I had to replace my old 18" craftsman tiller. I looked at several brands and settled on this 16". One reason was price. The other tillers were so costly I would have just bought a three point tiller for my tractor. That would not work well in the area I garden. Otherwise it would be a no brainer to go that route.
First the packet of oil was all over the bag. It's in a cheap plastic container and was all over the manual. That made the manual impossible to read. Setup was completed without any references and basically everything can only go one place. It would be nice to know how to utilize all the functions but sears now wants to charge you for a manual. Not going to pay for something they should provided for free. Still looking for one on the net.
I have ten hours of use behind it tilling calichi. I live in southeast Arizona. If you have no experience with calichi go till through some concrete it is that hard. No that is not an exaggeration. It did the job even though it took several passes. Even my old tiller had to do that. I wish it had a little more forward pull to help it along. That is really the only shortcoming I have found. I hope it last the 15 years my old one did.
19 July update
Forget this thing lasting. I have had to replace both drive cables and the forward drive belt already. Be warned you are taking a lot of parts off to replace a belt. There is a small belly plate underneath the belt pulley that has to be removed. The cover for the belts and cable connections needs to be taken off. Then the drive pulley has to be taken off to put the new belt in place. Not difficult just takes a little time. The bolt holding the pulley in place takes a 7/8 inch socket to remove. Besides the issues with cables and belts there is the fact that it takes between 5-10 minutes to refill the gas tank. I try to pour the gas into the tank slowly but it will still come to the top of the neck and then flow into the tank itself. The break is nice I guess but in the Arizona heat i can only stay out so long and the time consumed in filling the tank takes time from the work.
I originally gave this tiller five stars because it did go through the caliche I deal with where I live. Since then I have been work a large area that had not been tilled before. Without a lot of effort ten passes still did not get me down to the depth the tiller is capable of reaching. I saw a review that said f you are experiencing pain after using this machine your using it wrong. They are more than welcome to come here and do some tilling for me. The vibrations as it tries to cut through the clay and trying to hold it in place vibrates your body. Five to eight hours of this a day has a toll on the body. I imagine that if you are using this in normal soil it would still rate five stars. I am sure the soil has a lot to do with the cables breaking. The belt was taken out by the cable slicing through it. At least that is what it appeared happened.
As it is I lowered it to two stars because nothing with the maintenance of this thing is easy except changing the oil. Which brings up another issue. The 208CC model came with 4 cycle oil for the machine. The sticker says to use 10-W30. I am using the same type of oil it came with and have not had any problems. I believe that what came with the machine was the right type. If it came with 10-W30 i would have used it. It is getting the job done it is just taking a lot longer that expected. That is the only reason i left it a two star rating. To say the least I am very disappointed with this particular product.
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