Customer Reviews for Earthquake Pioneer 17 in. Till Width 99cc Gas Dual Direction Rear Tine Tiller

Not as easy to handle as advertised, but an excellent machine.

Love this tiller. Used several times this year and it works great. Before I bought the tiller I searched the reviews and some people complained the gears would stick. One gentleman said to rock the tiller when this happens and you can shift it. This happened to me once and with his suggestion it worked perfectly. Other than that the tiller tilled virgin soil effortlessly and also it was easy to clean.

For starters when i first used the tiller, it performed great in the Texas Hill country dirt with rocks, no problems. This spring the transmision locked up, took it to a warranty repair, all covered! A couple of months later, sitting in staorage building, it wont start. Took it back to the shop, bad gas ruined the carburator, and spark plug. The carb has to be replaced! This thing is not even two years old, poor quality parts. When its working, it works great but the shop is an hour away plus $150 to get it running again is not sustainanle for me. Make dure to drain all the fuel out and run it until it stops!

Great sized rear tine tiller for a country property. Easy to manoeuvre with the reverse gear and the rear tine gate is heavy enough to stay down while in reverse. The tires have great grip and their size helps with manoeuvrability. Assembly was pretty easy but READ ALL UNPACKING INSTRUCTIONS FIRST. You will open it from the top and take out a few articles but then you close it up and flip it over and un box for the build while it is supported in styrofoam.

Rating provided by a verified purchaser

Purchased mid summer aftermy garden weeds were out of control! I was SO impressed with the tilling power. It does not jump around at all, just digs in and goes steadily forward. It starts on the first or second pull. Love the reverse and that you can drive it around without tilling. I think the rear tines and different style tires really make it go through the soil easily handled by a women. (me)

Soil type-red clay with intermittent rocks. I wouldn’t recommend this machine as a rock buster, however, I don’t think it would mind. One hand steering and pure power to the tines. Single pass satisfaction over and over. Unbelievably productive machine

Arrived promptly, assembled easily, engine starts 1 to 2 pulls every time. Tills well just not as deep as stated in product description. Said 13" depth, get around 8". Gear selector lever sometimes hard to move. All in all a good tiller despite above issues.

I have been very pleased with this tiller so far. It has made working in our gardens so much easier. I love the way you can physically change the gears for each drive option with a lever. That makes it so much easier to operate as well. The counter-rotating drive is awesome for breaking up the ground. Wow it really digs and you don’t have to fight the tiller to get it to dig. After you use that option the standard is a breeze for the finishing touch. Hopefully this tiller will last for several years and be of good quality. We will see.

It works great and assembly was easy too! I tilled up a quarter acre for the fall planting with it

It starts and tills very well! It does quake the earth! I found that when changing gears, it changes easier when you rock the tiller back and forth. In sandy soil the tires don’t have very good traction so I have to give it a little push. This is only when the tines are in reverse mode. The 4 stars are only due to the traction issue in sandy soil.

This is a very strong and versatile machine for its size. It works well in heavy black clay as long as it is not forced. The build quality is excellent and with about 25 hours of use there have been no issues with the controls, transmission, or engine.

I Love this tiller.Really easy to assemble.It cranks first or second pull every time .It is super easy to handle and control.Its easy to change settings on transmission (I didnt have to move the machine back and forth to get it to shift) Its quite and you can operate at a little slower speed if you want.Rolls super easy in neutral when its not running. It has no problem cutting into the soil. Tires will not go flat. Happy I finally chose this machine.

I was very impressed with how fine it tilled the soil... Not leaving it in clumps to toil with afterwards. It has great strength to go in and out of ditches on its own. It's one hand feature really helps you focus on the soil and not on pushing it all day through the dirt. And it's reverse till feature really gets deep into the ground. It created what I call " soil which is a dream to work with".

Very easy to put together if you follow the instructions. Machine works better than expected. Having the ability to have counter rotating makes hard work easy.

This is a really well-made and rugged machine. I am really impressed with how it can break up clay soil when used properly. Easy to use and maneuver. Highly recommend if a larger machine is not needed.

So far, so good. I have a garden spot so I am not using it to tear up sod, but it works great. I love the two different tilling modes. It is easy to use and to reverse. It is lighter than my previous rear-tine Craftsman and it tills up the soil much better. It was also so easy to put together.

This tiller is awesome! Easy to start and easy to use. Worked very well on clay soil that had never been filled before. Did not take very long to till a rather large garden.

It is very well made and has performed flawlessly so far. Easy to start runs strong. The transmission is made very well and the ability to go from forward to reverse rotation with just the shift of a lever is awesome. The solid tires grip and pull very well and no danger of a flat tire.

I did a lot of online research before making this purchase. I was initially skeptical because I thought that the engine was underpowered for the task at hand. I am pleasantly surprised by the ability of this machine. It has been a wet spring and the new ground I'm tilling has a rock bed where a mobile home once set so I haven't operated it at full depth yet because I'm waiting for the ground to dry and spend a lot of time picking up 2-3" rocks before making the next pass. Under these less-than-ideal conditions the tiller has exceeded my expectations. I run the tiller at about 3/4 throttle, and it has sufficient power to do the job. I am passed the prime of youth, so I really appreciate the lightweight, manageability, and ease of starting that this tiller offers. Enough praise, here are the downsides. I have owned tillers that have multiple forward gears with a reverse gear. This tiller does not offer multiple forward gears which means that the walk to the garden with the tiller is slow. However, I'm older and not all that interested in getting somewhere fast. At 17" the tiller is targeted toward smaller plots but that works well for me..

I have owned this tiller for just over a year. I have followed the book and assembly instructions. Both wheels fell off and parts missing within three uses. Yes I torqued the wheels when assembling. Belt squeels uncontrollably. Yes I've tightened the belt. Now, went to spring start after winterizing it. 2 hours later and ripping the carb apart, I have it running. Yes, I winterized it properly. Then after all that, had to tighten belt yet again. Third time in 10 hours use.

Very good machine in medium hard soil. Have not had a chance to use it in the really hard stuff so i can't comment onthat. The machine does tend to jump away from you when tines are in srt mode of you hot a hard spot, but other then that its a good machine. The one big drawback was there was no information on putting it together. If you are mechanically inclined it wont be that big a deal, but for what you pay for the thing you would expect everything to be in the box.

Something was wrong in the transmission, I had to return it. But Home Depot was great.

Easy to use, and works well!

I wished the furrow would fit this one. But it says it does not fit this model.

I was replacing a 1988 Troy Built Horse w/11hp Briggs and Stratton engine and this little machine is not that quality of machine. However after unboxing and getting over the china grade build, I gave it a chance. While there is quite a bit of assembly is was very easy and intuitive. My first job was a 50x50 garden. This was new soil turn and this little machine has impressed me so far. Fast, fuel efficient and quiet, for a rototiller, For the money paid .... I LOVE IT!!