Failure to Launch

The Tiller Won't Start....this really puts a cramp in our style for the big garden that we have planned. So, Google being our friend, we look into it. Bloggers say it is probably because the gas got stale, so we should put a teaspoon of gas in the carburator throat and add carburator cleaner to the gas. Sounds easy enough...if we had the slightest clue where the carburator throat was.

Joel and I are the types that take our cars in for oil changes. We just don't know these things. Thankfully, Benjamin does.

So, Benjamin comes over, and tries a few things to no avail. But, being the knowledgeable person that he is, he traces things back, and finds there is a fuel line shut-off, and it is shut-off. So, hopefully, presto bango, we'll be in business.

Not so fast. We still have the stale fuel problem. So, we work through that, thanks to Benjamin who knows where the carburator is. After the tiller idles for about 30 minutes we believe we are in business. We take it to the garden area, and as soon as the tines touch ground they stop. We look, and all conclude the belt has a problem. Then we realize there is a problem with the gears shifting. It keeps trying to jump into reverse which makes the rear pop up. An out of control Troy Bilt Horse that tries to run over you tines first is not something that anybody wants to deal with.

That's when we called it quits for the day. We've emailed a service technician to hopefully get the whole thing overhauled this week. There is still hope for a timely garden, but we're about a week into potato planting time with no progress.

However, I'd rather be stuck with farmers market potatoes than have anyone run over by a broken tiller, so we'll just leave it at that (with many thanks to Benjamin for his attempt at Tiller repair).