Ever wonder why Lowes would drop certain Agri Fab products in favor of "Precision Fit", when the still carry some Agri Fab products? After reviewing the stuff at a couple local stores, I come to one conclusion: despite the smart sounding name, "Precision Fit" is most definitely a cheaper product. Probably Chinese, but I saw no country of origin labeling. Ed

At the risk of making an already long thread longer, wondering if anyone has used the TSC Red Devil plug aerator? I couldn't find the manufacturer and Googling it didn't give me any info about the manufacuter either.

Looks equal to the Brinley/Agrifab products.

I couldn't find it either, but sometimes if you call the store they'll tell you who manufactures the tools. Worth a try, I guess.

Jim the box says 'Precision Fit' but when opened the manual Says 'Tri-Global Enterprises Minneapolis, MN 55343 (866)938-5222'...Therefore it is my conclusion that 'Precision Fit' is a product line of 'Tri-Global'...Hope this helps...

Thanks splicer...the mystery is solved.

Splicer, since you have a Precision Fit aerator, what provision is there for obtaining replacement parts, particularly tines? Thx.

t

Just call them and request part #36 'Plugger knife' I would presume...I haven't had a need to get any replacement parts to date...

TSC replaced their Red Devil line with the Precision Pro plug aerators. They are made by Precision Products Inc of Lincoln Illinois which is part of the Gleason family of companies. The equipment is made here in the USA and appears to be equal to Brinley or Agrifab. They are not Precision Fit which is carried by Lowes.

Another option, especially if you're trying to support companies that manufacturer their products here in the states and therefore generate jobs for Americans.

simpleman - I think that is "Precise Fit" at Lowe's, but identified as Tri-Global by splicer, whoever they are. Since none of them provide any metal specs, I guess the best thing to do is go by each place and check 'em out. Putting about as much research into this ground plugger as I did my tractor.

jimtric,

my bad. guess I typed the same word too many times in a row. Nothing like a little shoe leather to check things out. I like and have purchased Brinley products before. However, looks like I'll be picking up the Prescion Products plugger tonight.

What size is that plugger at TSC? Price? This may have been mentioned, but forgot. I may have a shed storage problem.

42". $189.95 if not on sale.

Here is the website. It is a 40". You can put in your zipcode to get your local price,

Here is a link that might be useful: TSC Aerator

Hey Metal.

web site is for the Red Devil which has been replaced by the Precision Pro. The new aerator is 42".

For some reason they only have the Red Devil on their website. I haven't stopped by the store to see what they have in stock yet.

I just went throught this delemma. I ended up getting the 40" AgriFab from Ace Hardware. I went with Agri because many time people have had good experiences with thier customer suport, price was fare when compared to the others, the wheel ingage handle is in the middle so I can reach it while sitting, Handle has a hole in it if I need to add a rope and Ace did not charge me for shipping and they are 5 minutes from my house. It took me 1 1/2 hr to put together. I did not get ht 48" as I only have a 16 horse and feel that I would rather spend an extrae 15 minutes plugging and lighten up the pulling stress on the tractor. I have used it and am please with it.

I do think the AgriFab lever is more convenient but I liked the Brinley's construction so went with it. After unpacking it I (like HydroHarold) didn't appreciate the solid rubber wheels, called Brinly, and 3 days later came my pneumatic wheels at no-charge. (Nice people) Great unit!!!
Only have to climb off once whilst crossing the driveway to raise the tines,,,no big deal.
The Brinly does a great job...Highly recommended.

Wow. For a dead thread, this sucker has sure taken on a life of it's on. LOL.

I guess it all depends who you talk to then. Seems like whoever bought whichever brand is happy with it, so it looks like the 3 or 4 main brands out there are comparable in quality for home use. Just a slight preference from one to the others.

No contest for me here. Rent a decent pull behind unit (bluebird) if you can find it at a rental. The tine pattern is much denser and you can accomplish much more with fewer passes. This does assume you have the ability to pull one of these. Some lighter tractors on steep slopes might have difficulty and spin their tires. The good pull behinds are much heavier and can be made as heavy as need be to pull a decent 2" core on about a 4" grid. I've repaired more than a lil bit of summer stress by making 4-5 aerator passes and overseeding. Poke enough holes and it all goes well. It would take twice as many passes with the agri-fab, brinley, and etc units.

For me owning my own is for saving the rental dollars and being able to use it when I want, not necessarily to save time (I understand this is more important to others). The only thing I am wondering about is since I have a ridiculous amount of clay in my soil, will the cores stick to my tractor tires on the second pass. There is a fine line between having the soil too dry and getting no penetration and having it too wet and making a complete mess.

mess, schmess! Ya wanna make an omlet, ya gotta break some eggs. My lawn always looks like a $3 haircut after I aerate the crap out of it, give it a few weeks and a lil bit of rain and it'll sit up and beg.

seriously tho...a rental will make more holes with less passes (i.e.--less mess on the tires) There is, I'll admit, an art to picking the correct soil moisture for a good job with minimal mess. Given a choice I'd choose too wet over too dry anytime. But, if you go around and sample some spots before running the equipment, that should solve the problem.

I swap a plug aerator with my friend at work 2x a year for use of my dethatcher. I own a spike aerator and use it all the time. The plug is heavy duty and I believe is agrifab, it has pnumatic wheels and weighs a ton. It does leave a mess for a bit but does a great job, I have compact, clay soil and there is no problem with plugs getting stuck on the machine. I plug when moist and add weight to the plugger. The spike is not quite as heavy, is also agrifab, has solid wheels. I also add weight to it. I have owned it for 5+ years and it has held up well. I tend to spike when soil is moist and just before I apply lime, weed & feed, etc. I use gypsum in an attempt to loosen up my soil, seems to be working over the years. I'm pretty sure the plug was about 2 1/2 times more expensive.

Northern Tool has their 50" plug aerator on sale right now for $129.00 if anyone is interested!

Any idea what the JD 40 plug aerator sells for?

fcarp63,

$391.14 here in CT with 6% tax.

Cheers

JDFANATIC

Just brought the Brinly (made in USA)aerator for $179 at HD.
It requires about 2 hours to assemble with a couple of half-inch wrenches. It has solid rubber wheels, but they do not touch ground when you are aerating. The unit is made well enough to last many years, since you will only use it once a year in all liklihood.

I put a few bolders to weigh it down and then went to it after marking the locations of sprinkler heads and pop-up downspout drains. This thing will damage the aforementioned.

The 40" width actually worked out well because it takes a lot of power to pull this once you weigh it down. Then of course, you have to store it (the worst part about having one). Anyway, I scalped the lawn before aerating and overseeded with solid Midnight Kentucky Bluegrass and Lesco Starter Fertilizer.
Anyway, I was happy with the job that the Brinly did. I wish I could reach the control to raise the tines from the tractor seat, but otherwise the unit pulled up plugs as fast as one could drive.
I am glad I did not get an even bigger unit (like a 48") because it is easy to make a few extra passes in exchange for a slightly more reasonable storage size.
I only wish I was core aerating before. It seems like an ideal way to get fall fertilizer and overseeding done, especially if you can purchase one and store it.

My thinking is that it may very well be worth it for you to just stay away from the rental places or have the wife "just call a man" to do something you damn well can do just do as well or better while saving a few dollars .

I'm happy with my Agri Fab unit. I aereate the crap out of my lawn in the spring then lime it and fertilize it. In 2-3 weeks it looks great.

I cast some concrete weights for mine and embedded handles in the top. They fit the frame perfectly. Concrete blocks kept falling off.

However forget about using the handle while seated on the tractor. I though about comming up with some hydraulic or electric lift arrangement but haven't done it yet.

I despise dealing with rental yards. Buying this unit was the best thing I ever did.

I agree Dave.
About the time of year to aerate, I was told be a Lesco guy that core aerating should not be done in the Spring because it breaks the pre-emergent crabgrass shield you put down. They told me it is better to just do it in the fall when you can also overseed and fertilize with great results.

I don't use any crabgrass herbicides.

I do it in the early spring because the wet Oregon winters tend to compact the soil. The lawn also recovers from the aereation very quickly in the spring and there's still enough rain left to dissolve the plugs and wash the lime and fertilizer into the holes.

I wonder if aereating in spring and fall would be beneficial?

The problem with crabgrass in this part of the country is that once you let it germinate, you need even stronger herbicides to kill it in the summer, and most of them don't work very well at all..

Anybody familar with the Sears 42" model aerator with spring tines? It says "commercial quality" and weighs the most, but the some of the reviews aren't so good. In fact, half love it and the other half hate it. The spring tines sound neat but my dad always said K.I.S.S. Maybe the Lowes model would be better (and cheaper).
Thanks,
Joe

Here is a link that might be useful: Sears model

I bought that exact model three years ago and use it once each year in the fall on my 1 acre lot. I did my neighbor's half acre lot once also. Only problem was one broken spring. Not sure why some those reviews on Sears website are so bad - maybe they didn't assemble it correctly. I would recommend it based on my experience.

I too have the 42 inch Sears spring tine aerator which I got two years ago. I pull it with my 18.5hp DYT 4000 and use two hunderd pounds of weight. Have done my 3/4 acre yard four times and my neighbors acre yard four times. I have not had a tine bend nor have had any problem with the tine springs - the only thing I don't like about it is the way you have to lower and raise it. I know some of the bad reviews have been they have had a lot of the tines bending. Overall I would say its does a good job and have had no problems so far.

Jim

Having your own will definitely save you money within two years. I have the HD brinly which has proven great over the three years with small granite blocks as weights

I have the Lowes 48" Precise Fit aerator. I use 4 20 lb cynder blocks and 2 40lb bags of Scotts top soil. This works OK but I need more weight and the bags of top soil fall off due to some hills and bumps.

Any thoughts what I could use? There isn't much of a lip on the tray.

Thanks

How about going to a garage sale and finding some free weights (like you would use on a barbell) for cheap. You could strap them on so they wouldn't fall off or shift around. It's a good way to get a lot of weight in a compact space. I have a cabinet that my wood lathe sits in, and I use those weights in the base of it to keep it from walking around the shop when I have an unbalanced piece turning on the lathe.

Maybe use solid cement blocks rather than the usual hollow core.

Also, you may need to pay more attention to soil conditions.

Good Luck

GreenerGrass, I have the same spreader. It has a 150 lb weight limit. You're already at 160 lbs, so adding more weight isn't the answer.

I suggest that you aerate a day or two after a heavy rain. You'll get plenty of penetration when your soil is soft.

BTW, it's better to start a new topic than to hijack an old one.

-Deerslayer

OOPs...I meant that I have the same aerator not spreader.

-Deerslayer

I did aerate after some rain when the ground was softer and it did help. I realize 150 is the maximum weight, another 20-40 lbs and I think I would have been happy. There just seemed to be a few areas that didn't really pull up any plugs. I think next time in the fall, I'll have to criss cross the pattern, up and down then side to side.

I think what will work is putting the blocks on their side so I can fit more on which should give me that extra 40 lbs or so. Hopefully I won't have any issues going beyond the 150 lbs limit.

Making multiple passes is usually necessary. The number of passes needed depends on your equipment. I usually make four passes. North to South, East to West, NE to SW, NW to SE.

If your ground is too dry, you may not pull plugs even though you have good penetration. The would-be plugs crumble before they are withdrawn. If your soil is too wet, plugs will stick in your tines.

-Deerslayer

This spring, I must have done it too early (ie. wet) because I pulled very few cores. The tines would penetrate deeply but not pull anything up, basically just knifing the ground.

I was a bit early this spring also. I pulled very few cores in about 1/3 of my lawn. The soil was too wet. I'll make up for it in the fall.

Here's another tip. If the cores stick to your tires, your soil is too wet for core aeration. Ideally, the cores should stay on the ground and break into several pieces when you run over them.

-Deerslayer

well renting a core aerator is much more expensive now, a little over $100/4 hours but what we do is that I share the cost with my neighbor two hours for him and two hours for me the cost is shared so easy on the pocket, as we rent one of those mechanical aerators from the home depot construction equipment rental company.

I agree renting a tow behind aerator is damn expensive. Buying might be cheaper at the end of the day. Agri-Fab is my personal favorite. Here is a link that might be useful. Tow behind aerators

Much cheaper to rent in my mind !

I bought a tow behind from HD years back...likely was 'used' one and I doubt I paid a $100. It takes a up a bit of room in the corner of the shed but I throw some weights on, use it once or twice a year....works fine...great investment. In fact I just bought a dethatcher on amazon for $60.

Today's price for a quality unit is $500..00 also annual storage and repairs , painting & lubricating etc . I think $ 80 - $100 a yr is cheap for renting a new unit as req,d once a yr .

I am not sure how big your property is. I have not painted mine or lubed it other than hitting the axles with some WD-40...all I do is give it a good cleaning after I use it make sure there's no dirt in any of the plugs... and yes on occasion I have a can of black spray paint that I hit a little bit here and there ...like I said if you don't use it more than once a year ...for the most part the thing is sitting there 364 days a year... I would think a cheaper one should last forever and so far mine has... Now if you're doing an acre or two acres ... or doing multiple properties...well you may need something better... If you're going to rent one once a year $100 why not find out what Scott's or similar charges to come and do it once a year for you.... Again not sure how big your property is

I have 1.5 acre of grass , rent the unit for the weekend $80.00 . I only use it an hour or so then use it the next day on my brothers property , we split the cost .I pick up the unit and he returns it , rather cost effective ! lol.