Mantis Tiller

Hi
I'm considering one of these for my allotment and garden; anyone ever used one or have any thoughts on Rotavators they'd care to share

Andrew

 

I have one (4-stroke). Very pleased with it

 

I bought one last year and have been thoroughly impressed with it.

Mr "M" was a bit slow when it came to how to use it For example, he simply assumed that you could only go as deep as the blade - I educated him that you can actually do more than one "turn" with it

Don't kid yourself that you can cut corners by not weeding and de-stoning the area beforehand (that would lead to a weed snow storm and broken blades!) You still have to put out the weeds and stones from the area you want to "till", but .. once that job is done, the tiller comes into its own and makes light work of the ground beneath it

 

Thanks both, just assembled mine after delivery. Had a quick whiz around a veg plot and am impressed. Soil like bread crumbs. I'll take it to the allotment over the next few days and take it through its paces.

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Mines out of action, it seem one of the seals has gone and grease comes out from the gears onto the spindle where the tines fit.
I've got fairly stony ground and to say you need to remove the stones first is a bit like pushing water up hill.
It traps stones between the tines and the gear box about every 5 mins and jams up.

I think its a design fault, they say its just me.

 

Hi Pete, yeah I discovered their dislike of stones and their knack of wedging between the tines and mudguard pretty quickly

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I'm thinking its the wedged stones that have put stress on the tines and pushed them outward from the gear box, causing the seal to go.

So, I suggest, should you get trapped stones, you switch it off, remove the offending tine, (with difficulty due to the outward force making it near impossible to remove the retaining pin ), then reassemble.
Doing this every 5 mins is a pain though, so bearing in mind the stone got in there some how, I've come to forcing them out with a piece of wood.
Not a good idea.

Other than that I actually like the thing, it breaks up the ground really well, just wondering if its worth repairing though,might just dump it.

My e mail to them kind of fell on stony ground, so to speak.

 

Did they not offer a price for refurbishing it?

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I was told to look in my hand book and find out what I need and then ring them on this number, presumably to order the parts I need.
I've been looking around for the handbook, not found it yet, I put it in a very safe place a few years ago.

If I remember rightly it was in about four languages and was a pain to use.

 

I spoke to Mantis today and found the guy who answered the phone a right pedantic implement for opening doors. If you ring between 11.00 and 12.00 you can speak to their fitters. I spoke to a guy called Anton who was very helpful so ask for him if you ring them again.

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What model is this please, I brought a 4 stroke Honda FG110 but find it doesn't
go deep enough, but the plus points are thats its very light to carry.

 

Priceless - 10-points to whichever MOD set that "alternative speak" up

 

Its a Mantis Tiller Delux Four stroke - Around £380.Tak a look on youtube, it certainly gives beautiful soil

 

I got the same as above last week, with plough and lawn edging attachments. If anyone wants to know who NOT to buy from, PM me! Anyway, eventually I got all the bits ordered, so off we went....the biggest plus for me is that I can actually start the thing. I love my big Univert rotovator dearly, but I just can't hack the recoil start any more. There's no chance that the Mantis will replace the Univert, though. It's good for breaking up the soil between rows of veg and even for fluffing up the compacted surface in borders if used carefully, and excellent for creating seed drills.
Have to laugh at the recommendation to pull it backwards to get greater depth.....wonder how they got that one past 'Elf and Safety!
The big disappointment is the lawn edger. It drew a neat, shallow line around the borders, but I'll still have to go round with a spade to turn the soil back and create a proper edge. Maybe when there is an existing straight edge it will maintain it....God I hope so....there are miles of edges to do!

 

I got mine from the Mantis Factory Outlet (on eBay). A modicum of discount, full factory warranty I reckon they are the ones returned by people after "trials" (presumably after they have rotavated the whole of their garden!)