When you need to do some serious tilling, nothing beats a rear tine tiller. Cub Cadet’s RT garden tillers give buyers a choice of engines, tines and drive systems to fit any need, yet even the biggest model can still be used for cleaning up rows.
Designed for Maximum Performance
“RT” stands for “Rear Tines.” While smaller models use the tines to pull them along, these tillers have a drive system to turn the wheels, letting the tines concentrate on digging. If you hit a tough spot, you can disengage the drive system and let the tines cut as many times as needed to break up soil. When you’re dealing with compacted clay, rocks and small roots, nothing can beat this design. With engines normally seen in walk-behind lawn mowers, these tillers pack some serious punch, making the RT series perfect for creating new garden beds. All models have a maximum cutting depth of 7.5 inches.
RT tillers are also narrow enough to be used for removing weeds between rows through the growing season. By slowing the tine speed, they can cut through problem areas without digging and throwing soil over adjoining plants.
Tines
Cub Cadet offers these tillers with two tine designs:
Counter-rotating tines have two blade sets on each side spinning in opposite directions, giving them the best overall soil cutting performance.
Dual direction tines can operate in either direction. Having them spin in the same direction as the wheels lets them fly through loose ground while spinning against the drive direction helps them dig in, cutting through the hardest soil.
Engines
Powerplants aren’t just sized for the application: Cub Cadet offers several options so you can get an engine that best fits your operating conditions.
The 208 cc Cub Cadet engine is built in-house specifically for their products. It’s built with an automatic decompression system and choke, making it easy to start.
The Kohler Courage SH265 has a low oil alert system, dual oil fills and drains to check and change the oil from either side of the engine and a dual ball bearing-supported recoil starter to make it easy to fire up the engine.
The Briggs & Stratton 1150 comes with a dual element filtration system, keeping dust at bay when working on sandy soil.
Honda’s GC 190 has innovative features including an internal timing belt and resin camshaft that reduce noise and vibration significantly.
Drive Systems
These tillers use a direct drive system, so wheel speed is always matched to engine speed. The most basic models have a single forward gear. To move backward, the drive system is engaged so the operator can roll the tiller. A power reverse uses an extra gear to switch the direction of rotation. This delivers the same gear ratio in either direction. Transmissions with forward and reverse gears use different gear ratios, moving slower when in reverse for easier maneuverability.
Models
Picking the right tiller for your needs is simply a matter of finding the model with the features you want:
RT 35 – 208 cc Cub Cadet, forward drive only, counter-rotating tines, 16-inch tilling width
RT 45 – 208 cc Cub Cadet, forward and power reverse, counter-rotating tines, 18-inch tilling width
RT 65 – 196cc Kohler SH265 or 208cc Cub Cadet, forward and reverse, dual direction tines, 18-inch tilling width
RT 65 H – Honda GC 190, forward and reverse, dual direction tines, 18-inch tilling width
RT 75 – 250cc Briggs & Stratton, counter rotating tines, 18-inch tilling width
Parts
No matter which model you have and which engine it uses, you can get everything you need for your RT tiller from www.cubparts.com. We’re not just a Cub Cadet dealer, we’re also a certified dealer for their manufacturing partners including Kohler, Honda Engines and Briggs & Stratton. Finding what you need is easy: our site has built-in factory exploded parts diagrams and descriptions for Cub Cadet equipment and the engines that power them. We can ship your order to any address in the U.S. or Canada.