If I wanted a tiller I would look for a used Troy-Built from the pre MTD days. My garden is small enough now that I just use a garden fork. My snowblower is an 8hp 1972 Airens and the quality of the steel body and gears is much better than any consumer grade models you can buy now. I believe it is the same with tillers.
Let’s see, when I cleaned my dad’s place out there was an old tiller that leaked oil like crazy. I put it out by the ROAD with a free sign. Not 10 minutes later a guy stopped to pick it up. I said it was a piece of junk but he wanted it anyway. I brought it back from dead once with an old snow blower carb so maybe it had more lives in it.
I used to own a rototiller but when the engine went south…I started renting.
I saw the one I wanted online.
Honda- 2500 bucks.
nevermind…
darn , I m sitting here with cash and I can t find a single tiller in my price range that I want.
I remember paying $600 to 700 for a new Troy Bilt Horse model circa 1975. Your budget puts you in the used category or a very cheap new front tine style.
Unless you do a 1 acre vegetable garden every year…rotor-tillers it’s just easier and cheaper to rent one. A GOOD rotor-tiller is $2000+. And the small cheap ones are dangerous because they bounce around a lot.
30 years ago Troy-Bilt was thee name in tillers. Top quality and lasted for years. In the late 80’s they merged with Bolens. Then around 2001 MTD bought them. Really cheapened the brand.
Plus MTD now has had a running feud with Briggs so they use a lot of the Chinese look alike engines instead of Briggs anymore. Of course most Briggs are also Chinese made but with different specs and parts available.
The problem with renting a rototiller is transporting it from the rental agency to the garden site. A rear tine is too large to fit in the trunk of most cars and too heavy for one person to lift. I do o.k. with my 2_stroke lightweight Earthquake tiller, but at my age, I don’t have a,very big garden.
There’s been a lot of M&A’s happening in corporate America and the lawn care equipment manufacturers have tried to stay in the race. Funny though, with all the mega conglomeration the result has been less quality and durability of all yard equipment product lines. Nothing has improved except profit margins.
well, I looked at troy bilt cub cadet , craftsman…
I even went as far as going back to sears and telling them that I wanted the craftsman…
they went to pull it and…, out of stock. not one tiller in stock. they wouldn t even sell me the floor model. ithey had to call the pres for permission or something…
I didn t order it.
my tummy was so upset from thinking about spending the money that I went home to think some more…
rear tine, forward -reverse, forward and reverse selection on the tine rotation, 208 cc engine…
sears was 799, home depot, cub cadet was 799, but I don t want a yeller tiller…
troy bilt was 699 but had smaller tires and looked cheaply built.
my tummy is upset.
I need the smellin salts…
…and I don t know who made the engines…, the just had the brand name on them…
I think the troy bilt said briggs and Stratton
I want either a briggs or Honda motor…
I feel your pain. I’ve been in the same boat with a lawn mower. I want twin cyl with a manual trans or at least a heavier duty hydrostatic and preferably red. I can get either the trans or the engine but not both. OTOH a surplus Tuff Torq K46 cheap hydro trans is $139 for a spare. Not sure how long it would take to swap it out. The K46 is about all they put in, even the Huskys and they are junk for any work.
But a little trailer with ramps makes renting a lot easier.
there is a “sears hometown store” up the road about 14 miles. I m gonna go check that out tomorrow. a friend told me about it and said the prices looked good.
I guess that it is an outlet type store
You can get a Mantis with a Honda motor. You can even get one with 16" wide tines instead of the 8" wide, but I prefer the 8" wide. With the 16" wide, you can remove the outer set of tines to make it an 8". The 16" wide tiller with a Honda motor is only $400 and trust me, you will love it. Don’t forget, I have two original Troy built from when they could only be bought mail order, and I like the Mantis the best.
I looked at a mantis a couple of years ago when I got this little electric job.
goes like heck right?
2 stroke ?
I really don t like two strokes. the only ones I ve ever ownedhave been weed eaters.
I much prefer my little B and D cordless weedeater. I just use 4-5 batteries 
I ve seen the commercial for the mantis and they seemed pretty cool
That cheap Chinese chipper/shreader that was a gift 6+ years ago fired up on the second pull of the rope a few days ago. I would never have bought a Chi-Com product like that but wanted one and can’t complain about it’s quality and for me it was the perfect bargain. It came from Harbor Freight and I wish that my B&S motors were as easy to start and trouble free.
Of course if I bought the H-F tiller it might turn out to be a real POS.
And MTD has a local factory that makes most of their lawn equipment and snow blowers. Their products always looked like cobbled up Rube Goldberg contraptions.
My Mantis has a 2 stroke Echo engine, that is all that was available when I got mine. Now you can get them with a 4 stroke Honda engine and wider tines. Those buzz saw looking tines really carve up the soil and it is easy to handle. It doesn’t jump around like other tillers.
And it fits in the trunk of a car (Car Talk reference)
Edit: I just looked at the mantis web site. They still have the 90 day free trial, but boy have they gone up in price. That 16" 4 cycle is now about $640. ouch!
Go Craftsman young man! Affordable and built well enough for me.
Mine looks kinda like this but it’s Gray & Black…
I have suggested to Ryobi that they should make a Mantis like tiller (or partner with Mantis) using their 40V brushless motor. If that motor can keep up with a gas powered chainsaw that is 33 cc, then it should have no trouble replacing the 21cc motor in the 9" wide tiller.
A Sears hometown store is just a privately franchised store carrying Sears items. They aren’t outlet or surplus stores.