Baucom
Gold Member
When I was searching for info on mid-range rear tine tillers a month or so ago, there wasn't much to be found about mid-range tillers other than some Troy Bilts, so I thought I'd post my experience with my new Husqvarna 700DRT. Hopefully this will prove useful to someone at some point.
I'll begin with a little background about my tiller search. I planted my first garden this spring, about 500 sq. ft., and used an old mid-tine Merry Tiller to break ground. On my hard ground it nearly beat me to death and took about 3 hrs to break an area 20'x25'. I wanted to expand to about 1000 sq. ft. this year and 1500 sq. ft. next yr. and wasn't looking forward to wrestling my old tiller for hrs. just to break new ground, so I decided a good rear tine tiller would make life easier. I set a budget of around $800 give or take about $100--I didn't feel justified spending a couple thousand on a top of the line tiller like BCS, Grillo, or Honda, when I felt that a good mid range tiller with proper maintenance would last many years.
My short list included a Cub Cadet RT65, Troy Bilt Pro Line CRT, Troy Bilt Super Bronco, Husqvarna 700DRT, and a Craftsman dual directional rear tine model. The Cub Cadet was impossible to find around here--there are 2 local dealers, 1 I had a bad experience with and the other was having issues ordering tillers from MTD, so the CC RT65 was out. The Pro Line CRT and Super Bronco were very little different from one another with the exception of a Honda GC engine, bumper, and 1" larger tires on the Pro Line Model for $50. Again, my good local dealer was having issues ordering from MTD and had no Pro Line models in stock, but did have a Super Bronco. The Husqvarna appeared to be a nice, well built tiller, but knowing it was a near twin to the Craftsman, which had more than just a few transmission issues mentioned in Sears' reviews concerned me a little. I also checked out the Craftsman at Sears, and it appeared nice enough, but I was concerned it was built to a lower standard than the Husqvarna, and there wasn't a huge price difference between Sears and my local Husqvarna dealer.
Ultimately it came down to the Super Bronco, Husqvarna 700DRT and the Craftsman. I had a couple of issues with the Super Bronco: it weighs about 50 lbs less than the AYP twins, it had smaller tires, a no name MTD engine vs. B&S on the AYP units, and I was concerned on a lightweight tiller about compromising by having only counter rotating tines (good for ground breaking but less good for cultivating). There wound up only being $50 between the Husqvarna and Craftsman ($679 at the least from Sears and $730 from my local Husqvarna dealer). When I bought the Craftsman was up to $879, $150 more than the Husqvarna from my local dealer. At any rate, the Husqvarna was worth its premium vs. the lowest price on the Craftsman. The Husqvarna has a B&S 206cc engine with cast iron liner; the Craftsman had a slightly smaller displacement B&S without the cast iron liner. Plus, I have the support of a good local dealer in the event anything goes wrong.
As for the Husqvarna tiller itself, I have been thoroughly pleased with it. I brought it home and put it to the test breaking new ground that was dry as a bone and hard as concrete with ankle high grass growing on it. I made 3 passes with the tiller in counter rotating mode, 1 with the depth stake 2 holes from it's highest setting, 1 pass 2 holes from the deepest setting, and then a 3rd pass at the deepest setting. Each pass was made at a right angle to the previous pass and after 3 passes I had a nice fluffy seedbed about 6-7" deep. I didn't have high expectations due to the conditions, but the tiller performed flawlessly (though I choked on the dust). The tiller starts on the first or second pull, shifts gears smoothly, though occassionally you must "double clutch" it, has adequate traction even in loose soil, and can be guided with 1 hand so long as you don't try to set the depth stake too deep when breaking new ground. Forward rotating mode does a great job with the drag stake at its lowest setting when cultivating existing crops, as well as for mixing in compost or lime.
At this point, the only minor drawbacks to this tiller are that I wish it had 16" tires like the Cub Cadet, and the tines don't rotate fast enough for "power composting". However, I can say that I've never had to push the tiller through loose soil, it has always been able to pull itself (you just can't have too much traction), and I doubt any tiller with a single speed gearbox will spin the tines fast enough for power composting (and I wonder how well even a BCS will do it since it is mentioned in their literature).
In all, I would give the Husqvarna 700DRT an 8 out of 10, and for the price paid, I would say it's a 9. I would definately buy this model again.
Disclaimer: I have had this tiller for a couple of wks now and put about 6 hrs on it so far. I'll provide future updates as the hrs build to see how it holds up.
I'll begin with a little background about my tiller search. I planted my first garden this spring, about 500 sq. ft., and used an old mid-tine Merry Tiller to break ground. On my hard ground it nearly beat me to death and took about 3 hrs to break an area 20'x25'. I wanted to expand to about 1000 sq. ft. this year and 1500 sq. ft. next yr. and wasn't looking forward to wrestling my old tiller for hrs. just to break new ground, so I decided a good rear tine tiller would make life easier. I set a budget of around $800 give or take about $100--I didn't feel justified spending a couple thousand on a top of the line tiller like BCS, Grillo, or Honda, when I felt that a good mid range tiller with proper maintenance would last many years.
My short list included a Cub Cadet RT65, Troy Bilt Pro Line CRT, Troy Bilt Super Bronco, Husqvarna 700DRT, and a Craftsman dual directional rear tine model. The Cub Cadet was impossible to find around here--there are 2 local dealers, 1 I had a bad experience with and the other was having issues ordering tillers from MTD, so the CC RT65 was out. The Pro Line CRT and Super Bronco were very little different from one another with the exception of a Honda GC engine, bumper, and 1" larger tires on the Pro Line Model for $50. Again, my good local dealer was having issues ordering from MTD and had no Pro Line models in stock, but did have a Super Bronco. The Husqvarna appeared to be a nice, well built tiller, but knowing it was a near twin to the Craftsman, which had more than just a few transmission issues mentioned in Sears' reviews concerned me a little. I also checked out the Craftsman at Sears, and it appeared nice enough, but I was concerned it was built to a lower standard than the Husqvarna, and there wasn't a huge price difference between Sears and my local Husqvarna dealer.
Ultimately it came down to the Super Bronco, Husqvarna 700DRT and the Craftsman. I had a couple of issues with the Super Bronco: it weighs about 50 lbs less than the AYP twins, it had smaller tires, a no name MTD engine vs. B&S on the AYP units, and I was concerned on a lightweight tiller about compromising by having only counter rotating tines (good for ground breaking but less good for cultivating). There wound up only being $50 between the Husqvarna and Craftsman ($679 at the least from Sears and $730 from my local Husqvarna dealer). When I bought the Craftsman was up to $879, $150 more than the Husqvarna from my local dealer. At any rate, the Husqvarna was worth its premium vs. the lowest price on the Craftsman. The Husqvarna has a B&S 206cc engine with cast iron liner; the Craftsman had a slightly smaller displacement B&S without the cast iron liner. Plus, I have the support of a good local dealer in the event anything goes wrong.
As for the Husqvarna tiller itself, I have been thoroughly pleased with it. I brought it home and put it to the test breaking new ground that was dry as a bone and hard as concrete with ankle high grass growing on it. I made 3 passes with the tiller in counter rotating mode, 1 with the depth stake 2 holes from it's highest setting, 1 pass 2 holes from the deepest setting, and then a 3rd pass at the deepest setting. Each pass was made at a right angle to the previous pass and after 3 passes I had a nice fluffy seedbed about 6-7" deep. I didn't have high expectations due to the conditions, but the tiller performed flawlessly (though I choked on the dust). The tiller starts on the first or second pull, shifts gears smoothly, though occassionally you must "double clutch" it, has adequate traction even in loose soil, and can be guided with 1 hand so long as you don't try to set the depth stake too deep when breaking new ground. Forward rotating mode does a great job with the drag stake at its lowest setting when cultivating existing crops, as well as for mixing in compost or lime.
At this point, the only minor drawbacks to this tiller are that I wish it had 16" tires like the Cub Cadet, and the tines don't rotate fast enough for "power composting". However, I can say that I've never had to push the tiller through loose soil, it has always been able to pull itself (you just can't have too much traction), and I doubt any tiller with a single speed gearbox will spin the tines fast enough for power composting (and I wonder how well even a BCS will do it since it is mentioned in their literature).
In all, I would give the Husqvarna 700DRT an 8 out of 10, and for the price paid, I would say it's a 9. I would definately buy this model again.
Disclaimer: I have had this tiller for a couple of wks now and put about 6 hrs on it so far. I'll provide future updates as the hrs build to see how it holds up.
