Rotary Tillage Equipment For Sale

About Rotary Tillage Equipment

Rotary tillage equipment serves a variety of functions in the context of golf and sports turf and includes machines that prepare soil for everything from laying brand new sod to dethatching and aerating existing turf grass to promote better root health and/or to prepare for overseeding.

Rotary tillage equipment also plays a role in topdressing existing turf and can even be used to maintain a golf course’s bunkers.

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Woods RTR72.40 Rotary Tiller

Several Machines, One Purpose

Rotary tillage equipment largely falls into two categories, rotary tillers and rotary hoes. Most common are rotary tillers, sometimes called “rototillers,” which have rotating knife blades on the front or back that cut through the ground and break up the soil to allow better water penetration and air movement in preparation for planting. Rotary tillers can either be self-propelled or attached to a tractor with a 3-point hitch.

Rotary hoes, also called “power harrows,” incorporate metal teeth attached to a rotating drum or disk that loosen and gently flip the soil. Rotary hoes are often used shortly after a crop has been planted to stop weeds in early stages of development and help with crop emergence by eliminating soil crusting and loosening and aerating soil as plants grow.

The category also includes core aerators or verticutters, which create small holes in turf and down into the soil that help promote better air and water absorption and circulation. This process helps improve root growth and counteracts and prevents compaction that can adversely affect the health of a turf bed.

From Spare Parts To Fine-Tuned Machines

Early rotary tillage equipment went by a variety of names from rotary tillers or hoes to rotary plows and were often used interchangeably. The powered rotary hoe was invented by Arthur Clifford Howard in 1912 in New South Wales, Australia, initially using a steam-powered tractor’s engine as a power source; Howard later designed an L-shaped blade mounted on wide-spaced flanges fixed to a rotor, and then patented a design with five rotary hoe blades and an internal combustion engine in 1920.

Tine breakage was a problem for early rotary tillers. To combat this problem, C.W. Kelsey designed a tine shock absorber to add to tillers imported to the U.S. in the 1930s. Innovations continued, including the introduction of different types of teeth or blades, such as “C”-shaped or “L”-shaped blades, to perform the tilling, adjustable working depth, and reverse tilling.

Today, rotary tillage equipment comes in a variety of sizes from small walk-behind tillers for use in home gardens to large self-propelled or tractor-mounted equipment for use on farms and road construction projects.

Find The Right Rotary Tillage Equipment

You’ll find a large variety of new and used rotary tillage equipment for sale at NeedTurfEquipment.com, including machines from popular manufacturers like Bush Hog, John Deere, Kuhn, Land Pride, Maschio, Rhino, Woods, and Yetter.