Anyone ever tried this?

[RedbarnRick 5]

I want to till up a strip 16 inches wide around the perimeter of my barn and put in a border and some colored stone. My question is has any one ever tilled with a tractor mounted tiller with one side of the tines removed? Is there any way I will damage the tiller? I have used it to do some amazing things but always with both sides tines attatched.

[MPH 12]

Only thing I can think of is it may bounce a lot as the tines meet the dirt at varied intervals.

[thedaddycat 153]

I think that I would go with the full width 32" strip and do what you want and then reseed the grass up to your border. I don't think the unbalanced stress on the centrally located bearing spells anyting but trouble. Remember that you will have what is effectively a 16" lever(pry bar) working on that bearing.If you till wider, you can decide how wide you want the border to be and have a nice loose bed to set the edging into.

[tillerman 0]

It may work to take 1 section off on each side. How wide is your tiller?

[ZippoVarga 61]

I think as long as you take REAL light passes you may be ok. But....the bilateral symatry of the tiller in design may cause trouble with the bearings if you take too deep a cut. I agree with daddy cat if you dont have a problem with reseeding the extra 16 inches. IMO

[RedbarnRick 5]

Hi guys, thanks for the info I guess I'll have to try to back the tiller up to the barn and drop it in the full 36 in. and till out the foot and a half. I'm afraid I might catch the metal siding though.

[Guest]

I recommend using either a cultivator or mold plow first. For tearing up ground, those tools actually do better than the tiller. Then take out the rocks and use the tiller. Note, I agree with Kirk(Daddycat) with the unnecessary stress. A cultivator can be set to tear up any dimensions, so that might be the best tool.

[Chris727 1,935]

I've never had much luck with plows of cultivators, seems like I always have to fall back on the old reliable tiller when other methods fail. Maybe you could get a smaller tiller from someone to borrow. Something like a mantis.

[BigSix 0]

Good question to ask, and I'm with thedaddycat--I think it might be damaging--it's got to be more stressful than running full width.