Following is an article I got out of Farmshow. Tiller Trailer" Takes The Work Out Of Rototilling "I'm 72 years old and find that it's much easier to ride a garden Tractor than it is to wrestle with a front tine rototiller," says Virlyn Burie, Wallace, Mich., who built a "tiller trailer" for his 30-year-old Deere rototiller. It allows him to pull the rototiller behind his Sears garden tractor, instead of having to operate it manually. The 2-wheeled trailer is made from 2 by 2 steel tubing and pins to the sides of the rototiller. A sprocket-type lever welded on front of the trailer attaches to a hinged bracket he mounted on front of the tiller. He uses the trailer-mounted lever to control the depth of the tiller. The trailer is painted Deere green to match the tiller. "I use it on my 30 by 60-ft. garden. If works great," says Burie. "The rototiller has a forward motion of its own so the garden tractor is just guiding it, not pulling it. It takes only about 30 seconds to remove the Rototiller from the trailer if I ever need to operate it manually. "To operate the rototiller. I roll it into the trailer frame and pin it on. After rope starting the tiller and revving up the throttle. I adjust the lever to the depth I want. Then I jump on the tractor and go. Usually I operate the rototiller at its maximum depth. "I spent $5 apiece for the wheels, which I bought new. The rest of the trailer was built from scrap material. Commercial Rototillers designed to be pulled behind a garden tractor arc available, but they can sell for as muchas $1.000. "The key in building it is to locate the pivot points so the rototiller always operates at the proper depth. Before building the brackets, I put both the trailer and rototiller on a level floor and put wood blocks under the trailer until I had the rototiller at the depth I wanted it. Then I marked the spots for the pins." He used 1/4-in. steel plate to make the cog-type lever. The lever handle pivots from the center of the sprocket. To make the teeth, he placed a chain sprocket on the metal and then traced around it. Then he drilled around an old no. 60 chain sprocket. Homemade brackets attach permanently to the rototiller. A 3/4-in. pipe welded to a piece of 2 by 4 rectangular tubing mounts across the rear with a 1/2-in. bolt. On front of the tiller is a yoke that mounts across the front and sides of the tiller frame that pins to the depth lever. "At first I tried mounting a length of angle iron across the front of the rototiller and hooked it onto the lever. However, whenever the rototiller would hit a stone it would lurch upward and bend the tiller frame. Plating the sides of the tiller frame to the angle iron with 4 by 3/16-in. plate solved the problem," notes Burie. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Virlyn Burie, N5199R1 Lane, Wallace, Mich. 49893 (ph 906 788-4279; email: joanburie@ alphacomm.net).

Yup, a rake is what you want. York Rake is the brand that sets the bar - often used generically. If you have a hitch that can lift it you can go with something like this (3 pt hitch also available): http://www.agri-fab.com/products/45-0366.aspx If you only have a drawbar you would use something like this: http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_200305453_200305453 These are also good for raking gravel from the driveway out of the grass, scratching the lawn prior to seeding, etc Yeah, expensive, that is why I don't have one (yet). The tines are available generically, so building one is a distinct possibility. Good luck!

Tom- If you are talking 10 yrs or so, I would suggest biting the bullet and buy a quality zero turn. I had a similar dilema as you describe. I purchased a Dixie Chopper 72-inch XTreme zero turn that I use around my reforestation project (I mow the entire thing about 3 times per year to keep it from getting out of control). I have similar plans - mow for 5-10 yrs until the trees come close to developing a canopy, then let them go and just mow trails through the developing forest along with mowing my open fields/yard. No, I don't mow circles around each tree in case you were wondering. I mainly use the zero turn for it's higher mowing speeds. The one I pruchased is advertised at 9 acres/hr, but I'm not quite that fast. I do mow circles around the specimen trees in areas outside the reforestation area - it is great for those. I have an old 1952 Ford 8-N with a brush-hog that I used for a couple years, but my wife was getting sick of me spending forever mowing. My DC can mow through the tall stuff with no problem - they advertise it to do so as well. My curved rows are planted betwen 8 to 12 foot on center and the 72-inch works real nice. I bought the 33hp mower - you could get by with less, but I had a different dealer talk me out of a sale becuase he stated the smaller hp mower wouldn't cut through the tall stuff. He did say a smaller hp zero turn would be okay if you went with a more common 60-inch deck. If you add up what you would pay for hiring someone over 10 years - that would go a long ways towards a new/used zero turn mower for you. Plus most hold their value well - not to mention they are fun to drive. John

Thanks, I did have a large receiver on my last pickup. My use of the hitch is limited to towing an aluminum 16' fishing boat, not more than 1500 pounds. The turck is a new Chevy Colorade, 2WD (but with the great GM option of traction control and automatic locking differential, I look forward to seeing haw well that works as a substitute for light-duty 4WD needs) and the bumper isn't "too" high. I think I'll try the bumper and see how it goes (most trips are under 30 miles). By the way, the "T" adaptor to get into the break/running/turn lights is great. The package was under $40 and was installed in under 15 minutes. I don't know when truck manufactureres started providing that connector near the rear, but it is a great improvement.