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Simplicity Rear Tine Tiller Recommendations?


leeave96

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My Dad (74 yrs old) is looking for a lighter weight tiller to use in his garden. A few years ago, he bought a Simplicity Prestige garden tractor and loves it. In as much as he is a Simplicity fan now, I though I'd search out rear tine tillers on the internet to see what's available these days. Aside from the $500ish very small Troy-Bilt tillers and the larger ones at $1000 and above, I found a Agco dealer that has a left over Simplicity model 516RT tiller. I went to have a look-see at it today and found it to be a pretty nice tiller - something between the large and very small Troybilt tillers and the price is about $850. Looking at the Simplicity web site, the model numbers have changed and so to have the tillers. Not sure the new ones are of the same design and quality of this older 516RT tiller. My question is - any of you Simplicity owners using a Simplicity rear tine tiller such as the 516RT or similar? What are your opinions of them, reliability and parts availability? BTW, the one I looked at has a 5 hp Briggs & Stratton engine on it. My guess this tiller is a few years old, though new. Thanks in advance, Bill
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If your father is handy with his tractor attachments (or if you can hook it up for him) I would suggest you get him a tiller that mounts on the tractor, The results are better than a rear tine tiller and you drive the tractor thru the garden, when your done the ground is tilled nicely and no trampled down areas where you walked the tiller thru (or should I say wrestled the tiller thru).The new tillers for the prestige can be had at a dealer, but cost wise, an older tiller attachment with the conversion kit ought to be in the $500 range.
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quote:
Originally posted by RedbarnRick
If your father is handy with his tractor attachments (or if you can hook it up for him) I would suggest you get him a tiller that mounts on the tractor, The results are better than a rear tine tiller and you drive the tractor thru the garden, when your done the ground is tilled nicely and no trampled down areas where you walked the tiller thru (or should I say wrestled the tiller thru).The new tillers for the prestige can be had at a dealer, but cost wise, an older tiller attachment with the conversion kit ought to be in the $500 range.
Things to think over.... 1) A seperate rear tine tiller may be more favorable to a 70-80 year old man rather than trying to manhandle the awkward tiller onto/off of the tractor 2) It will cost as much as a rear time tiller by the time you get a decent used 36" tiller ( $300-$400) and add the rear lift setup (around $200) to the tractor and the conversion kit (around $200) to the tiller.
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I like the idea of a tiller in the back of the tractor vs a rear tine.......:D but, I won't always be around when he needs to use the tiller and I would be the one who attaches it. He has had for almost 20 years a very large BCS tiller and it is a great tiller, but it is getting to large for him to handle and there is no dead man type safety switch. The other thing is that he has sold the property that he use to have his larger garden on and so now has a much smaller garden space which means he can satisify his garden adiction, but not work himself ragged working it. It also means more narrow rows. I give him credit though, a lot of folks his age would have thrown in the towel on the ol' garden a long time ago. He'd rather sweat in the garden and yard than doing it on a tread mill. I like this Simplicity 516RT tiller, but I can't find hardly a word on the internet as to any opinions of the them. Thanks again, Bill
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Just a suggestion, but why not keep the BCS so you could till the garden spring and fall. Then buy him a Mantis to cultivate with during the growing season. You can't get any lighter (about 25lb) and they do a great job in narrow rows and tight spaces.
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I myself would rather have a rear tiller attachment for the Prestige. Plus the Prestige has hydraulic lift which makes it even better to handle a tiller attachment. "Just my two cents"!
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You can't readily cultivate a garden with a tractor mounted tiller, unless is is a very large garden with very wide rows, and lots of turning room at the ends. I prepare my garden with the tractor-mounted one, then cultivate it with the Troybilt Pony, then till it under with the tractor in the fall, once again. If I could only have ONE tiller, it would be a rear-tine walkbehind....
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quote:
Originally posted by Kent
If I could only have ONE tiller, it would be a rear-tine walkbehind....
Kent,I would have to agree with you. I have the troybilt Bronco model that I use in my garden. I can`t use the tractor mounted tiller here because I have a fence around my garden to keep my dog out of it. I use my tractor mounted tiller at my mothers and grandparents house to do there gardens.
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I am 75 years old and I have and am very pleased with my Troy-Bilt VersaTILLER. It has a 5HP Honda engine a 16 inch tiller rotor. It is a combination unit. With the handle turned one way it is a rear rotor tiller with powered wheels. Turn the handle arround and you have a front cultivator rotor with free wheeling support wheels. It has dead man control, if you let go of the handle all motion stops, but the engine keeps running. You can stand and rest for a while and than grab the handle and go back to work. I love it.
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I have only one tiller, a rear mounted 36" tractor tiller on my AC712. I would never go back to a walk behind tiller. I don't have to stop and rest while tilling. The tractor does all the hard work and I just drive. My garden is about 40' x 40' fenced in with chain link fence. My tractor and tiller just fit through the gate. I leave about 3' all the way around to walk and to get my tractor out.. Dan aka IronPony
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Just curious -- how many people responding here cultivate with their tractor-mounted tillers? How often? What is the row spacing in your gardens to allow a tractor-mounted tiller to safely go between the rows when you're cultivating, with additional room for the growing plants and a margin of error for steering the machine? I plant my tomatoes on 36" row spacing to allow room for tomato cages. Other than that, most rows are planted on 28" - 30" spacing between rows. Some things, like radishes and carrots are planted on 24" spacing between the rows. With the 16" Troybilt, I have to go three passes per middle on the tomatoes when first planted. Once they grow a bit, and the cages are put on, it's only two passes per middle. All the other rows, regardless of spacing get two passes per row, so I can get the fresh dirt thrown up as close to the growing plants as possible, without tilling the plants out. I hate hoeing, having hoed for days at a time growing up, and try to minimize the amount of hand hoeing that I do...
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I haven't looked for, as yet, any tractor mounted accessories, save the mower deck that was on the tractor. I do intend to find a breaking plow to use perhaps by next spring. Unless anyone has a huge area for his garden, cultivating with a tractor mount tiller is almost out of the queation. Even a large walk behind such as a Troy Bilt Horse is too large to use between the rows, IMHO. I found many years ago, that if you plant rows close enough together, when the veggies start growing, their shade will keep most weeds down, and I hate hoeing them out. I lay rows off either with the Merry front tine tiller or my homebuilt, then cultivate with either until the shade takes over the weeds, or the plants are simply too large that I am afraid that I will kill the roots.
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BST (Before Simplicity tillers) I bought a Troy-Bilt Horse. 8 HP Kolher (sp) and just love the thing. Now I till in the spring with the rear mounted tiller on the Simplicity, then cultivate with the Horse. I also bought the small 2 stroke Troy-bilt for getting between the tomatoes and peppers. I leave 30 in between rows, and also use double row planting. (Plant a row, next row at 12 inches then 30 inches) Try to get as much as I can into my garden spot..
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One year, when I was raising a garden (before the toys took over the back yard), I wanted to plant more but didn't have enough space. I took the old front tine tiller and removed the outer sets of tines. Planted the whole garden with about 18 inch row spacing. Everything did well. Another time I had planted for the full width of the old front tine tiller, then it broke. I just ran the push mower between the rows (too lazy to hoe). That was a very hot, dry summer. My neighbor's garden, which is always spotless, never a weed in it, baked to a crisp. The grass between the rows of mine held the moisture in the soil. Mine continued to grow, and we had good results that year. Last few years we have gone to the square-foot type gardening. We plant tomatoes, onions, carrots, and other small crops, in my wife's flower beds, between the herbs and flowers. She weeds them when she does the flowers, and I just watch them grow and enjoy the results.
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I have used my tractor tiller to prep for my flagstone sidewalk,using the tilller and grader blade. (1/2 in. all thread with nuts keeps the tiller up and allows the blade to be used) I dug a two foot deep pond using the same method,and tilled many a garden with it. I use my old creeper to roll the tiller around and it keeps it at the right height to just swing the arm into the lift and attach a couple of pins. Sam you weren't trying to sway leeave96 away from that nice new tiller and mounting kit for a prestige/ conquest on Ebay now were you? That is one sweet deal for somebody.
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I am getting lazier every year.This year I am going to use mainly landscape fabric and cut holes for the plants.I did that on a few plants last year and it worked great. No weeds and the water gets through. I am thinking about getting a troy bulit tiller but I want the smalleset rear tine that they sell.I use the old 59 wonderboy and tiller for the first time after I plow with the farmall A,I would recomend the small troybulit and land scape fabric.
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IS a two row cultivator available for the Simplicity? That might be an invention I have to make. With 36" rows, a tractor mounted cultivator that would plow the rows adjacent to the tractor on each side would make sense. It would also need a sweep behind each tire to break the gound up after the tires compact it rolling over it. Such row spacing is almost necessary if one is to cultivate with a Cub or A Farmall tractor, why not use a Landlord, but plow two rows at a time? HMMMM My A has an Armstrong lift, as does my Landlord, so that is not a problem.
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  • 3 weeks later...
Firstly, much thanks! My Dad brought home a NEW Simplicity 516RT tiller today. Though is spanking new, it is also old! From the Briggs engine code, it appears it was made in July 1996. Very nice machine. Kind of a medium frame as compared to a Troy-Bilt. Question is - how can one tell from the Simplicity MFG or S/N the date of manufacture? The next question is - the dealer has one more left. Should I bring it home? Thanks! Bill
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One other quick question, did Simplicity make these old tillers? For some reason they remind me of an Ariens tiller. The new versions with the different handle bars and exposed tines on the sides, looks a bit like a Troy-Bilt. Who made/makes Simplicity rear tine tillers? Thanks! Bill
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Kent, I have prepared the garden with the tractor mounted tiller (and every other year with the mold board plow) and spaced the rows about 48" apart. I do the cultivating with the tiller until about mid-season or until I can't get the tractor between the rows. Then we use mulch and a little Ryan tiller. I have a 20 x 40 garden that is open to lawn on all sides.
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Hi, We have some of these tillers out, they have been good units. This year I believe the small one is 6 hp. People that have tnem really like them. They are not mfd by Simplicity, but by a company named Beefco. I believe they are equal or better than the little MTD Troy Builts. We rarely sell a tractor tiller any more. Most people like a light rear tine to cultivate with all summer and tractor tillers don't excell in this arena. Seems like when we get a tractor tiller in it is either 15 yrs old and has tilled 15 gardens and is never used the rest of the year or it has tilled a thousand gardens and is worn out and the tines are nubbs. We sell quite a few Stihl light tillers. They buy the tines from Mantis. We used to sell Mantis and Echo, same tiller, but now only sell the Stihls. Both the Echo and Mantis are also good units and these small tillers do an unbelieveable amount of work and really well. The first one I saw I laughed at, then I used one. No more laughing. Good luck, Al Eden
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I found the answer as to who makes Simplicity rear tine tillers: It's a company called Ardisam Inc. The link is: http://www.ardisam.com/ I got this info from an e-mail inquiry to Simplicity. Nice little tiller. Thanks again, Bill
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