ponytug
Super Member
Dear Folks,
As you may remember, I visited Tazewell about a year ago and tried out the tiller on their wet bottomland grass and wasn't super impressed with its performance at the time. However being in California, since freight was going to be a big part of any order for me, I ordered one anyway at the advice of a PT owner who uses it to maintain horse arenas. I grew up with an old Troybuilt, which was a great machine.
I hadn't had any call to use it until this last weekend, when I got a couple of hours in on a variety of surfaces. I have the 72" tiller, so it lays down a swath.
In short, I had fun, and I think that the tiller does an amazing job. If others have suggestions on how to use it better, I would love to hear about them.
Our horses like to dig through an old burn pile out in one of the pastures and I thought I would start on the soft soil there to get the hang of it. Plus, I hoped that I might find the junk that I'd rather that the horses didn't play with.
After some experimenting, I found a method that seemed to work well for me. Eddie at PT had suggested one pass going forward, followed by one pass in reverse, but I settled on a slightly different method.
My Method:
If you curl the tiller back toward you until it is basically vertical, you can then rest a round bar at the bottom of the tiller on the ground. Then engaging the PTO at idle, and ramping it up to speed, you can tilt the tiller forward to cut down to whatever depth you would like. Having the bar on the untilled earth helps keep the vibration and lurching to a minimum, as the force is all contained in the tiller since the tines are pulling upward toward the bar. It also means that the tines are travelling vertically upward along the earth face that is being tilled, which loosens the earth for the next cut, and keeps the forcing the body of the tiller into the ground, rather than out of the ground.
Once the tiller has carved down to the desired depth, you backup up slowly, leaving behind a nicely tilled bed.
Downside: rocks and roots are flung back over the bed.
Upside: the rocks and roots are on the surface and easy to pick up or rake out of the way.
You can tilt the tiller all the way forward and rest the opposite edge on the ground as you back up, but that deposits the rocks on the Power Trac as you back up. Not my first choice, but useful on occasion to move soil toward the PT.
Results:
I found a single pass was sufficient for the burn pile and for our garden areas. My prize: lots of nails, screws, and barbed wire from the burn pile. It took literally two minutes to do our vegetable garden, where the soil was light and organic.
Then, I tilled some pasture areas(15x200') where we have had problem with poison hemlock growing and the tiller bit right into the untilled soil and mulched the weeds and small brush right up. I was very impressed with its ability to shred entire bushes. (2-3' high coyote brush) To keep the soil in place, I found it easier to till perpendicular to the contours on the steep slopes, since the loose soil doesn't end up on the downhill side. On the other hand, I put in some mini-terraces for fruit trees in minutes by tilling on along the contour, which deposited the soil preferentially on the downhill side, leveling the soil in nearly a single pass. Now I have to get out and build a lower retaining wall and plant. It was quick!
I tilled a 6x20' patch of the hard packed clay arena to give the horses a soft spot to roll in. The arena is rock hard clay, and the initial cutting into the arena definitely sent clods flying, but once the tiller was at depth, I could backup up slowly through the rock hard material. The first pass left some chunks about an inch in diameter, so I did do a second pass to reduce all of it to less than 1/4" in diameter.
For fun, I thought I would try tilling the manure and straw pile that we have. The tiller dug right in. I was able to lift the tiller up, and carve down through the layers of straw and manure, depositing light, fluffy, and definitely aerated material below. If I had thought of it six months ago, we would be way ahead on our composting, but it works like a charm. Just try to stay upwind.
Clogging/Jamming:
Others have commented on rocks, roots, etc. clogging the tiller. I was concerned that the straw would clog it when I tilled the manure pile, but it shredded up nicely. I did jam the tiller a couple of times on chunks of concrete left in the burn pile. (On an old farm, you find odd things, but who tosses concrete on a burn pile?)
I found it very easy to unjam the tiller:
If you force the tiller into the soil too fast, it stalls, but it is pretty easy to work out how fast is too fast. I did not hear the pressure relief valve open, but then again, I was wearing ear protection on.
Total time taken about 1.5 hours.
Maintenance:
There are two grease points, one of which rotates and I missed it the first time, so make sure you find the rotating one next to the hydraulic motor and grease it.
All in all, I was very impressed at how easily the tiller cut into soil, how unaffected it was by roots, or brush and most rocks. Plus, six feet wide is just plain a wide strip to till.
If I were going to till a large area, I think the tilling would go much faster if it were plowed first, or at least run through with a ripper, but the tiller did cut right into unfractured soil.
As you may remember, I visited Tazewell about a year ago and tried out the tiller on their wet bottomland grass and wasn't super impressed with its performance at the time. However being in California, since freight was going to be a big part of any order for me, I ordered one anyway at the advice of a PT owner who uses it to maintain horse arenas. I grew up with an old Troybuilt, which was a great machine.
I hadn't had any call to use it until this last weekend, when I got a couple of hours in on a variety of surfaces. I have the 72" tiller, so it lays down a swath.
In short, I had fun, and I think that the tiller does an amazing job. If others have suggestions on how to use it better, I would love to hear about them.
Our horses like to dig through an old burn pile out in one of the pastures and I thought I would start on the soft soil there to get the hang of it. Plus, I hoped that I might find the junk that I'd rather that the horses didn't play with.
After some experimenting, I found a method that seemed to work well for me. Eddie at PT had suggested one pass going forward, followed by one pass in reverse, but I settled on a slightly different method.
My Method:
If you curl the tiller back toward you until it is basically vertical, you can then rest a round bar at the bottom of the tiller on the ground. Then engaging the PTO at idle, and ramping it up to speed, you can tilt the tiller forward to cut down to whatever depth you would like. Having the bar on the untilled earth helps keep the vibration and lurching to a minimum, as the force is all contained in the tiller since the tines are pulling upward toward the bar. It also means that the tines are travelling vertically upward along the earth face that is being tilled, which loosens the earth for the next cut, and keeps the forcing the body of the tiller into the ground, rather than out of the ground.
Once the tiller has carved down to the desired depth, you backup up slowly, leaving behind a nicely tilled bed.
Downside: rocks and roots are flung back over the bed.
Upside: the rocks and roots are on the surface and easy to pick up or rake out of the way.
You can tilt the tiller all the way forward and rest the opposite edge on the ground as you back up, but that deposits the rocks on the Power Trac as you back up. Not my first choice, but useful on occasion to move soil toward the PT.
Results:
I found a single pass was sufficient for the burn pile and for our garden areas. My prize: lots of nails, screws, and barbed wire from the burn pile. It took literally two minutes to do our vegetable garden, where the soil was light and organic.
Then, I tilled some pasture areas(15x200') where we have had problem with poison hemlock growing and the tiller bit right into the untilled soil and mulched the weeds and small brush right up. I was very impressed with its ability to shred entire bushes. (2-3' high coyote brush) To keep the soil in place, I found it easier to till perpendicular to the contours on the steep slopes, since the loose soil doesn't end up on the downhill side. On the other hand, I put in some mini-terraces for fruit trees in minutes by tilling on along the contour, which deposited the soil preferentially on the downhill side, leveling the soil in nearly a single pass. Now I have to get out and build a lower retaining wall and plant. It was quick!
I tilled a 6x20' patch of the hard packed clay arena to give the horses a soft spot to roll in. The arena is rock hard clay, and the initial cutting into the arena definitely sent clods flying, but once the tiller was at depth, I could backup up slowly through the rock hard material. The first pass left some chunks about an inch in diameter, so I did do a second pass to reduce all of it to less than 1/4" in diameter.
For fun, I thought I would try tilling the manure and straw pile that we have. The tiller dug right in. I was able to lift the tiller up, and carve down through the layers of straw and manure, depositing light, fluffy, and definitely aerated material below. If I had thought of it six months ago, we would be way ahead on our composting, but it works like a charm. Just try to stay upwind.
Clogging/Jamming:
Others have commented on rocks, roots, etc. clogging the tiller. I was concerned that the straw would clog it when I tilled the manure pile, but it shredded up nicely. I did jam the tiller a couple of times on chunks of concrete left in the burn pile. (On an old farm, you find odd things, but who tosses concrete on a burn pile?)
I found it very easy to unjam the tiller:
- Cut the power to the PTO.
- Rest the tiller on solid ground, and gently roll it an inch or two backward, and
- The debris falls right out.
If you force the tiller into the soil too fast, it stalls, but it is pretty easy to work out how fast is too fast. I did not hear the pressure relief valve open, but then again, I was wearing ear protection on.
Total time taken about 1.5 hours.
Maintenance:
There are two grease points, one of which rotates and I missed it the first time, so make sure you find the rotating one next to the hydraulic motor and grease it.
All in all, I was very impressed at how easily the tiller cut into soil, how unaffected it was by roots, or brush and most rocks. Plus, six feet wide is just plain a wide strip to till.
If I were going to till a large area, I think the tilling would go much faster if it were plowed first, or at least run through with a ripper, but the tiller did cut right into unfractured soil.
