Stroh, I have never owned or used a front-tined tiller, so I can't compare the difficulty of using one to my mid-tined Merry Tiller. If you have a bad shoulder, you might have trouble with any tiller. Gardenway's advertising campaign for the Troy-Bilt rear-tined tillers claimed that you could operate them with one finger. In my opinion that was deceptive advertising. They also used a cartoon of a guy getting the stars knocked out of him by a front-tined tiller. I guess their engineers thought that the tines had to go on the front or on the rear, and never thought of placing them in the middle. When you get to the end of a row with a rear-tined tiller, that's when the myth of one-fingered operation comes to an abrupt end. You have quite a job "horsing" a rear-tined tiller around to go back the other way, because it is long and heavy and it isn't easy to raise the tines or turn the tiller. That's definitely not a one-fingered operation, and it wouldn't be at all easy for someone with (or without) a shoulder problem. By contrast, when I want to turn my Merry Tiller, I can just rock the tiller back to balance the tiller on the drag bar. I use the "foot" of the drag bar as a pivot to rotate the tiller in any direction. By using that technique, I can literally turn it on a dime, with zero turn radius, and the whole maneuver takes only a few seconds. I'm 74, and operating my Merry Tiller is easy for me, but early on I learned to use my tiller without "fighting" it, and to relax and enjoy letting it do the work, and not me. It takes a week or more of hands-on practice to learn that, which is why so many people who rent tillers for a day or two have a bad experience. They get a death grip on the tiller, as if it were an adversary to fight, instead of a helpful friend. Over the last 40 years, my Merry Tillers have kept me and my shoulders limber, but it's definitely not a one-fingered operation. I wasn't surprised that Troy-Bilt wound up facing bankruptcy with their misleading advertising. However, for anyone with any kind of physical disability, I would recommend that they do their "farming" from the comfort of a tractor seat and let power steering and hydraulic control levers do the work. I agree with aesanders that you should consider a tractor tiller attachment. Also, a good moldboard plow is poetry in motion. MM

Windcatcher: I don't believe you will have a problem with parts. We had a lot of tooling around from way years past and even ran many parts to give them somewhat of a supply for tractors that were made years ago. With that said and the company making a transition like they are, I don't know how long they will keep tooling around before deciding they can throw it out. I was making service parts for the sunstar on the break press. With lasers and brake presses one can make a lot of the parts needed. Sorry I can't be more define for you but I believe it may get harder to find parts for the old time units but maybe only a little harder for those units made in a 8-15 year period. It all depends on how long Briggs decides they need to keep inventory on old tooling. If they don't loose it. If they know what it is for. We had people with over 40 years of expierence there and they could walk out to the shed and point to were the die has been for the last 15 years. They will continue to produce the current models and from time to time change or add new ones yet. My opinion is that Briggs would rather see more units bought because every unit also has an engine, so if it is harder to get parts for old units they might buy a new unit.

Simplicityworker, You sure do like to make stuff up it seems like. Where did you come up with half of what you said. All that I said is what I believe is the truth. Manufacturing in the U.S. just cannot compete paying high union wages and benefits. I'm far from being a CEO. Just an ordinary guy. I currently work for a technology manufactuing company myself, and use to work for a manufacturing company that made construction equipment. Neither are Union employers and both are leaders in their field. Both can compete price wise and quality wise with anyone. I like Simplicity as much as anyone and own one. But their market is not really growing anymore with more and more people buying ZTR's. They are also priced on the high side. To compete and stay in business I beleive they most likely needed to cut costs. You could either cut the quality or cut labor costs. I think they decided to cut the labor costs. Many of the Simplicity products (like the ZTR's) were already produced at the Ferris plant anyway. Why not make the tractors there as well if they can reduce their labor costs. What's the harm? Maybe Briggs makes more money? That is what they are in business for I presume. I'm sorry that you lost your job. I truely am. But thats business and it's nothing personnel. I was laid off too from a company cutting back. It was the first job I had out of college. I thought I'd work their my whole life, but it just wasn't meant to be. I've got nothing bad to say about them. They gave me a decent salary for several years, but they needed to make business decisions to keep them going.

Massey Ferguson Lawn & Garden is a brand offered by Simplicity Manufacturing, Inc. Since its beginning in 1922, Simplicity has been an industry leader committed to designing, manufacturing, and marketing premium lawn and garden equipment. In addition to Massey Ferguson Lawn & Garden, Simplicity sells products under the brand names Simplicity, AGCO Lawn & Garden, Snapper, Snapper Pro, Ferris, and Giant-Vac. Manufactured for both residential and commercial use, Simplicity products are sold worldwide by more than 9,000 dealers and distributors. Simplicity Manufacturing is part of the Briggs & Stratton Power Products Group, L.L.C I copied the above from Agco's website.