Buying Advice Advice on tiller

[deadstick]

I put 5hrs on my new PT425 yesterday. Couldn't get off it. The small bucket with teeth was excellent for digging out rocks in delicate areas....

I tried the tiller for a couple of minutes just to see what it was all about. Not sure what the best technique is in using it. What angle should it be used at, full tilt forward? or somewhere in between. I tried going backwards and forwards and couldn't seem to get a good bite. The machine kind of bounced around a bit as well. Is this normal?

Maybe I need to wait for some rain so that the ground softens up a bit. It is fairly dry right now....

Any advice from you experts tillers out there would be appreciated...

 

[ernemats]

Congrats on your new toy I think you will have fun.
I am no expert with the tiller, have used mine about 4 hours in 2 years. Power trac told me when I went down to pick mine up that it is best to back up using it , leaves no tracks that way. They recommended using in the float position and adjusting the depth of cut by how much you curl the tiller back with the joy stick, the rear of the tiller acts like a depth guage that way. It is better to make several passes to go deep rather than trying to do it all in one pass. IF YOU HAVE HARD GROUND OR STONE YOU WILL BOUNCE SOME. I have stony ground and stone constantly get lodged between the tines and housing, it is easy to get them out just turn pto switch off , they will ususlly fall out or put tiller tines down on ground and back up a little with pto off.

 

[deadstick]

Thanks. I forgot about trying the float position. I'm curious though if I can't get a good bite with downward pressure will float do any better. I will try again tonight...

 

[deadstick]

That was the trick. When I tilled in float I got a much better result, thanks...