12" wide tilling with a BCS

[Bentleg]

I try to make the paths between 30" wide beds 12" wide and tend them with a stirrup hoe. I'd love to motorize the process. A lot of our garden rows are bordered by a board on the lower side to deal with the slanted nature of our land. I'd need an enclosed tiller to till beside these boards and a welder friend can narrow the shroud for me. I have an older model 710 and Earth Tools sells narrow steel wheel set that should create a 12" track. Thing is I'm shopping pretty hard for a tiller with 2 working speeds to replace my 710. Will the older 716 or 720 narrow down that far?
Thanks!

 

[farmerboybill]

Hey Bentleg,

Yes, you can narrow them down to 12 inches, BUT you need nursery wheels and a 12 inch shroud. Without the shroud and wheels, you're stuck with 18 inches

 

[jbooth]

Don't do much gardening anymore, but I used to place the tines on tractor mounted tiller in such a manner that I could straddle a row until the plants got to big for that operation. The same process would work for narrowing a a tiller also. Just place the tines that curve outward on the opposite sides which will make them turn inward. This should narrow the width about 6 or 8". This also makes the tines have less tendency to "grab" the cultivated plants. Don't know if I have explained this to where it is understandable, but the tines will look like this ( ) vs this ) ( . In my operation, I just worked with the center tines. It gave me approximately 8" clearance for the row plants.