Forward vs Reverse rotation tiller?

[Jaybr]

I'm in the market for a tiller, would use to plant food plots and garden. Tractor is a Yanmar YT359c so 52 PTO HP. I'm planning on a DirtDog tiller from local Yanmar dealer, trying to decide between 6' and 7', forward or reverse rotation. Working width on the 6' is exactly the same as tractor width, which has me leaning toward the 7'. I had a 3point tiller in the past on a smaller tractor that was reverse rotation and really liked it. Question is whether or not the tractor has enough HP for a 7' reverse rotation? DirtDog recommends 45 min hp for the 7', but they don't distinguish hp differences between forward and reverse and I know reverse takes more power.

 

[bmaverick]

Ask yourself these questions, for firm soil conditions.

Do you want a nice tilled like powder soil, then pick reverse till and go slow.

Do you want to row crop acres and be a little messy with clumps, then pick forward till to go a bit faster.

As I do 1/2 to 1 acre gardens, I would still pick reverse till direction.
My soil is 70 sandy mix. I could pick either type of tiller.

Watch a few YT vids and see for yourself.

Nice machine by the way.

 

[bigtiller]

I have had both types but in the 48 to 60" sizes. With your tractor I would stay with the forward rotation. You are correct, the reverse rotation takes much more HP and because that is a concern, your speed will be much slower with the reverse.

The forward rotation does a much better job of incorporating mulch and old plant material.

 

[David in KY]

I'm in the market for a tiller too.

I thought I wanted one with reverse rotation, but after watching numerous videos, I've been convinced that with my rocky ground, a reverse tiller would beat the tiller and tractor pretty hard.

The forward rotation models tend to climb over embedded rocks and roots, whereas the reverse models make every effort to dislodge and uproot obstacles.

 

[Jaybr]

The soil I'll be tilling seems very nice rich black soil, currently growing grass and there doesn't seem to be many rocks. We just bought the place a year ago, but it was a farm at some point and from what we can tell that started in the 1800's or earlier. There is evidence of an old homeplace, but nothing left of it other than a filled well and some bricks burried in the ground, won't be tilling in that area. I won't be planting any row crops other than the small garden. Food Plots will be broadcast so I prefer a nice fine surface.

 

[David in KY]

In your case, I think you'll be happy with a reverse rotation tiller.

Regarding tiller width, I'd be looking at the wider 7' model too. You're really on the edge power wise, but you can always slow your ground speed, or reduce till depth in tough soil.

Good luck in your adventure.

 

[oosik]

I've had both - forward & reverse - 30 inch - walk behind. Once you "break" the soil - subsequent years of tilling will go quite a bit easier.

We have good, organic soil on the top foot. Clay & silt are more than a foot deep.

If you have tough soils - you will want to go slow with either forward or reverse. I went slow with either - on virgin soil. Otherwise the tiller - TroyBilt - would beat the crap out of me.

We no longer garden. The varmints won out.

If I were doing it all over again. Break the soil with a one or two bottom moldboard plow first - behind my tractor.

Then go in with a tiller - forward rotation. Either a walk behind or behind my tractor. Depending upon how big the garden is.

Look at your "garden" spot. Is there going to be enough room to turn a tractor and tiller - easily. Walk behind requires MUCH less area/room to make turns.

I think back about our garden and orchard. Garden was 100 x 250. Orchard was twice that size. Garden lasted five years until all the local varmints found their favorite foods in our garden. Sharing was not a part of their vocabulary. Orchard lasted fifteen years. Only battling coons and birds in the orchard.

Plant the right things - your food plot will become the hit of the neighborhood. Wish you the best with the garden.

 

[bigtiller]

About the only time in 25 years I was glad to have a reverse rotation tiller is when the customer wanted to till the ground in August, when the ground is VERY hard, dry and covered with dormant grass.

After tilling a garden in both directions, the results are the same with both types of tillers.

 

[CoyPatton]

I have had lots of different tillers experience over the years, including tillers my parents had as a kid. If you will be tilling ground not broken for years and years (not just 1 plot) in my opinion a reverse tiller is not worth the extra expense. Also if you have debris in the area (medium size or larger rocks, roots, or other items) reverse tillers are a pain. In my experience I have experienced 10x as many jams of crap in a reverse vs a forward tiller. Forward rotation tillers seem to pass over the debris instead of digging it out/up.
I currently have a tiller behind my compact tractor. It is forward till. If I break ground that has set for years, I do a pass set shallow, then a pass at 45-90 degrees still set shallow. On the 3rd pass, I can typically go as deep as the tiller wants to dig that my tractor will handle. I have stalled the tractor before. With these passes, the soil is usually powder. If the soil is too wet, clumps will be present. If soil was turned last year, this year typically 1 pass has it ready for planting a garden. For a broadcast food plot, 2 passes on previously untilled soil should be good—perhaps a bit deeper on second pass.

 

[McCaskey]

I changed my tiller to reverse, this model required flipping the gear box over and rotating 180 degrees to the front.
Same power needed, much finer tilling needing only one pass at crawl speed.
A big benefit being the tines will get under a rock and tree roots easily lifting them up and out rather than bounce off the rock & roots.
Every year gets easier if rocks are picked up.
I also offset the tiller to behind the right tractor wheel, leaving no compressed tire ground.

 

[CoyPatton]

I changed my tiller to reverse, this model required flipping the gear box over and rotating 180 degrees to the front.
Same power needed, much finer tilling needing only one pass at crawl speed.
Another benefit is the tines will get under a rock and easily lift it up and out rather than bounce off the rock.
I also offset the tiller to behind the right tractor wheel, leaving no tire compressed ground.

“Benefit is tines get under rock and lift it out” not a benefit if rock gets jammed! Been there did that. Once had to remove several tines to get the in my case a chuck of root out. To each there own, but reverse offers few benefits and not enough to justify the extra cost in my opinion.

 

[Phil Timmons]

I'm in the market for a tiller, would use to plant food plots and garden. Tractor is a Yanmar YT359c so 52 PTO HP. I'm planning on a DirtDog tiller from local Yanmar dealer, trying to decide between 6' and 7', forward or reverse rotation. Working width on the 6' is exactly the same as tractor width, which has me leaning toward the 7'. I had a 3point tiller in the past on a smaller tractor that was reverse rotation and really liked it. Question is whether or not the tractor has enough HP for a 7' reverse rotation? DirtDog recommends 45 min hp for the 7', but they don't distinguish hp differences between forward and reverse and I know reverse takes more power.

I have more questions than answers for you. ;P First, this is the same basic equipment but you select the rotation? Do you have to reverse the blades to counter-rotation? As you probably know a BIG issue is what is in the soil. Hard soil or obstacles in Reverse Rotation beat on you and the equipment. As you also probably know, Forward Rotation tends to self-lift or "climb" over obstacles (e.g. Big Rocks). If you are trying to get a very smooth seed bed, do you have the option of making two passes? First run a deep pass Forward -- that clears the obstacles in the upper range. Second pass run Reverse but shallow(er) that allows you to fine till the upper layer.

 

[Complete Turf Care]

My suggestion is get the forward tiller and if you need a finer finish, drive in reverse.
I build football fields and I have done this many times.
I will make the first pass with my tractor in forward and the second pass in reverse. You may need to tilt the tiller forward a bit to go in reverse with the top link. Also, when going in reverse the tiller will want to go deeper, so I just watch my depth and adjust with the 3point as needed.
And the reverse rotating tillers seem to be significantly more expensive.
We don't have any rocks in our soil, so that is not a concern.

 

[Torvy]

I've been researching tillers as well.

Most of my soil is just sandy loam. We do have some spots will some large ferrous rocks, too.

A few brands/models offer the ability to change the rotation. It isn't just a switch, iirc. You need to change the gears/belts manually to switch.

In my head, this makes more sense for me. The best of both worlds.

I'd only go for the wider tiller if you are actually going to be doing large fields all in one go. As long as you are wider than your tracks (or offset), the time you save with a wider tiller will likely be lost by slowing you down. I generally prefer to be closer to the midpoint of specs than on the fringes. It's not about if your tractor can use it. It's more about how efficiently it can do so.

In my case, the tilling will happen in multiple places all less than an acre or two each. I have a wee bit less HP, and 6' is just a bit wider than my stance.

 

[Phil Timmons]

My suggestion is get the forward tiller and if you need a finer finish, drive in reverse.
I build football fields and I have done this many times.
I will make the first pass with my tractor in forward and the second pass in reverse. You may need to tilt the tiller forward a bit to go in reverse with the top link. Also, when going in reverse the tiller will want to go deeper, so I just watch my depth and adjust with the 3point as needed.
And the reverse rotating tillers seem to be significantly more expensive.
We don't have any rocks in our soil, so that is not a concern.

"We just drive backwards" A+

So South Louisiana. I love this place. ;P

 

[Sawyer Rob]

All of mine are forward, and that's the direction I much prefer.

SR

 

[bgr]

Just to throw in another variable for you, on many forward rotation tillers you buy new, you have an option to specify tiller hubs which have 4 tines or 6 tines per side. The 6 tine option gives a bit finer grind and texture to the finished pass. The 6 tine option also gives a little less room to catch and jam large rocks into the tines, they jump over the rock instead. I have a 65 inch 6 tine LandPride HD tiller for a 35 hp PTO tractor which has worked well for me in soil with some rocks in it in MA.

As I understand reverse tine tillers, they are supposed to really stir up the tilled soil as it passes over the the top of the tines inside the tiller case allowing heavier items like small rocks to drop down to the bottom of the tiller path while the finer soil particles stay aloft longer and fall on top of the trash. This is supposed to leave a 2-3 inch layer of clean soil on top of the rocks and trash buried underneath. The people who do lawn renovations like the reverse tine tillers because they get rid of a lot of the small stones which would have to be picked up by power raking before seeding the lawn. (Where I live, that would be a big pile of rocks) Some reverse tine tillers have a set of spring fingers on the top of the case at the back side which knock the larger particles down while the fines go through the fingers and land on top.

Whatever you do with a tiller, it is good to remember that the crops you are planting, like every other plant, have specially adapted bacteria and fungus species which grow in the soil around the plant roots and supply many of the nutrients which the plant needs in exchange for carbohydrates and sugars produced by the plant. The plant can grow without its "helpers", but it does a lot better with them. If you rototill heavily every year, you break up the fungal/bacteria communities your crops are trying to establish, and they won't do as well. It is worth reading about no till farming to understand this better.

 

[lej]

I'm in the market for a tiller, would use to plant food plots and garden. Tractor is a Yanmar YT359c so 52 PTO HP. I'm planning on a DirtDog tiller from local Yanmar dealer, trying to decide between 6' and 7', forward or reverse rotation. Working width on the 6' is exactly the same as tractor width, which has me leaning toward the 7'. I had a 3point tiller in the past on a smaller tractor that was reverse rotation and really liked it. Question is whether or not the tractor has enough HP for a 7' reverse rotation? DirtDog recommends 45 min hp for the 7', but they don't distinguish hp differences between forward and reverse and I know reverse takes more power.

I have a 6’ county line tiller that can be forward or reverse. I have it forward and does a good job. Tillers take a lot of power. This is the only piece of equipment that I have to run my tractor wide open. I have a 40hp tractor.

 

[lej]

I have a 6’ county line tiller that can be forward or reverse. I use forward with good results. I will say this is the only piece of equipment that I have to run my 40 hp wide open as the tiller takes a lot of power.

 

[brewdog]

If you have rocky soil, you are better with a forward rotation. Forward rotation is much more forgiving on rocky soil (softball size rocks). If your soil is fairly rock free, the reverse rotation leaves a smoother and more pulverized finish on the first pass. I have a reverse tiller but after years of stalling it on round rocks, I’ve managed to rake 99% of them out of the garden. Should of bought the forward rotation model. Live and learn.