So, what's the problem with Troy-Bilt tillers?

[PA hayseed]

I have owned a little 5hp troy tiller for about 5 years now. The only problem I have had with it is that the tires will no longer hold air. No holes in them, they just keep unsealing at the rims. I took it to a dealer, thinking he would just refit the tires and put that glue junk on the rim, and he said just put air in them. Now I fill the tires with air at the beginning of each run, and they are flat at the end.

The tilting trick, to turn the tiller quickly, works on almost every tiller I have ever used. Until you get sloppy or don't pay attention, then you get the extra special tiller treatment. Lost a few plants and got a few bruises over the years.

I had a little troy tractor before, thing just kept going and going, no matter how much I abused it. I traded it in on a FEL for my tractor, got 600.

 

[Baucom]

Dargo, Knight, and anyone else with a Cub Cadet tiller....

How are those Cub Cadets holding up for you? Any problems? Can you recommend the Cub tiller as a good, solid performer?

I've spent the past couple of days hunting for tiller reviews and came up with next to nothing for the Cub Cadet until I stumbled onto this while searching for info on a couple of Troy Bilt models. It seems for any given tiller model (except BCS and Grillo), for every review that sings the praises of that model, there is another that proclaims it junk.

Since I know someone will ask, I WANT a new rear tine tiller mostly to expand my current 20'x25' garden to about 30'x50' and then to break ground in the spring and mix in compost and till under dead vegetation as needed. I already have an older, small, Merry Tiller, which does a great job cultivating between rows, but beats me up severely when I'm trying to break ground in the spring (even a couple days after a good rain). I just don't feel like my needs justify buying something like a BCS.

Sorry to have dredged up such an old thread, but I just trust yall's input more that some anonymous person on epinions, amazon, etc.

 

[ChuckinNH]

I have an older (20 years) Troy Built econo horse, and it has been a solid performer. The trick with any forward rotating tine tiller is to set the first pass quite shallow to avoid having the tiller launch itself forward on you. Once you have some loose soil / sod you can set it deeper for the next pass. Be prepared to make lots of passes in soil that is now covered in sod! I've used a cheap middle buster on a tractor to break things up a bit at times, and that helped a lot!

 

[Dargo]

Dargo, Knight, and anyone else with a Cub Cadet tiller....

How are those Cub Cadets holding up for you? Any problems? Can you recommend the Cub tiller as a good, solid performer?

Well, it doesn't handle anything like a high end BCS tiller, but I honestly can't complain. With my hard ground, I can't use the forward turning on the tines though. That just leaves me chasing the tiller. Running it in reverse works just fine.

I just tilled up my wife a garden this last weekend. I hadn't started the tiller in almost 6 months but it fired right up and worked just fine. I don't have a huge garden either though. I guess her garden is maybe 30' X 50' or something like that. If I were going for a serious sized garden I'd probably have to spend the money for a high end BCS with a real transaxle. At least the inexpensive Cub has reverse, which helps in turning it around.

 

[Charlesaf3]

Given that this is a tractor forum I've got to ask - why aren't people using a 3pt rototiller? Seems easier - is there something I'm missing?

I've found my old gravely with a rototiller does a great job, but it does fight with you...

 

[bontai_Joe]

Given that this is a tractor forum I've got to ask - why aren't people using a 3pt rototiller? Seems easier - is there something I'm missing?

I've found my old gravely with a rototiller does a great job, but it does fight with you...

I bought my old Troy Horse with the idea of doing other peoples' gardens and getting them to repay me for the tiller. Can't get a tractor w/ 3 point tiller into most garden plots in suburbia. The Troy-Bilt Horse model is essentially unchanged since the introduction of the PTo models in the early 1980's. Only the motors have changed, and on these machines, the engine is a replaceable wear item. I've done little 6 foot by 20 foot flower beds to as big as 150 foot by 100 foot areas with the Horse. If I'm starting in sod I go down about an inch per pass and let the machine do the work, I know of no walkbehind tiller that will let you go 8" deep first pass in sod. To establish the typical new garden in established sod seldom took me over an hour, even with as many as 8 passes, and after 8 passes, the sod is now just chopped up organic matter in the soil. Today, if I had up to a 1/2 acre garden, I'd be inclined to get a new Troy Horse model tiller. I just couldn't justify the cost of a BCS machine unless the area was bigger than 1/2 acre.

 

[KentT]

Given that this is a tractor forum I've got to ask - why aren't people using a 3pt rototiller? Seems easier - is there something I'm missing?

I've found my old gravely with a rototiller does a great job, but it does fight with you...

The read advantage of a smaller walk-behind tiller is NOT in the ground breaking or seed-bed preparation, though they'll do both with some time and effort, but when it comes time to cultivate. My 20 year old TB Pony is small enough and light enough that I can till shallowly right up next to established rows of plants -- within one to two inches -- greatly reducing the amount of weeding and manual cultivation required. If you're careful, you can go close enough to toss fresh dirt up into the row, between the plants.

I use the 46" tiller on my garden tractor to prep the garden -- after that initial tilling it is put away until fall comes and it's time to till the whole garden under. The little TB gets used weekly almost all summer long...

 

[Charlesaf3]

yeah cultivation makes complete sense - its the putting in I was wondering about.

Tractor size also matters of course, but I think I could get the b3030 with a tiller in anywhere that was big enough to have a garden, unless there was only a small gate access.

 

[Knight9]

I'm still happy with my Cub. I only use it for the areas that I can't get the Kubota/tiller into. Thus, I tend to mainly use it around trees I've planted in rows too tight for the tractor, and in my orchard. My only complaint with it probably is that it is pretty big and pretty heavy duty. That's good, unless you are doing a lot of turning around trees.

 

[Dargo]

yeah cultivation makes complete sense - its the putting in I was wondering about.

Tractor size also matters of course, but I think I could get the b3030 with a tiller in anywhere that was big enough to have a garden, unless there was only a small gate access.

Yeah, I drop my 7' tiller to it's fill 8" depth behind my 80 hp tractor and rip in her garden to start the season. I just use my little 18" Cub to clean the edges now and then to keep it weeded as the season progresses.