In this article, I’ve reviewed the best rear tine tillers. These garden tools have power and versatility. 

• The tillers are great for an outdoor project that requires you to turn over the soil – while saving you on time and back strain.  
• Rear tine tillers are no small investment compared to front tine tillers. 

The tilling blades behind the driving engine – they’ll easily till a compact, rough farm with large roots and rocks. 

Run-Down: 7 Best Rear Tine Tiller in 2023 

1. YARDMAX YT4565 (Dual Rotating) – Yardmax Rear Tine Tiller

YARDMAX YT4565 is a great rear tiller for gardening & landscaping – besides maintaining or installing your garden.

• It’ll tear up all the damaged ground, level out sections of your garden that have ups and downs due to adverse weather or animals.

Faster tilling – It’ll give you a tilling width of 18 inches 6.5″ tilling depth (with the 13 inches long tines) – therefore you’ll plow a large field within a short time.

• Luckily, the 13-inch tines in YARDMAX YT4565 are self-sharpening – allowing faster sharpening.
• YARDMAX YT4565 is a full-sized tiller that’s 205 pounds, 65 inches long, 19 inches wide, and 39 inches tall.

Plus it has a CR 950 motor (that’s a 208 cc engine – the same used chippers, power barrow, or log splitter) with a 9.50 ft-lbs of torque.

Very easy to start – Simply, turn the flue on, close the choke (if the motor was cold), take the throttle cable and open it all the way up, and finally pull out the recoil starter to start the motor. This heavy-duty tiller is also great for repair projects in landscaping.

Different settings – Using the shift level you can shift between neutral or reverse modes, and transport only mode.

With the transport only mode, you can safely move the tiller without tines spinning. Loading the tiller up your track of moving it around your property will be easy with no tines spinning.

Dual-rotating rear tine – The tines in this garden cultivator are dual rotation rotate forward for cultivation or reverse (deeper soil tilling) depending on the gear engaged.

• YARDMAX YT4565 has self-propelled driving with offers 190 revolutions-per-minute to allow effortless control.
• Great for plowing unbroken ground – Unlike the front tine tillers, the rear tine tiller will easily chew up unbroken ground.

This unit is loved by both professionals and DIY homeowners for all soil types. Its rear and side shields are serrated and equally adjustable – which significantly improves the tiller’s safety and performance.

Ease of operation – With the exceptional hand-operated mechanism, you can simply hold the tiller – steering it with one hand as you stand on the uncultivated ground.

Further, the tiller has a front counterweight that’s fixed on the pneumatic wheels (13-inch) that equally have AG tread tires. Its drag bar is also easy to adjust – which improves the tiller’s balance. 

2. Poulan Pro PPCRT17, (208cc) – Husqvarna Rear Tine Tiller

Poulan Pro PPCRT17 is an excellent rear tine tiller for micro farmers or home gardeners as it’s powerful but not smaller. 

It’s an excellent option for anyone who struggles with pushing the heavy rear tillers.

Versatile tiller – Poulan Pro PPCRT17 tiller is a versatile piece of machine that most people will find easy to use.

• Most farmers that you can operate this tiller with just one hand and from the side of this machine.
• Counter-rotating tines – Poulan Pro PPCRT17 has counter-rotating tines that are 13 inches.

These will easily break up all types of tough and uncultivated soil. Luckily, this has both reverse and forward modes.  You can engage the tiller’s reverse mode to allow simple transport of this machine.

Adjustable handle and tilling depth– The tiller comes with an adjustable handle and hence it’ll be easy to customize to match the current tilling needs.

In addition, you can adjust the tilling depth and speed of tilling using the depth stake.

LCT Over Head Valve Engine – This rear tiller engine on the Poulan Pro PPCRT17 will run cleaner and cooler compared to other engine types n- and thus has a longer life span besides that you’ll love its pleasant operation.

Engine power – Poulan Pro PPCRT17 produces massive engine power to break new ground and compact soil while completely shredding most clay and garden roots.

3. Southland SRTT212 196cc 8 inches – Southland Rear Tine Tiller

Southland SRTT212 is a mid-range priced tiller with numerous bells and whistles needed for flower gardening, general farm tilling, general gardening work, and model gardening.

Southland SRTT212 is also loved by rentals dealers. It has durable parts that will withstand handling by many people -= all under the reliable brand name Southland.

Intuitive controls – Southland SRTT212 is easy to assemble and comes with intuitive controls that ensure easier control while tilling even for beginners.

In fact, Southland tillers are known for starting up the engine with the first pull – no drama, no wrestling.

• Wide tires and quality treads – Southland SRTT212 tops this class for having treads that are agricultural-quality in its wide tires.
• However, definitely, this versatile and powerful tiller won’t easily cultivate decorative and smaller gardens.

Gear-drive transmission – This tiller’s engine offers top fuel efficiency and optimal engine, which means that it’ll operate at lower power input in comparison to various makes.

Tilling depth – The cultivator offers a 10-inch tilling depth with the tines that are counter-rotating – this enables you to fresh soil and kill stubborn weeds.

It has a 10-inch plus 18 inches tilling depth and tilling width respectively for top cultivating efficiency.

Therefore, you’ll easily cover large ground and make sharp turns or easily maneuver difficult grounds such as raised surfaces, rocky terrain, or roots – this is the great power of these rear-tine tillers.

OHV engine (4-stroke 10.3 ft/lbs) – It has pneumatic tires that are 13 inches and equally heavy-duty – which will easily maneuver rugged and rough terrains with top stability.

It has an OHV engine (4-stroke 10.3 ft/lbs) that many DIY gardeners find this tiller an excellent tool for groundbreaking and light tilling.

• Folding grip handles – Southland SRTT212 comes with these amazing folding grip handles that you’ll find convenient and easy to store.

Thus, it’ll be even easier to transport the tiller using a truck trailer with the added front bull bar.

4. Troy-Bilt GC160 (10-Inch 160cc Honda) – BCS Rear Tine Tiller

Troy-Bilt GC160 is quite a durable and quality rear tine tiller. The Honda engine is a high-quality piece of machine that has a bronze gear drive and a quality cast-iron transmission. 

6 inches tilling depth – Troy-Bilt GC160 offers 6 inches tilling depth, 17 inches shield plus a 16 inches tilling width.

This will adequately cultivate your small or medium-sized yard, garden, or land – quick and non-backbreaking work. Its blades and tines are sized at 10 inches each.

Durable recoil starts – The tiller is easy to control and handle – particularly with the installed recoil start that ensures smooth operation.

Luckily the tiller is made from durable metal and the company repairs any breakages on it within the warranty period of 2 years.

GC160 Honda Engine – The 160cc Honda engine will give you consistent power that’ll easily plow through rough and rocky terrain. Further, for more durability, the plow comes with AG tires that are 13 inches x 5 inches. 

5. Champion 19-Inch Rear Tine Tiller – Champion Rear Tine Tiller

Champion 19-Inch is a workhorse Rear Tine tiller that’s Dual Rotating to give you top performance in your gardening or landscaping projects. 

Also, it’s 0.9 gallons of gasoline to ensure that you won’t easily run not out of fuel while you’re cultivating your garden.

Adjustable tilling width – It allows a tilling depth of 8 inches and tilling width of 19-inches – which will allow you to till and plant large gardens within a short time and with minimum effort.

Further, its tilling width is adjustable and hence you can easily till wide rows or narrow spaces.

Gear-driven transmission – Its 212cc engine plus the gear-driven transmission will give you the amazing power to flatten those tough grounds. Luckily, the agricultural tires (self-propelled 13-inch) plus the counter-rotating tines make it very easy to break new ground.

Dual-rotating tines – The dual-rotating tines provide great tilling power for gardens or landscapes – with a quick and smooth transmission for top flexibility while cultivating regardless if you’re doing forward or backward movement.

This allows bidirectional shredding of all the leaves, roots, soil, and dirt on your lawn or yard.

Strong cast-iron: The engine of this champion tiller and its gear-driven transmission is housed in a cast-iron case that’s equally heavy-duty.

Therefore, the machine won’t get damaged even for rough and tough gardens that could disrupt your mowers for your small yard.

Quick operation time – Luckily, the champion tiller has self-propelled tires that are 13 inches wide will allow faster operation. Check the comparable snapper rear-tine tiller.

Hardened steel tines – Luckily, its tines (13.8-inch) are made from hard steel which makes it quite difficult to break even with rough terrain or ground.

In addition, the tines have a depth gauge that allows you easily and quickly determine how deep you’re tilling – this ensures consistent tilling depth.

Front Vs Rear Tine Tillers – Best Rear Tine Tiller under $1000 

When considering a garden tiller, it’s critical to really know if you’ll require a front- or rear-tine tiller. So, what’s the difference between the two gardening tools?

However, operationally, the two cultivators vary in the depth of tilling and their suitable soil or terrain. So, let’s check the details.

1. Rear Tine Tillers

This tiller will give you a deeper tilling depth and is definitely more powerful compared to the front tine tiller.

Therefore, rear-tine tillers are more recommended for grounds that have heavy soil (like clay) or for new ground.

Rear-tine tillers will plow the hard ground and leave you with soft soil that’ll effectively be receiving your seedling, fertilizer, mulch, and seeds. You can achieve all this without breaking your back.

2. Front Tine Tillers

Front Tine Tillers are suitable for any garden or lawn owner who needs to break up loosely bound soil – particularly loamy soil that’s soft while also adding compost. These ones will be very easy to push through the loose soil.

How to Pick the Best Rear Tine Tillers

Gardening can be an excellent part-time or full-time activity – either for leisure or for revenue generation.

• However, to make beds, rows, or generally dig the rocky or rough soil, you’ll need a good tiller.

Of course, using a spade or shovel will be difficult but with a tiller, you’ll save time, money, and effort. But how do you select your ultimate tiller?

1. Rotation Mechanism

Rear tine tillers will either have a counter-rotation or forward rotation mechanism when it comes to tiller rotation style.

• Counter-rotation tine – The tiller tines here will rotate in a direction to that taken by the wheels, which is mainly backward direction.
• These counter-rotating tines are effective in mixing up the soil such as clay on compact grounds. Therefore, I would recommend this tiller for new ground including yards, gardens, and beds.
• Forward rotation tines – The tines will be rotating in a similar direction to that taken by the tiller’s wheels. Such a rotation direction also assists in losing up soil and breaking up roots and weeds – which will be ready for sowing.
• Dual rotating tillers – Hint: A tiller with both counter-rotating plus forward tines is an excellent choice if you’re planning to use the machine for different soils types of terrains. This one combines both the counter-rotation and forward rotation tines. 

2. Tiller power

Definitely, tillers – including these rear-tine tillers, will display “power” over “horsepower” on their engine rating. This is unlike in other garden tools that are engine-powered. Here’s what engine size to pick:

• For clay soil and compact new ground – For this kind of ground that was not recently upturned, you should pick an engine with a 200cc+ engine power capacity size (this would include 350cc or 500cc).
• This will readily break up the compact soil, roots, and heavy obstacles to leave you with smooth soil ready for sowing. NB: cc, in this case, denotes cubic centimeters.
• For land that’s tilled regularly, particularly annually, you may pick an engine with 100 to 180cc engine power capacity size.

3. Tine depth

Most of us gardeners already know this but generally tilling at a depth of about 4-6 inches is adequate for most crop types.

This is particularly so for ground that’s not new. However, for new ground or garden, you’ll require the tilling depth to be a few inches longer than 6 inches.

While choosing your tiller, I would recommend one that’ll give you 6 inches tilling depth if it’s for new ground or a garden that has heavy soil – this will give your seedlings and plants adequate aeration and growth space of their roots.

4. Tilling width

These tillers will have a tilling width that ranges from 10 inches (25 centimeters) to about 20 inches (50 centimeters).

Definitely, it’s not possible to change a large-width tined tiller for use in smaller spaces – and thus it’s important to check your tilling width requirement.

• Wider tilling width- Therefore, for the small-width rear-tine tillers, the gardener will require to make much more turns while tilling their land since the width is small. This will be great if you’re working on rectangular beds or uniform spaces.
• Narrow tilling width – This will be the tillers whose tilling with is around 10 inches. It’ll be great for irregularly shaped, curved, or decorative gardens. Your tilling width will vary on the number of tiller tines – definitely many will come with a width of 24 inches.

5. Tiller Torque

The rear tine tiller will require significantly high torque to rotate the tines – which is generally a derivative of the power of the machine.

• Therefore, choose a tiler that has higher torque as it’ll easily shred down all the hard soil, roots, and mulch that’s in your garden. Typically, the best rear tine tillers will have their torque ranging from 8 to 10 lb. per ft.

6. Tiller tires and tread size

I recommend that you get suitable tires – consider thickness, durability and ensure they’re created for all terrains.

• Tread type and size – The treads on your cultivator and thus I recommend you get agricultural-type, all-terrain, and equally thick tread.
• This will significantly enhance the maneuverability of the tractor in different terrains including clay soil, uneven, rocky, muddy, or grassy ground. However, for soil that is tilled regularly, you can choose to take the lighter-duty tires that’ll be cheaper.
• Tire size – for effective plowing, choose tiller tires that’re about 12 inches for uneven land (and large tillers) or take 8 inches for smooth land and small tillers.

7. Tiller Weight

Your tiller’s weight will significantly affect how well you can handle that machine and do the work on your garden.

• Also, don’t just check the machine’s weight when it’s running, you’ll need to determine how easy it is to move when its engine is switched off.
• The balance between engine power and overall weight. For example, some of the tillers could weigh 250+ pounds. So, examine if this kind of weight will be easy to wheel around even with the tiller’s engine switched off.

Conclusion

Luckily, a rear tine tiller will be great for straighter lines and give us more control on tilling depth.

• Contrast this to the front tillers (the regular garden tiller) that have tilling blades at the front of the driving engine.

Safety must be your next concern after you’ve acquired the best rear tine tiller. Here’s how you can use your tiller for effective plowing.