MAXIM® PRO Series Rear Tine Hydraulic Tiller W/ 270CC Honda GX270 (RT190H)

How shall I begin. When the delivery truck arrived and open the back door, first thing I notice was that the tiller was laying on its side (spark plug/cylinder side). Delivery person quickly upright the so call crate and unloaded the tiller. Only damage I could see was the cross wooden brace under the tines of the tiller which was snapped in the middle and even breaking the plastic strap. First thing I wanted to do for maintenance purposes was to install a hour/rpm meter. Now the manual calls for the equipment to be ready, just gas and go. First thing first, I check the hydraulic fluid for the proper level and next the engine oil level. I ask myself why is the oil level at the minimum level (answer will come later in this review). I filled the oil with Honda oil to its proper level. Next, time to add the gas. Ok, so far so good, I prepare to turn the on/off switch to on (it was already on), make sure the gas is turned on, applied full choke, and set throttle to the maximum. Here is where the trouble begins. I pull on the rope to start the engine but would not budge. Starting to get frustrated, I said what the ****. Remembering that you can compress air, but you cannot compress fluid, I pulled the spark plug which was saturated in oil. I pulled on the rope and oil shot out of the cylinder. Now I am getting progress. I cleaned and reinstalled the spark plug, pull the rope with compression hesitation. I remove the oily spark plug, went to town for part cleaner for the plug, checked the gap and now decided to check what spark the plug has. No spark, so I needed to check the safety wiring circuit which control the spark. Lo and behold, I found a loose connection between the ignition coil and the on/off switch. Since the cylinder was drenched in oil, I decided to spray starter fluid into the carburetor. Engine would only belch for 1 second after each spray. After 4 times of doing this, I noticed black oil dripping from the OHV cover. Now what? Due to my age, I needed a flashlight to trace the leak which was coming from the exhaust manifold. Ok, let see if my 93 octane fuel (which I had on hand) is feeding the carburetor. Removing the carburetor fuel bowl drain plug, I notice something odd. Hey, that is oil coming out of the bowl. First the oil came and then a fresh flow of gas. Reinstalled the drain plug, here goes nothing. I pulled on the rope and what do you know, I created a fog machine to kill mosquitoes. It took about 5 minutes to clear the smoke and off to tilling I went. All of this could have been avoid due to the crappy crate used for delivery. Spouse asked while I was tilling, how do you like it now? I said I loved it and would buy I again. Now tilling in heavy rocky clay soil, I notice a clinging sound coming from the tines after 45 minutes of use. These rocks were the size of the palm of your hand. Underneath, a tine was tapping against the middle of the frame. No problem I said as I counted 12 tines to do the musical chair number. Two other tines were slightly bent and were placed in locations to clear frame and side cover. Now that I own this tiller, I made two modifications to my satisfaction. One change was to the depth bar that kept sliding and would not hold its position. I simply drilled six 5/16" divots for the adjusting bolt. Starting at 1-1/8" from top of the bar, I marked in the center of the bar at 1" in increments. The second change I made was the alignment of the handle. I notice the tiller likes to drift to the right. The handle was mounted to the left of the center line of the length of the tiller. Now i have a tiller that will work clay soil that is tough as cement.

Have been very impressed with it.