Thursday I spent the entire day working on tilling up my garden space with the tiller that Big Ugly purchased last year from Earth Tools.  Didn’t think it would be too much trouble, it looked just like the rear-tined tiller my father had about 30 years ago and I used extensively.  But I was having trouble with using this one and could not understand what I was doing wrong.  I knew that it was just that I was missing something that was important.  I was having trouble getting the tines engaged at the same time as the drive wheels and then after I got the drives engaged, the tiller would cut off and not stay running.  Of course I had no idea where the original owner’s manual was.  I searched online for the manual.  Couldn’t find it either even though I had copied the model number from the machine.

Finally I called Earth Tools using the phone number on the decal on the tiller.  The company is located in KY—so (THANK GOODNESS) I wasn’t having to talk to someone in Bangladesh or the Philippines.  A regular person answered the phone and said he would give Joel, the mechanic, the message and have him call me back.  However, before he could take down the information, he told me that Joel was off the phone and he would transfer my call to him.  Great!!!!!

Joel came on the phone and was another regular guy.  I gave him the model number and he told me that was not the model number of the tiller, but the model number of the case for the differential.  He asked what community center I was with and I told him Big Ugly which was part of the Grow Appalachia project.  “Oh, yes,” he said.  “That would be a G85d, that’s what we sold them.”  I was overwhelmed.  It was like talking to a next door neighbor.  How refreshing!  He told me what to do in easy to understand language.  I asked him about an owner’s manual and he emailed that to me.  Then he said that the owner’s manual was written in about 15 different languages all together.  “Good grief!” I thought.  But then he said that they had written a little handy guide to using the tiller.  It was all in English and he would also include it in the email.

I have read both documents, but the guide that Earth Tools produced is really easy.  So I am including in this post in case anyone else is having difficulty getting going.  Once I understood all the parts of the tiller and had read the little guide, which included excellent photographs, I was in business.  The tiller is easy to maneuver and well balanced—even though I am a little, old woman with a stronger will than arms.  Below is the guide in case anyone else runs into the same types of problems.

GRILLO INSTRUCTIONS-NEW