EARTHQUAKE Victory Rear Tine Tiller, Powerful 209cc 4-Cycle Viper Engine, Rugged Bronze Gear Transmission, Counter-Rotating Tines, Instant Reverse, Pneumatic Wheels, Model: 39381, Red/Black

OK, so its a name brand you might not be familiar with... i wasn't, turns out they are made in Minnesota or something... basically southern Canada. Anyhow its strong like bull, small tree roots? ha! it laughs at them... sprinkler system you didn't know was installed? Diced like a tomato on JVC! A family of burrowing rodents? SHREDDED! I have admittedly pretty soft soil to begin with it being mostly alluvial sands that are amazing to garden in and why we bought this property. However i wanted to put in a solid half-acre garden and by the time you rent a tiller for a few days that might not have been taken care of, then use and return it you might as well have purchased your own. I have a lot of experience with tillers and market gardening even big-time farming. This is easily my favorite tiller that i have used and i have used some big boys like the BCS series. A pro tip: You dont need to slam the reverse lever up, you just need to let go of the go bar, then smoothly and gently raise the reverse lever until it kicks into reverse then just let go when you are backed up to where you want to be. The only thing i don't like is that there is no neutral drive gear for the tine motion. if the critter is moving... its tines are moving. you can slip the cotter pins so the wheels don't rotate with the tines and then just push it wherever you want it to go. Screw that, raise the tines up to the highest they go, tilt her forward a bit and drive the beast to where you want to till. Remember: Tilling takes everything on top and forces it to the bottom. so on pass one, it will bury the stuff on top... pass 2 will bring it back up... pass 3 bury/mix, pass 4 bring it back up ETC so remember to put your adjuncts like fertilizer or whatever you want tilled and mixed into your soil on your LAST ODD NUMBER PASS.Other uses for the tiller i have found: It makes trenching a breeze! Just till the line you want to trench out, scoop out the now super soft dirt... bam ready to lay irrigation.. or fix the irrigation you destroyed tilling!All parts of the tiller that could be damaged by the weather or leaving it outside in the rain can easily be covered with a small trash bag, open the trash bag, put it over the head, pull the strings tight around the base and tie it off. good to go! Don't let the weather ruin your tiller and i see this thing lasting at least a decade of hard use... and i use it HARD. Also, this unit REALLY likes ethanol free gas.

Why did you pick this product vs others?:The Earthquake had the best options available and was priced right. Value for money:The tiller did an amazing job. Starts on first pull every time and made a brand new garden in just a few hours. Garden is about 20 x 40 and is brand new this year.

This tiller operates smoothly, but had trouble with my rocky soil. It seems to handle smaller rocks. I had it jam up on baseball-sized and larger rocks. The reverse system normally cleared the jams perfectly. The second time I used it, about the sixth time it jammed up, it locked up the transmission. I sent an email to ask about the warranty, and they said " If this damage is caused by hitting the rocks causing damage to the transmission it would not be covered under warranty."I was disappointed, I had purchased this unit because it had a warranty, but I realized my belief was too good to be true. Since it has the reverse to handle jams, I 'assumed' it would not be damaged by hitting rocks. I have previously ruined two cheaper chain-drive tillers that each lasted more than two seasons. I was under the impression a gear drive, with a warranty, would last longer.I dismantled the tiller to look at the transmission. I did not fully dismantle, but I was able to turn the tines backward with a pipe wrench, and then spin forward several times to 'smooth' out damage on the gear. The forward belt also had to be replaced. I reassembled and used it again last night. Jammed up on rocks eight or ten times, but cleared properly with the reverse handle, and kept going. I assume I now have a weak spot on my gear. I am planning to buy a spare gear ($87 on website), to be ready for serious repair. They are currently out of stock for the oil seals, and other miscellaneous parts that I was hoping to get for spares.I use the tiller to clear the weeds between the rows of growing plants. The tiller makes a ridge of dirt on each side of the tilled area, so my plants are getting hilled up a little. I am able to till between the rows of a 70x100 garden in about an hour.

Works great my garden has been growing better than the last 5 years without one! Did a great job and had no problem going through packed soil or lots of grass

The first rock it picked up the drive belt snapped. Called customer support who notified me that I should have adjusted the belt tension when I received the tiller. Then told me it would be July before they could get me a new belt. By July I won’t need a tiller. The representative advised me to go to “Partswarehouse” to order a new be costing $65 with shipping for a 12” drive belt. My problems with this company are Why did they not have a belt for their own machine? Why should I have to adjust a belt right from the factory? It would be like buying a new car and having to adjust the brakes and do an alignment prior to driving it the first time. I will NOT buy another one of these machines. Poor customer service and my guess is that this is a defect in the machine itself and why they are back ordered on belts. Update .. put belt on tilled for about twenty minutes when the forward cable broke. They did send me a new cable at no charge and very quickly. I finished tilling and when I tried to shut it down the on off switch did not work. I have literally spent more time fixing this machine than I have tilling with it.Update: have owned the tiller over a year and have replaced three belts at $60 a pops forward cable and replaced a tire at$100 because the rim is so cheap that when I tried to replace the tube it bent using a screwdriver to pry up the tire. Cheap piece of crap and expensive to fix.

It was easy to assemble with basic tools. Started up on the first pull. I used it for 5 hours straight the first day with no issues. It was lower cost than other options with smaller engines, it had plenty of power and dug down about 10 inches in the Virginia clay soil.It has thick metal and feels very solid when in use.