Found an atv tiller on craigslist fairly cheap ($300), and learned an interesting lesson last weekend.

It actually works pretty good on flat ground. Biggest problem is getting the atv to go slow enough. Even in low gear, it's not really slow enough - more like edge on the gas to move a bit, wait, scoot forward a bit more, wait. Sure is easier to move around than a typical tiller, which is what I wanted, I'm tilling about half a mile from my house, which would be quite a hike with a garden tiller.

But... I went to till up a hillside (planting ginseng, which grows best on hillsides), and that's when the fun began. Started hitting rocks buried under the soil, and the tiller was jumping around pretty good. About the time I'm thinking that I need to shut it down, the tiller shook so bad it rattled the hitch pin out and disconnected itself from the quad. Off it went, across the hillside. Boy, did I feel dumb.

Part of me was thinking - I need to shut it down before it rolls over and sets itself on fire, while the other part of me was thinking - I'm not going anywhere near that thing while those tines are spinning around like that. If it takes a funny bounce and lands on me, it'll make a real mess.

Fortunately, after running about 50 feet across a hillside, it buried its hitch in the ground and stopped and dug itself in. I could reach over with a long stick and cut it off.

So, couple of lessons: put the lock clip on the pin next time so it doesn't get shaken out, and run a rope from the blade disconnect to the quad, so I can cut off the blades without getting out of the seat. Let me tell you, those tillers can move along at a pretty fair clip if they're not hitched to anything.

 

Sounds like lesson learned and wishing you had a video.