We had a 30 year old Honda tiller that finally met it's demise, unfortunately. Bought a Champion 212cc front tine tiller. First pass was a little tough to keep the machine moving forward. Took another pass after a few weeks yesterday, and it's digging straight into the ground. It's really struggling with the softer dirt. Adding a video here for reference.
Haven't found a manual to confirm the tire configuration. Not sure if others have this machine and can provide thoughts on config or maybe we can mod the tires, they seem too small. Any idea how to work with this tiller so it's not so heavy and sinking in all the time? Haven't had this issue before.
Maybe the wrong sub, happy to hear suggestions for other places to post.
by Mahdreams
13 Comments
RIP soil biology
Instead of one pass at 8” deep. Try the first at 4” and the second at 8”. Lessen the width of your bite of new soil to about 80% of the width of your blades.
Out of curiosity… Why do you till every year? Is your soil that bad? I live in KY with heavy clay soil and besides laying cardboard to kill the grass and layering compost and dirt on top, I have not touched our soil in years. It really is bad for the microbiome, and therefore the plants that follow, to constantly disrupt the soil.
EDIT: But for some plants and plots it may be necessary – I am genuinely asking 🙂 not trying to be annoying lol.
Haven’t tilled my clay soil in almost 10 years and find top dressing, broak forking and having distinct walking paths to avoid compaction gives me far better soil to grow in. Less weeding too. I’m not sure if tilling is as bad some make it out to be but I will not go back to tilling.
I could definitely be wrong, but that that model looks a lot like mine and you’re supposed to take the wheels off. See that little cotter pin? Pop that off and the wheels slide right out once you get the unit where you’re going to start tilling. Again, maybe yours in different, but leaving those wheels on seems like it would cause exactly the issue you’re describing.
I haven’t used that tiller, but several of the tillers I’ve used do much better being pulled than pushed.
It looks… tilled
Can someone explain to me why youd till twice weeks apart?
I think there should be a way to put the wheels in an upright position so they don’t drag?
I always pull my tiller backwards rather than push forwards, but it’s a smaller lightweight model. Try doing it in reverse if you haven’t.
Was your Honda a rear tine tiller? I have one that’s probably closer to 50 and it is rear tine.
Take off that bar in the back
Adjust the wheels up to the tilling position, looks like they are down in the transport position. Adjust the depth bar to desired depth. Google the manual for this tiller and download it.