New tiller

[Scott_F]

Well, my new tiller arrived yesterday afternoon,/w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif now it appears that we're going to have rain for the rest of the year/w3tcompact/icons/sad.gif. I did get a chance to try it out a little yesterday after work. It seems to pull the motor down more when backing than when going forward. After a forward pass and backword pass as Charlie recommends, it left a pretty good till with no big clods or clumps of grass. It's not very deep, but my clay is pretty hard so it will probably take several passes if I want a deep seed bed. Do any of you with tillers have any technique to share? Also, I didn't see any grease zerks on it - is it sealed?

My intent when I ordered it was to get my lawn tilled and seeded this weekend but, alas, the weather is not cooperating. I considered this the last weekend to get seed out and have it germinate and establish before it gets too cold, and even now it would be risky. Since we're talking 800# of grass seed it wouldn't be a cheap risk either. Guess we'll wait for early spring to seed, then water heavily and hope we don't have another summer like this past one.

Scott

 

[duane]

Scott,

I don't have a tiller, but I remember a previous thread talking about the tiller shaking the PT around. The recommendation was to till in the float mode, which appeared to cure the problem.

It's snowing, so all the lawnmowing equip. is put away, and snowblowing equip. at the ready.

Duane

 

[MossRoad]

Congratulations on the new tiller!!! Our grass planting season ended about 5 weeks ago. The temperatures have been below normal for the last two months. We've had several hard frosts and freezes, too. Some grass seed that I planted at the little league 5 weeks ago is just doing so-so. I don't know if it will make it. But, it was only 10 pounds, not 800 /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif

I have a walk behind tiller that works really well, but only tills a 16" path. So this afternoon, I took the big bucket to the garden and turned over an area about 16X40X1 foot deep. Only took about a half an hour, as the garden soil is really loose.

 

[deadstick]

I do a forward pass then a backwards because as you have noticed the backwards digs in more. When I first got my tiller I couldn't get a good bite and it shook the PT around too much. Someone here suggested to do it in float and after doing this it works like a charm.

I have not seen any zerks on my tiller either and so have never greased it. The only maintenance I have done is to replace some bolts that hold the tines. After a while they work loose so you need to check now and then.

The only issue I have seen is the right sized rocks will get caught in the tines and the back casing. I used to carry a hammer handy and whack them out but over time I have learned to just roll the tiller back and forth on the ground to loosen the rock and they eventually fall out, all without leaving the seat....

The tiller is more useful than I thought it would be. A while back I had to dig some irrigation lines in a new section of lawn I had made. My ground is rock hard and digging these by hand would have been impossible. I don';t have a backhoe so I took the tiller and situated the PT perpendicular to the trench I wanted to dig and used it to loosen the dirt up so that I could come back through with a shovel to dig the trench. Sure made the work alot easier, now of course a backhoe would have made it even easier but you got to make do with what you got....

Anyway enjoy your new tiller and keep us informed of the things you do with it....

 

[bubenberg]

where you live you have not to worry at all. your permafrost level (ground temperature) is good until December, here in pa we better get the seeding done by mid to end of November.
a seed bed of 2 inch dept is sufficient. quite often we only scratch the surface, apply the seed, starter fert. peat mose or other type cover (straw) and we are quite successful.

natural grass plant growth progression is: in winter root systems development and spring and summer leaf growth.
if you wait until spring you average survival rate of the seed can be as little as 33%.

next week it will dry enough so you can seed Wednesday night just before Thursdays rain. dont bury the seat too much it needs the light, heat of the sun and at night the small rocks and peoples release that heat. in ten days you should see some results. if the weather turns bad. don't despair root growth will happen and next spring you will have a nice lawn.

to help deeper root growth you can around April, that is, aerate down to about 4-6 inches after a nice spring rain and your lawn will be very lush.

 

[ernemats]

Scott:
There is one grease fitting on my tiller, it is on the opposite side from the motor on the inside of the housing where the shaft is bolted to housing.