Description

This product is available for rent. A tough, walk behind, petrol-powered machine ideal for one person to break up hard soil and clay for initial lawn and garden preparation. Counter-rotating tines break up the most difficult soil, clay, or sod.

Rotary hoes are versatile tillage tools that can be used to accomplish many tasks. The rotary hoe can decrease soil crusting and enhance crop emergence. In addition, it causes little soil compaction. With severe rain, the potential for soil crusting is high on fine-textured soil after it dries. Combating soil crusts quickly is one way to prevent a poor stand.

A Rotary Row is perfect for turning hard clay soils to prepare garden beds or soils for new turf.  The rotary hoe is not to be confused with a rotary tiller though, as tillers are better suited for soft sandy soils.

Most rotary hoes use a 4 stroke petrol motor and the machine is actually configured with the motor located at the front of the machine, with the adjustable cutting tines located at the back. That being said, always make sure the flap in front of the tines is down while operating the machine as your feet essentially are near the tines during operation and you don’t want soils to kick up at you during operation.

With many rotary hoes being self-propelled, you can easily disengage the tines to help steer the machine where you need it to go without lugging it around.  The forward drive lever and tine lever are up near the handlebar which can be used independently.  There’s also a clutch lever on the handlebar that you need to press in order to be able to start driving the machine.

Prior to turning the machine over, adjust the handle to your ideal working height, and put your earmuffs, specs, and gloves on for safety.  The ignition controls are usually at the top of the handlebar, with a second ignition switch down on the motor itself.  For cold starts, make sure both the fuel switch and choke are turned on at the motor, and the throttle is set to full.  Next, simply use the pull cord to fire it up and turn off the choke once the motor is running.  Once you’re ready to drive the machine, put the drive lever in the direction you want to go and remember to press the clutch lever.  Simply let the clutch go if you need to stop at any point.