rotavator

[nick the grief]

If you can find one, the old Terrex Spades are supposed to be good Peter. I know several people who swear by them. They are spring loaded & you just put them in like normal and the pull the handle back & it flip the sol over. I have no Idea why they stopped making them as they sound Brill. I've got some one looking out for one for me as I suffer with Back probs.

I keep thinking about getting a rotavator myself, but just can't make up my mind.

[Peter]

Nick, I cannot recommend the American style spade enough. The Wilkinson Sword one is excellent. I just wish someone did an equivalent fork.

As for rotovators, mother had one when I was about 16, so I became chief rotovator pilot as one does at that age. I still have it, a little worn, but quite servicable. That beast is a Merry Tiller, B&S 3.5 HP bounce along on the digging tines with a skid behind to control forward movement.

When my back went badly I retrieved the MT from its lair (mother being in her eighties by then) and found it useful, but it rotates slowly (relatively) and its action is like eight chaps with mattocks (two rotors on) and it twists, rocks and bucks, leaving a golfball tilth.

So I started to look for a wheel driven beast, ended up with four Howards, I've got rid of two and now have an 8.5hp and a 5.5hp Howard 350 with a furrower (like a snow plough) for potato planting and autum ridging. 8.5hp cost me about £300 via e-bay, 5.5hp cost me £50 when it was offered as non-runner for spares, blocked fuel filter the furrower was the last un-used new stock in the UK and set me back £106.

Both Howards spin real fast on the tines and pull themselves along by the front wheels, can surprise you if they hit something very solid as the tines then act as mission control and launch the beast, you have to lift the handles then bit difficult when its now three foot further forward and you have not moved.

Need to keep checking all nuts & bolts are correctly tightened, oil levels OK, shed floor is now rot proof as 2/3 leak a bit when oil full, plus feed them petrol in their largeish tanks.

So now I can coarsely chop with a deep-digging MT, then blend and dice to instant seedbed with H350 plus break any "pan" with judicious spadework.

[nick the grief]

Thanks for that Info Peter. I guess you got your Howards early on in e-bay terms as they go for more than £300 now! I was offered a rotorvator last year for £200 that was in really good condition & had a B&S 5 hp engine, but it's storage & transport are the trouble. I haven't got room in the shed at home & I wouldn't want to leave it up the allotment fo obvious reasons.

As to long handled forks, the link that was posted by one of the other grapes had some on (can't remember who it was but here's the link anyway)

http://www.get-digging.co.uk/tools.htm