Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Food, Cooking, and Game Preparation Gardeners: What tiller is good these days?

After 22 years our Husqvarna rear-tine tiller finally bit the dust. What's a good tiller these days for a fair-sized garden? My wife has to run it too, in fact she does most of the tilling, and really liked the Husky.

Can't go wrong with Troy Built any day.

I'd stick with what you know lasts 22 years. The Husqvarna is a fine built machine that has quality that not many can match.

I have a much different story from a buddy with a newer husky. Run one season and won't start after using just about every trick in the book to get it going. It's at the shop now and won't be going back home.

Fortunately, my cub cadet still starts on the first pull.

JB,

We had a pretty big garden back East (~200x200) before we moved up here to crappy soils and no sun in the woods. But we ran a Troy Built Horse model (7 hp?) for 25+ years which did a terrific job for us. And then we sold it here for more than we paid for it. Just regular maintinence stuff. My wife luved that tiller.

BUT I beieve the Troy-Built Company was sold/reorganized or something and not sure if the quality today is the same as what we bot back in the day. But it would be a name to look at for sure.

NB

I can't believe my old Montgmery Wards tiller is still going after 40 years. I just used it this past weekend.

The Troy Bilts have always done well and are easy to operate. I did myself a favor and picked up one of those samll Mantis at a farm sale a few years back.Sure saves on the back,but not a heavy duty tiller for sure.Your wife would sure appreciate it though.

I think Troy Bilts are owned by MTD now. At least that is where I ordered parts from for my riding lawn maower that is a Troy Bilt.

On the vegetable farm I grew up on we had the Troy Built tillers and they were great, wish I still had one for my our small garden today. Put in a lot of hours behind one of those Have a MTD front tine now but it isn't nearly the same as the old Troy Builts but the garden isn't nearly as big.

Troy-Bilt Horse model. It's about the only one left that is of the quality that Troy Bilt used to be. I have probably thousands of hours behind one of these (1980 model) that dad bought new, used for custom tilling, I used it for custom tilling, and dad still uses it in his garden. I'd pay more than new price for a early-mid 1980s model of a TB Horse.

depends.
You want to get your work-out at the same time?
I use a 25 year old B&S front tine.

over the years we liked a 3hp Merry tiller over the 5 hp model.

we've owned two good Honda tillers, both front end.

one 5hp Snapper tiller. it was good.

never had a rear-end tiller.

I have a Merry mid tine tiller that is now on its third Briggs 5 hp motor. Dad purchased it new in the 70's. I have replaced the seals and worn out three sets of tines over the years. It is a great tiller but may be a little much for a woman.

when my children were in elementary school i bought and repaired a lot of tillers. always tried to keep a good one for the garden.

when i was in high school, our first tiller was an otasco wizard brand made by mtd i think. always had good luck with the b&s engines and honda engines. sears had good tillers also, built by mtd.

stuff now appears to be mightly light. an 8hp rear-tined Honda would be the prize, but plenty pricey.

+500.

These things are tougher than a bag of hammers and they do a great job.

I've ran the rear tine 18" Craftsman for about 17 years. Very good for the buck IMO.

This is the newer version of it...

http://www.sears.com/craftsman-208c...P?prdNo=1&blockNo=1&blockType=G1

As has been said, modern Troy-Bilt's are made by MTD. Not necessarily bad (I really don't know), but when people say Troy-Bilt they're usually talking about the older ones.

I'm going on my 3rd season with a Poulan Pro, its identical to the current production Husqvarna's (as far as I could tell when I was comparing them side by side, and the Craftsman's from then were the same as well). Zero issues with it, but my garden doesn't give it too much of a workout, only 75'x35' or so with pretty sandy soil. My garden is in pretty good shape, till it all under in the fall, let it freeze/thaw, then till it up again in the spring before planting, and then I've ran it twice since planting. Won't run the tiller again until fall as I'm covered in straw now for moisture/weed control.

Worked on about all of them. The Troy-Bilt Horse is still decent, and probably the best of the consumer brands.
Just out of curiosity, what killed your Husquvarna? I try to talk people into fixing what they have, since the quality of new stuff seems to be in constant decline.

If shopping used, be aware that Techumseh engines is no longer in business, and parts can be difficult, if not impossible to get.

I use an about 40 year old Howard Gem....best rear tine tiller ever built, hands down!

I use a Troy Bilt, but not the full sized model. Mine is an attachment that goes on my Troy Bilt string trimmer.
5 years use now, and it seems to be bullet proof. It has tilled a LOT of garden, lawn and other areas.

Farmall,

Well, last year the steel tube that holds all the controls broke. I ordered another and replaced it, spending most of an afternoon I couldn't really afford. That should have warned me, but this year the transmission started acting wonky, and the engine began seriously burning oil. This despite regular maintenance. I had even less time to work on it myself, and taking it to somebody else for repair/rebuild made less sense than buying another tiller. It cost about $32 a year over 22 years, which is pretty damn cheap.

Thanks to everybody for their suggestions and opinions. We rented a Poulan tiller from a local shop to get the garden in, but are going tiller-shopping soon.

Been running a Troy Built "Horse" for about 20 years without any problems. Be hard to beat one of those.

Elwood

I have found it is far cheaper to rent a tiller once a year for the heavy work. I have been using a Mantis two stroke tiller for weeding and later plantings and love it. I wouldn't do a 200x200 plot with it but for my 16 by 30 its fine. I have had it for over fifteen years and it still runs well. Any of the little ones by Mantis, Stihl, or Husky seem to run well. The four strokes are pretty good too. Just a thought.