The must have attachment

[ndnewbie]

I used the tiller last fall to dig up two pastures (about 4 acres) which had gone completely to weeds, after killing them with round-up. I also used the tiller to level the humps and valleys placed in the fields by the prior owner for his dirt-bike course.

After letting the field dry a little, I used the soil conditioner to break up the clumps left by the tiller, and then then seeder to seed it just before Holloween. After the 5' of snow trapped on the field by the shelter-belt melted this spring our pastures seem to be coming in well.

The tiller did a great job of digging up a very tough bunch of soil and sod, including quite a few roots from scrub trees we had pull out. It also did a great job of leveling the dirt bike course. On the first pass I backed-up most of the time, because the blades were rotating towards the TC at bottom portion of their spin, and backing up created the more effective cutting motion.

The tiller worked great for these purposes. I probably drove over the whole acreage a couple three times. The soil conditioner was definitely needed afterwards, as the tiller left clumps which were too large for planting into.

While it worked well, I have not needed the tiller since, and was happy to have rented it. I rented a flail cutter for all the clearing I did. It seemed more suitable for that than the tiller for two reasons. First, just because I was clearing did not mean I wanted to disturb the ground (leading to soft trails). Second, I could imagine stuff getting wrapped into the tiller if used for clearing, or individual tines getting bent (but then I didn't try it so I don't know).

 

[Rolando]

I notice that Bobcat on their website tends to lump the tiller, the soil conditioner and the landscape rake together. I looks like they all break up the surface in some form. Can anybody address what their strengths and weaknesses are, or what jobs they are more appropriate for?

 

[mouse]

what do i like about it? it is bloody tough.

i have a 4ft model as suitable for the 463 - it was 2nd hand and cheap enough therefore i accept the size.

the tines are bloody huge compared to most of the pto jobs, if you want a comparative chuckle go have a look at a similar sized chinese made tiller which is typically much lighter in tine plus much less aggressive.

i use it in either forward or reverse but i do not spin it towards the machine like nd suggests - the thing is desinged to spin so the bottom rotates away from the machine. the fact he gets a rough finish is probably mainly due to the fact that he is spinning the wrong way imho.

yes it breaks up rocks inc concrete, if they are too big it either spits them forward or the thing very ocassionally stops spinning (a quick dab of reverse spin drops out the offending object), yes it brings them to the surface and will spit them down the line, i tend to let them gather at the end of whatever it is i'm doing and then gather the offending rocks by hand.

i guess if you are trying to till rocks bigger than what you can pick up you might need to rethink your strategy...

it will till marginally deeper in reverse due to the design but most of the time go forwards. if you finish slowly it leaves a dimpled surface of a fashion, if you go quicker it tends to be pretty smooth. finishing in reverse is best.

operational speed? not too sure but as fast as i want to go while using it, i've not needed to slow down cause its 'overloaded' even at full cut on hard dryish clay.

in long grass it works a treat, it does clog a bit but stick it into the dirt and it'll clear. i wouldn't bother with the roundup first, its not necessary for me to be able to stick the thing into very long heavy kikuyu which is about as heavy a grass as we get here - during summer you need to mow it twice a week.

i'm glad i own a tiller, i know if i rented one i'd hanker for one till i bought one.


afaik the other two tools are finishing tools; the rake is a clean up debris sort of thing and the soil conditioner aka harley rake basically is a grooming tool which'll dig to about 2 inches. I've not used either, was talking to a local lscape rake owner who reckons its the bees knees (but he's only had it a few days) but for the moment i wish to mix in dirt with clay etc and therefore the tiller is the tool for me.

 

[brittgers]

I used a soil conditioner on a 753 for the first time this Spring and I was impressed. The task was to help a buddy put in a new lawn around his new home and it worked very well. Last fall after backfilling and leveling a few inches of black dirt were placed and it had gotten hard and compacted over the winter. The soil conditioner was the perfect machine to loosen and level the black dirt to a final grade and prepare it for seeding. The machine "win-rowed" and rocks or roots off to one side for easy pickup and really leveled nicely.