a business investment.

 

[bigdad]

john_bud

That is great! That explains why you are an Elite Member.
------------------------------
For what you are looking at, search the for sale's in the paper and yard sales and buy a $50 24" wide walk behind tiller. Have your wife run it. When 1/4 of the garden is tilled, take her to the farm store and bring home a tiller.

jb[/QUOTE]