Stone burying Tiller

[jrpeterson05]

Does anyone have any experience with the Stone burying tilling for the BCS? I would like to use it for lawn renovations. I run into two scenarios where it could be useful. Some areas are very rocky and usually the best option I can see would be to import a bunch of topsoil to cover the rocks. Would this tiller be able to push rocks from very rocky soil down enough to avoid bring in a bunch of topsoil? The second scenario is when there is already dead or spotty grass. I usually have to till it up then rake out the clumps of grass before it can be reseeded. It looks like the stone burying tiller would be able to bury that old vegetation.

I know the stone burying tiller is quite a bit heavier than a standard tiller. How much more difficult is it to maneuver?

Thanks for your input.

 

[WesKootenay]

I had never heard of such an implement :shocked:, had to go to EarthTools to look it up - impressive!
In the video it is connected to a 749 that seems to handle it OK. Seems like a heavy beast but would work well on an established, rocky lawn - like the seeding attachment.
Keep us in the loop if you get one.

:drink:

 

[Industrial Toys]

Interesting. Never knew such a thing existed. Looked at various makes and videos. Most are not in very rocky soil and I wonder if some just don't till the ground and that mesh type roller pushes the rocks into the soil. Technically buried, I guess. Or, out of sight, out of mind.

 

[Deere Dude]

Never work on my lawn.

 

[marnebcs]

I have the 30" as heavy version on my 740.
You need counterweights, they're incredibly heavy and even with them it's a serious workout, the best is, when you can do straight passes with it.
You have a problem when the stones have "that" special shape and size, then they get jammed under the hood and you need to get under the unit somehow with a lever to counter rotate the drum to release the stone. Sometimes it happens 20 times on a site, sometimes it happens never. This can be a pure pita.
If the sod clumps are too big and tough, they are not burried completely and you still have to rake a little, if the area is small, you can just do repeating passes and get everything done.
Don't expect it to do a brilliant levelling job, it levels uneven spots but is far away from what a harley rake can do. Again, repeating passes will give better results.
Overall it's nice to have but no wonder machine, good enough not to sell it. I'm currently ruminating how to fit it on my mini skid, this would take away lot's of problems and leave the pleasure.
If you have sandy soil and debris in the correct shape it works fabulous and leaves a nice seedbed but conditions vary.

In short: it can save delivering topsoil, it will reduce or even eliminate hand raking but imho it's not a one-pass-device as advertised everywhere and it will take some muscle juice.

 

[jrpeterson05]

I have the 30" as heavy version on my 740.
You need counterweights, they're incredibly heavy and even with them it's a serious workout, the best is, when you can do straight passes with it.
You have a problem when the stones have "that" special shape and size, then they get jammed under the hood and you need to get under the unit somehow with a lever to counter rotate the drum to release the stone. Sometimes it happens 20 times on a site, sometimes it happens never. This can be a pure pita.
If the sod clumps are too big and tough, they are not burried completely and you still have to rake a little, if the area is small, you can just do repeating passes and get everything done.
Don't expect it to do a brilliant levelling job, it levels uneven spots but is far away from what a harley rake can do. Again, repeating passes will give better results.
Overall it's nice to have but no wonder machine, good enough not to sell it. I'm currently ruminating how to fit it on my mini skid, this would take away lot's of problems and leave the pleasure.
If you have sandy soil and debris in the correct shape it works fabulous and leaves a nice seedbed but conditions vary.

In short: it can save delivering topsoil, it will reduce or even eliminate hand raking but imho it's not a one-pass-device as advertised everywhere and it will take some muscle juice.

Thank you marnebcs. That is very helpful. I currently have a regular BCS tiller and then I use a turf teq power rake that is like "mini harley rake" to level out the ground after tilling. It does pretty good but it doesn't get rid of rocks or other debris like I was hoping with the stoneburying tiller. I will keep my eye open for a used stonebury tiller to try it out but I probably wont spend the money on a new one.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

Anyplace that gets frost in the winter, if the ground freezes below those rocks, you will be seeing those rocks again!!

SR

 

[radios1]

the best way to get rid of rocks is to dig down 1 ft. and sift the dirt into a wheelbarrow with screening on top, else after a freeze, they'll pop up again!. my father made me do this when i was a kid..

 

[orezok]

I have a Blecavator which is built in England. It is a single pass reverse tiller that has an adjustable comb behind the blades. The blades create a trench and the soil passes through the comb but the rocks and debris fall in the trench. A following blade then pulls the loose soil over the debris filled trench leaving a flat grade where the compactor drum them tightened everything up. Its a single pass machine from rough to finish. It is slow however as you can see in the video, but since little remains to be done after the pass it is reasonable.

It is on the trailer because I am going to do a friends yard tomorrow.

 

[marnebcs]

I have a Blecavator which is built in England. It is a single pass reverse tiller that has an adjustable comb behind the blades. The blades create a trench and the soil passes through the comb but the rocks and debris fall in the trench. A following blade then pulls the loose soil over the debris filled trench leaving a flat grade where the compactor drum them tightened everything up. Its a single pass machine from rough to finish. It is slow however as you can see in the video, but since little remains to be done after the pass it is reasonable.

It is on the trailer because I am going to do a friends yard tomorrow.

This result is exactly what I expected when buying the stoneb, but 2 wheelers are just too light to handle serious attachments. What you get after one pass is far away from the perfect seedbed in the video.