A friend purchased a used Ariens 901028 in warranty as safeguard since the tiller was new to him. All the functions worked well as he demonstrated the tiller to me. When he got into the real gardening the transmission became a problem of easily finding the correct gear due to linkage matters. When he contacted Ariens he was informed the tiller was in warranty, but only to the original owner VS The Product. Why is that?<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Other than the linkage matters he is sold on the tiller with his 50+ yrs of gardening. The best feature to him is the tines turning in reverse to the wheels (reducing bouncing).

FWIW, I've had good luck with Husqvarna. The rear tine tillers are a "composite" machine in that you can "break" ground, not easily, but you can do it or just till. The price point you're looking at, don't expect the performance of the old troy bilt type machines. With the tines in reverse, they dig in and tend to dump the soil up against the machine. If you're going for depth, start at three inches, then five, etc. After you're through with the tines reversed, put them in forward and they do a great job of finely chopping and leveling things out.

Most of the rear tines I've seen don't have removable tines to adjust width for cultivating, so if you're going to use for cultivation, plan row widths accordingly.

Warning: These tend to have a high tine speed, if you're in forward rotation and hit a rock or hard spot, it'll really jump ahead leaving you wondering what happened.

Most have a "transport" or forward (no tine movement) to get to the garden. It's SLOW, I usually just put in neutral and push to get there.

One thing I like about them is seeding, cover crops in garden or doing a lawn. when the soil is prepared, scatter the seed, then adjust the drag stake to "transport" so the tines don't touch the ground. Then put the tines in forward, the drag stake sinks into the (tilled) soil a little allowing the tines to mix and bury the seeds at the proper depth. Slick!

Good luck,

Ev

The Husqvarna and Ariens are the same machine, Ariens supplies them to Home Depot. Sears sells them under the Craftsman brand. The factory warranty only applies to the original purchaser, this should be explained in the owner's manual.
I tried a Snapper with the reverse rotating tines. It did a great job cultivating an existing garden but I was constantly fighting it, the wheels tended to dig in rather than propelling the machine.

Thanks for all the information guys!

My long time gardening friend was impressed with the versatile Ariens and the power of the motor. His most recent tiller to compare it to was a 2002 Troy Bilt Pony vs a Horse. I feel a Pony due to the light weight handles that broke. I feel the breaks were from trying to till too deep on one pass. He replied the Ariens could handle the depth w/o a problem. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />