Small and Powerful
Written: Feb 23 '05 (Updated Mar 12 '05)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Self-propelled, rear tines make it easy on the body and hands, and Troy-Bilt reliability.
Cons: Forward rotating tines cause the tiller to run away in hard ground.
The Bottom Line: Highly recommended for the small gardener. Anyone could use it with ease. This tiller makes quick work of soil preparation.
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| fayettevillenc's Full Review: Troy-Bilt 3hp Tuffy Tiller |
I live in Fayetteville, NC and I needed a small tiller for my small garden. Lowe's had a Tuffy rear-tine tiller on sale for $299.00. This particular tiller had a 4-hp Briggs and Stratton engine. It still carried the Troy-Bilt Tuffy nametag, that is why the review is here.
The setup of the tiller was very simple and I was up and running in about 20-minutes. This self-propelled tiller performs marvelously and it is easy on the body and the hands as it doesn't jump around like a front tine tiller does. I have sandy soil here in Fayetteville and this tiller makes quick work of my garden area easily tilling the soil up to 6 inches deep and thoroughly mixing the soil. I was able to till my entire garden plot, twice over, in 30-minutes. Be forwarned, however, when this tiller hits a hard spot, a rock, or some grass when the tines are set low, it will get up and run. So, you have to be careful when tilling next to any kind of fence or building. I highly recommend the add-on protector bar that protects the engine when you accidentally bump something.
The tiller is great for sandy soil and loose ground. However, when I have used the tiller for tilling under grass, you have to make several passes, gradually setting the tines lower. If you don't you will hurt yourself by trying to hang on to the tiller as it trys to run away from you or it will run into something. If the tiller does try to run away, just let go of the handle and the tines stop turning. I would imagine that if you use this tiller on harder soils, it would take many more passes to get the soil worked under.
This is Troy-Bilt's smallest rear-tine tiller. The only wish that I have is that the tines rotated backward as they do on Troy-Bilt's larger tillers. This would enable the tiller to take deeper cuts per pass and the tiller would not try to run away from you. However, for the price, I am not going to complain. I highly recommend this tiller for the small gardener. If you have a large garden or are doing large scale tilling, you need to purchase on of Troy-Bilt's larger tillers as this tiller has a 14-inch wide tilling path.
3/13/2005 UPDATE:
I was browsing through the current Lowe's circular (3/13/2005) and found the Tuffy tiller. They are advertising that it now has couter-rotating tines. Just an update to keep interested folks informed.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
fayettevillenc
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Reviews written: 3
Trusted by: 0 members
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