Rotovator Required. Advice From The Knowledgable

[Norman Verona]

Tell HM, she'll shoot you before one of her ducks. Not that they are one of her ducks anymore since they all packed their little ducky bags and left.

We'll see if it can cope when I get it back home on the 9th. Should be fun.

[s2rrr]

Norm,

I recall using a rotovator many years ago and you had to be careful not to loose the locking pins that hold the rotors onto the shafts although they were pretty basic clip pins. The edges of the rotors tend to wear depending on your soil and you can build that back up with weld and grind back to re-establish the cutters lost metal. As mentioned above for harder ground use just single rotors each side. They do buck about a bit so be careful until you've got it broken up and you are used to the machine. First year will be the worst then after that its plain cultivating. I think for £100 you hopefully will be well pleased. Try using it a while after it has rained when its softer to cut into and go as deep as you can comfortably. After a good while the worms will break up the subsoil a bit but the ickle roots can't get through concrete. Enjoy, but it is hard work the first time.

Bob

[Norman Verona]

Bob, if I wait for rain I'll never get it done. We've had a few minutes rain about every day this week but the ground is still dry. I have a stock of clip pins which I keep losing off the cutter on the tractor. I'm not bothered about that type of hard work, should do me some good!

The blades on the one I've bought look good, but that won't last. Most of the ground here has lumps of stone in it. We'll see when I start.

Thanks

[Vinny's Westie]

When you rotovate its a good idea for HM to follow behind collecting the stones, makes it better for next time, that how we did our patch and it certainly paid off, hard work to start but did get a lot easier, remember to let the machine do the work and not to rush as it then jumps about a bit!

[Norman Verona]

Ok, I'll tell her. The job you have, darling, is to follow me and pick up the lumps that come out.

[GDH]

I have a garden of clay/marl which is either glue or mud bricks in the spring. I have found putting some large tarpaulin's over the area to be rotovated mid Febuary stops the ground getting too wet or too dry making rotovating much more efective. For this sort of ground I have an old (heavy) Howard rotovator with half the tines removed ( one off each atachment flange). Make sure the two tines closest to the gear casing cut as close as they can to the gear casing this will help the rotovator dig in. I used to be a keen garden digger but I have found not digging improves this heavy soil and I get better yields. In your case I would still sheet over the area it will kill the weeds /grass and if there is any moisture lower down it will soften the surface crust. If it is really bad you may may have to crack it up a bit with a fork ( like digging without lifting any dirt ). Good luck it will be easier next time.

[Norman Verona]

The ground isn't too bad as it's next to a pond. No weeds, just grass.

We'll just have to see how it goes.

Thanks for all the advice and it makes a change for it to be consistent.

[Norman Verona]

Picked up the rotovator last Friday on the way from Dover to Sheffield.

It's everything he said and broke down into bits fitted in the boot.

I've now put it back together and spent an hour getting the throttle cable to work correctly (it was back-to-front with the throttle wide open).

I'll get it started in the morning when I've got working clothes on.

[s2rrr]

All that with one still dodgy thumb??

Let us know how it runs and handles and what your first upgrade will be.

Bob

[Norman Verona]

Yes, took an hour or so to build the thing then an hour and a half just to fit the throttle cable. HM came to see what I was doing and made a comment. I just exploded with frustration and blamed her for everything you could think of.

I apologised when I'd calmed down. Lucky she puts up with my outbursts.