Tilling time!!

[JeremyBX2200]

Always a good time of year. I rent a tiller from my local farm store/Kubota dealer to till up the garden. This year I added a bunch of topsoils and compost, so hoping for a good harvest.
Got mine tiller and plant d this morning. Going to head over to a friends tomorrow to get his tilled up. Also have a some areas from my well pipe install that I am going to till and seed.

I really would like a tiller of my own, but can’t justify the expense of a purchase for a once a year use. Maybe I need to find 15-20 people who need their garden tilled at $100 a pop to off set the cost.

 

[rc51stierhoff]

Maybe consider to start turning the garden over in the fall with some compost/mulch/fertilize….that would double the need to buy .

 

[mcfarmall]

Those Maschio's are supposed to be a pretty high quality brand. Can't remember what brand my tiller is...got the tiller and a MF 2-16 plow on trade for some brush hog and grapple work from a friend.

 

[William1]

I have a wheel driven Troy-Bilt 'hand' model. I use it a few times a year to till up compost and a few other places every year. Had it now over 15 years (prior to the MTD buy out).
Figure what rental costs, time spent getting and returning. It adds up.

 

[bird dogger]

Looks like that Maschio tiller sure does a nice job!! If you had one and advertised your services.....you might be surprised at how fast the cost of the tiller can be offset!!

 

[JeremyBX2200]

Looks like that Maschio tiller sure does a nice job!! If you had one and advertised your services.....you might be surprised at how fast the cost of the tiller can be offset!!

That is kinda what I was thinking. Tilling a garden in the area for $100-150 a pop could make the $$ up pretty quick.

 

[JeremyBX2200]

I have a wheel driven Troy-Bilt 'hand' model. I use it a few times a year to till up compost and a few other places every year. Had it now over 15 years (prior to the MTD buy out).
Figure what rental costs, time spent getting and returning. It adds up.

Costs me $100 to rent it. I pass the rental place ont he way to and from work, so time is minimal.

 

[JeremyBX2200]

Tiller worked great!!! Garden is planted. I was able to make a gate out of old pallets I got from my work.

I had a few area from other digging projects that had been left bare. I went ahead and tilled them as well so they would be ready to seed and cover with straw.

 

[leveraddict]

Since that rental could be used on various size tractors the driveshaft length comes to mind on a rental tiller! I ask because I dont know and I have no PTO driven equipment. Can one size cover various tractors? I have a walk behind tiller as I only have two small plots and could not justify a 3 pt tiller, but it would be way better than wrestling the walk behind. Getting too old and crippled for that!

 

[JeremyBX2200]

Since that rental could be used on various size tractors the driveshaft length comes to mind on a rental tiller! I ask because I dont know and I have no PTO driven equipment. Can one size cover various tractors? I have a walk behind tiller as I only have two small plots and could not justify a 3 pt tiller, but it would be way better than wrestling the walk behind. Getting too old and crippled for that!

Paying attention to the length of the PTO shaft is important. The shaft is basically 2 sized triangular tubes where one is slightly smaller and slides inside the other. This setup gives you quite a bit of flexibility for different machines. The rental place rented this tiller to people with BX's and B's, so the shaft worked. For larger machines they had larger tillers.

One of the biggest issues is that if the PTO shaft is too long it is possible to cause bad damage to the rear PTO. I have never personally witnessed it, but if the shaft bottoms out you can shove the rear PTO into the back of the tractor. I was told this is a VERY large expense to fix.

 

[Crash277]

Looks like that Maschio tiller sure does a nice job!! If you had one and advertised your services.....you might be surprised at how fast the cost of the tiller can be offset!!

you are 100% correct.. last weekend i was driving down the highway from tilling a garden, and got stopped by an elderly gentleman and asked me to till his garden.. so i turned around did the job, got some cash and his wife gave me a bunch of tomato plants for my garden!!

 

[Runs With Scissors]

I really would like a tiller of my own, but can’t justify the expense of a purchase for a once a year use. Maybe I need to find 15-20 people who need their garden tilled at $100 a pop to off set the cost.

That's just looking at the glass, and saying that it's half empty....

I would explain to the Finance Committee that the up front cost, is actually a "cost cutting measure", and that by buying it, you will have effectively staved off the continual increased cost of future rentals, due to inflation and uncertain market fluctuations which can be compounded by the increased instability of the supply chain.

Nice garden though!!!