Tilling machine keeps catching on roots and jamming

[dotcom]

I decided to buy a tiller machine to turn over our entire garden as it's heavy with clay under the surface, the lower end of the garden towards the house is fine but the bottom end where there's a few trees and bushes have heavy roots and it keeps jamming up and I have to spent a good bit of my time have to untangle everything.

Do you have any suggestions on a better way of doing this, every metre or so I'm having to stop and de-jam the machine. My garden width is probably about 30 metres and this root issue is constantly happening about 6/7 metres from the bottom of the garden so it's going to end up breaking the machine I think with the amount of area I'm covering.

Thanks!

 

[lostinthelight]

Sounds about normal to me with what your using in those conditions
After youve gone through it once, it shouldn't be a problem in future.
What are you planning on planting ?

 

[Burnerman]

Maybe a rotovator would be a better machine to use initially.....the small petrol tillers are great so long as the soil has been chopped before but that's about as far as they go.
John

 

[conny]

Would a rotavator chop through tree stumps John?
And if so, what kind of maximum thickness with a standard sized, domestic use, hired one?

 

[Burnerman]

I find that the bigger rotovators will yank out and tear roots of around 1/2", conny - which is about all you'll realistically.
For sure, the smaller tillers such as the Mantis just slip the centrifugal clutch.
John