I feel like I rode a bucking bronco yesterday!

[MossRoad]

I had begun to move the 18 cubic yards of dirt in my front yard to my back yard with a shovel and my lawn cart hooked to my lawn tractor. That is, until the lawn cart tried to gut me when I pulled the bone headed move of unhitching it fully loaded and trying to reposition it. I got smart after that and rented a small stand-up front loader. Of course this thing was so rough that I'm more sore today than I was after a full day of shoveling. Until I learned how to run it, this thing beat the snot outta me!

So, how would you rate the machine? Was it strong enough? Did it tear up your lawn much? How much could the bucket hold compared to your garden cart?

 

[keegs]

There is a trick to front tine tillers.... the trick is to sell it and get a rear tine tiller! :dance1: Really! I mean it. :thumbsup:

Thanks Moss, I'd been tossing around the idea of a tiller for some time and looked into both designs. But being somewhat of a tight wad and since I don't do allot of tilling and shed space is at a premium, ...I wasn't convinced I should have one.

The one I have is a Yard-Machine Walmart.com: Yard-Machines 158cc Front Tine Tiller: Lawn & Garden I think it has a four horse B&S on it. Picked it up at WalMart for $100 (reg. $299) It was one of those previous year's floor models (never been used) they put out at the beginning of the season. It's a bear alright but for now anyway it beats turning it over by hand. :thumbsup:

 

[Bird]

One handed operation

Yep. Many years ago my Dad inherited his dad's old front tine tiller and Dad had a big garden. So my brothers and I bought a nice rear tine tiller for Dad because it was so much easier to use. Dad wouldn't use it; too big and too hard to get close to obstacles.:laughing: But I did have a rear tine tiller myself that I sold when I got a tiller for the tractor.

 

[jimmyj]

Those one man stand up ramrod skidsteers look really cool. I want one, just 'cuz! I bet it would be handy to clean stalls out in a barn.

As for rotary tillers, I have both front and rear tine. I like having both. The rear tine for the big jobs and the front tine for near obstacles, corners and smaller areas. Nothing beats the big self propelled rear tine for long straight runs though. I also have one of those tiny tillers (like the "mantis" you see advertised in the magazines). We don't use it much but it is handy for weeding in rows and stuff.

 

[parallel]

So, how would you rate the machine? Was it strong enough? Did it tear up your lawn much? How much could the bucket hold compared to your garden cart?

The machine was good overall. The reason it beat the snot outta me was more my lack of skill at running it than anything else. It was strong enough for what I needed it for (scooping up loose dirt and moving it elsewhere) but it was right at it's limit even at that. It would surely fail at trying to dig up the dirt. Once I learned what I was doing and could fill the bucket, it held about half of my lawn cart's capacity. It didn't tear up the yard much unless you tried to pivot the machine. If you began moving forward with both tracks it hardly tore it up at all. It was nearly impossible for some reason to move forward with one track and backward with the other. As for rutting, it didn't rut at all, then again, it has been unusually dry here, so I'm sure it would have been worse if it were wet.

 

[parallel]

Had to have been fun though, that's the main thing.:laughing::laughing:

It was fun... for the first hour, then... it was an awful lot like work.