Small self propelled rotavator?

[quanglewangle]

I'm finally giving in and decided to buy a rotavator. I am old and skinny so need a wheeled self propelled one. We don't have a huge patch (8m x 100m ish) The soil is a sandy loam.
I hired a monster a couple of years back and apart from being *way* too big I was very impressed.

[edit] Would prefer a small one. Happy to take longer, make more passes.

What should I get?

[Nicos]

Not had one for a few years now, but our previous one had a very reliable Briggs and Stratton engine
To be honest the one we had I found a bit top heavy so was always trying to balance the darned thing. Made for good Popeye biceps but not something to consider fighting with for the next 30 years or so.

The more blades/tines make lighter work.
I’d seriously consider the quality of the engine as priority. These machines tend to get used once a year and then just sit about so can be reluctant to want to pull start first time.
For the cost....is it worth you hiring one each year for a few days? Our old repair centre used to hire them out and were always in perfect working order.

Just a few thoughts.....

I don’t know a thing about them really, but are there any more ecologically friendly ones around these days. I’m Thinking that if cars are going green, istherehoing to be a movement towards petrol free gardening equipment?

[burnie]

Lawn-king RTT2 Rear Tine Tiller Rotavator Cultivator (cheapmowers.com)
This one has the excellent Honda engine on it, for a few more pounds they do one with the B&S engine if you prefer, when I worked for a Horticultural company years ago, the Honda was a much better engine.

[quanglewangle]

Lawn-king RTT2 Rear Tine Tiller Rotavator Cultivator (cheapmowers.com)
This one has the excellent Honda engine on it, for a few more pounds they do one with the B&S engine if you prefer, when I worked for a Horticultural company years ago, the Honda was a much better engine.

I was looking at that one and am pleased to have it endorsed. One unforseen problem is that Mrs quanglewangle has got wind of the scheme and is, let's say, less than convinced... I need a plan.

[burnie]

Shall I tell her about the "no dig method" yet then?

[quanglewangle]

Shall I tell her about the "no dig method" yet then?

Sadly Mrs quanglewangle is quite familiar with no dig gardening.

[Plot70]

I am still strong enough to use a non self propelled machine and have recently acquired one from a flea market for £35.
It was not plug and play but only needed one tinkering session and a cracked spark plug replaced. I am glad they have got the flea market open again and I got great pleasure rummaging through all those strimmers and leaf blowers to get what I wanted.
The balckbirds had a boxing match over the rights to my plot the instant the tines touched the soil.

[Snoop Puss]

Sadly Mrs quanglewangle is quite familiar with no dig gardening.

Why 'sadly', QW?

How about divide and rule? She does half the plot no-dig, you do your half yes-dig. Either that or two separate plots.

That looks like a great machine, Burnie. If I could get something like that here, I probably would stay yes-dig. Mr Snoop loves rotavating. A bit like ironing, I suspect, which he also likes. Looks good when done, albeit only briefly.