Mantis

[erussell]

Anyone use a Mantis to do your plots? I plan on picking one up this spring.

[Fantail]

Was going to be a wise guy and say No, but after I till a plot I do pray alot.

Unless I'm mistaken the mantis tiller is a two cycle front tine type. Probably a decent garden tiller but I would say it's not designed for hard rocky woods soil - heavy duty use. You'll be bouncing all over the place and probably beat the snot out of it.

[erussell]

That's what i'm trying to find out, if it will work on semi rocky soil. Don't need to go to deep for a deep woods plot really, just 4 inch's has worked well for me. They also make a 4 cyl one also with a 16 inch path. There commercial says good for compact clay but doesn't say anything about rocks.

http://mantis.com/mantis-xp-tiller.asp

[erussell]

Actually I think Im going to go with the earthquake mini tiller. Cheaper, more powerfull and better reviews for breaking new ground than the mantis. Or rent one from Agway. You can rent a full size tiller from Agway for 40 bucks for the day. Should be able to till 4 plots in a few hours.

[G-Man]

Haven't found a tiller that can handle rocks yet, friend bought one for back of his tractor 5' wide told him we had to many rocks, broke 4 teeth first pass. My recomendation try to find a model that has automatic shutdown when it binds(strikes a rock) save you a lot of repairs. Maybe try renting one to see if it will work for you. If you have an atv or tractor maybe look at a field cultivator work great and tines are on springs either pluck rock to the top or will skip overthem, and are usually a lot wider 3' or more.

[erussell]

Where I have my plots its mostly fist size rocks or flat shale. Would a tiller have a problem with that?

[Fantail]

In a nutshell, yes a tiller will have problems with that.

At least to a point you will have to be prepaired to stop on occasion, shut down - disengauge the tines and free up the rocks & larger roots it won't cut through. Last year I rented an 8hp frankintiller. It had mega balls but regardless in churning about a 1/2 acre I had to stop no less then 6 times to clear the tines / housing. And on larger rocks or flat shale it would jump out of place. Now common sence would say down the road sure you'll still have rocks but the same lot will get easier to pass. The same sence tells me you go in there with any front time tiller to start with and I can about garuntee you will damage it & frustrate yourself. Doesn't matter how fancy the name is.

[Doc]

I own a Mantis. It's a darn nice little reliable tiller when used for the proper tasks. One of the "proper tasks" is not breaking up large amounts of virgin ground. I use it for cultivating between the already tilled rows in the garden and it works great for that. It's basically a motorized "weeder". I don't know whether they are producing full sized units these days, but that little "tinker-toy" that I have would tear itself apart on heavy sodded or rocky virgin ground. I do have two 5-HP tillers (one front tine and one rear tine) and have struggled opening up a real small area of garden that had been farmed and stone-picked in previous years. That was not a fun thing and took quite a bit of time. Miraculously, these tillers have held together real well, but I have never seen a piece of equipment subjected to such abuse as when either of those suckers finds a large stone. I'm sure my little mantis would never have lasted through the ordeal.