Tiller Buying Guide: Garden Tillers 101

Tillers are incredibly versatile earth-turning tools that help gardeners create new vegetable and flower beds, pull up pesky weeds, and work nourishing compost into soil. Easier and more efficient than a shovel or a hoe, lawn tillers are most useful in gardens over 100 square feet, and can be used to keep the rows in your garden even and clear of weeds.

Choosing the best garden tiller for your lawn care needs is really a matter of how it will be used. Ask yourself the following before going any further:  

• Is the tiller for home or commercial use?
• Will you be tilling, turning up soil, and cultivating existing flower beds or virgin soil?
• Will you be working with hard pack soil or clay?
• How large of a space will you be tilling?
• Are you interested in special attachments for edging, dethatching, snow removal or trimming?

Tillers are powerful earth-churning machines. They break up, mulch, and aerate soil with deep-cutting blades that extend deep into the ground. A typical lawn tiller is somewhat larger than a gas-powered lawn mower and requires a larger, more powerful tiller engine.

Tillers come with blades (or tines) either in the front or the back. Front-tined tillers generally have an electric motor on top of the blades and are lightweight, while rear-tined tillers have a gas motor located above the front wheels which propel the tiller through the soil. Rear-tined lawn tillers cultivate soil that front-tined machines can only bounce across. Large, rear-tined tillers are much easier to control, which translates into less sore muscles for you! 

Garden tillers come with three basic kinds of blades:

1. Bolo: basic design for deep tilling
2. Slasher: for thicker vegetation and roots in soft ground
3. Pick and chisel: for use on hard, rocky ground

Briggs & Stratton engines are renowned for their reliability, toughness, and easy-starting. Our tiller engines are no different! All garden tillers powered by Briggs & Stratton feature:

• Reliable Motor: Dual ball bearings extend engine life; cast iron sleeves withstand wear and abuse, and provide improved oil control; and an OHV design runs cooler and cleaner—delivering more power, longer engine life, and improved fuel economy.
• Easy Starting: easy, electric-start engines.
• Forward-rotating tines for self-cleaning.
• Conveniently-located Controls for comfort, ease of use, and safety.
• Adjustable Operator Handle: up, down, and side-to-side to avoid waling in tilled soil.
• Adjustable Tilling Depth: lets you choose to prep soil (deep) or weed (shallow).

Visit Your Local Tiller Dealer

Briggs & Stratton dealers can help you find the best tiller for your gardening jobs. Take an on-site test drive to determine how easily a tiller turns, how loud it runs, and how much vibration is created by the engine. For find the perfect tiller for your yard, find a dealer near you.