Friday 13 March 2009

Rotovating


It's looking, weather permitting of course, like Sunday could be the day we christen our new rotovator. I'm really looking forward to it if I'm honest, not just because it's a big red petrol powered boys toy but also because I know that once the plots been rotovated then the sowing and planting can at last begin in earnest (is it too late to sow broad beans direct into the ground?).

There is one thing troubling me though, having never used anything petrol powered other than a car I'm a little worried I'll somehow kill myself. I've read the instruction manual and it seems to be just a long list of things to avoid doing if you don't want to die while operating it. It's a 4 stroke engine which means I don't have to worry about getting the petrol/oil mix correct so I was thinking it would just be a case of adding the oil and patrol into wherever they're supposed to go, turning it on and bingo, rotovation.

I know the manual has to cover all the possibilities for legal and safety reasons and it's probably not as complicated as it sounds, but I was just wondering if anyone out there in blogland had some experience they could reassure me with...

2 comments:

dND said...

Hi Paul & Melanie,

I've been hoping someone would respond to your post as I have an almost identical rotorvator but the instructions for mine are in every language but English.

As far as I can tell, yes it's add oil to sump and petrol to tank and that's all - can't find anywhere obvious to grease axle for instance.

I don't think I have the right technique wit it yet though, it either runs away over the surface barely leaving a mark or !i have to do a Charles Atlas impersonation and try and hold back 5hp to get it to dig in.

I'm going to try a slightly different technique today that someone has suggested, if it works I'll let you know - it might be that I'm a bit too short to get it to work properly and it is also rather heavy too!

Happy rotorvating.
Deborah

Randy Emmitt said...

Deborah,

Here in the US the back of the rotovator has a stake that digs into the ground so you don't have to 'hold it back" the deeper you set the stake the deeper the thing digs.