What kind of tiller should i rent

Counter-rotating tines dig in harder, making this feature perfect for breaking new ground, or dealing with hard-packed soil or clay. Most front-tine tillers only come with forward-rotating tines, Hastings said. Rear-tine tillers can come with counter-rotating or forward-rotating tines. Wear long pants, boots and safety glasses. Keep kids and pets away from the area.

If your tiller runs on a mixture of gas and oil, follow the directions carefully. Some larger tillers run on regular gas. Remove rocks from the area before you begin tilling.

Chop large roots with an ax first; tines can get caught on roots and jerk you forward. Choose the right tiller, and you may be inspired to turn your entire lawn into a vegetable garden or an expanse of ornamental plantings.

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Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site. Ad Choices. Don't settle for anything less than responsible journalism. Need help! What kind of curtains should I Get? Around here you can rent a mantis tiller from Home Depot. I would suggest you rent something; try it and if you like it buy new or find one used.

The mantis is fun to run; small, light and surprisingly capable. Wife likes to use it too. Good Luck. Well if renting is not an option you're willing to consider, you'll need to increase your price range or buy used. Your price range covers only the small mantis type machines and front tine MTD units. The mantis would be the better bet but will take a long time to do any amount of area. Front tine units require a considerable amount of strength to use and will still wear you out. If you cruise Craigslist long enough, you'll find a good, used rear tine tiller for or less.

As with anything used, you'll need to look it over real well and determine if it's well maintained or beat to death. Even though it takes longer, I am doing my 30 X 30 garden with the Mantis because it is so much easier than with the large tiller. These are only about 9 inches wide so it does take a while.

IMO a 17" rear tine tiller would probably work the best. I say this cause you can stand to one side and the tiller will till with little guidenance once you get the gound broke up. Doing the intial breakup you only have to apply slight downward pressure and the counter rotating tines do the work and the foward gearing of the tiller pulls it fwd.

You can catch these on sale just a tad over your price range usually or maybe alittle less. Cheaper if you can find used on craiglist or in the local paper. But, you have to know what your looking at. IMO if you don't have a clue if something is good or bad, then a new one with warranty might be the best route. Those little tillers work if you got alot of time on your hands and patience. But I don't see it anymore. I also have the Mantis with Honda engine and dethatcher tine.

For soil that has not been broken, the Mantis is not going to work. I have Tried and it just don't go down. Don't get me wrong, The Mantis is about the most useful piece of equipment I have. The dethatcher works beautiful and the cultivator works great. You just need a bigger tiller to do it the first time. Either you rent or buy or hire someone to do it the first time.

Then you can use the Mantis to go over it once a year and it will work very well. Just not the first time. Bottom line, you have to find a way to till it the first time. The front tine tiller need strength to till. I don't know how strong you are. Front tine tiller is cheaper, the one in Sears like mine is perfect. Rear tine tiller don't go into tight space that well.

If you are pro, a rear tine is a must. If you are just doing it occationally, front tine is plenty. You might consider an electric Mantis because unless you know how to take care of it, electric will last longer because you don't have to worry about old gas, mix oil, clean filters and all.

I disagree. I broke new ground with mine last spring without any problems. I imagine we have differing soils. They advise watering the soil the night before. This makes a big difference. The Mantis type tillers are only really good for cultivating already loose soil vs.

Maybe you should give a thought to not tilling. One school of thought is tilling is disruptive to the soil. Our veggie gardens won't be tilled this year either. That being said, I've tilled a lot in the past. Everything from breaking sod, sculpting landscape the poor man's way by using a tiller. We still have our Mantis that is certainly a capable tiller. In my world if I had to break new ground, I'd set aside a day and get a capable rental unit.

Till, till, till between 2 people and get the hard stuff done. If you want a tiller on hand to do the rest at your leisure, the Mantis is a great way to go. Everything is focused on building the soil. Gradually it breaks down and feeds the soil.

This made beautiful gardens that we planted everything from fruit trees to strawberries in last year. The book Gaia's garden is one good resource. The year prior we had re-done the side yard into a rain garden, which was significant trenching and sculpting.

This was much easier. If the ground had never been tilled before, The Mantis do not work well. Of cause if you keep at it, eventually you can dig deep enough. But in my case, I did 5 to 6 pass and still cannot get to 8 or 9 inches deep.

The big front tine can do it a lot faster. After that, the Mantis will work just fine. The Mantis is a very nice mechine.

It does a very nice job as dethatcher. Just not for breaking new grounds. If she has a lot of time, then I guess the Mantis will eventually get the job done I hope!!! All the big tillers are not very useful for home owner. Mine just sit there, used once a year just to keep it alive. I mainly use the Mantis now. One other one is the Stihl Yard Boss.

I have no experience with this one. Even though most people tend use rototillers during the spring, they can be applicable anytime during the year depending on your goals. Rototillers can break up the soil saving time and manual effort. Some gardeners even use it at the end of their growing season to plough garden waste back into the soil to decompose and add nutrients to it.

Make sure to practice safety before you till by clearing any large rocks and chopping thick roots to avoid being jerked by the machine. Read the instructions carefully and wear long pants to avoid any cuts and bruises.

Rent the right tiller and get the job done so that you can have a fruitful season year after year. View our accessibility statement. Driven by New Media Retailer. Call us Today Email us Today taylorrentalwarren yahoo. Return to Home Page.