Champion 201099 Power Equipment 212cc Gas-Powered Cordless Rear Tine Tiller, 19-in

This is a great tiller for the money. All these reviews about broken shafts and trannys are just people who misuse and put too much load on the machine. I've used it multiple times. Its great. 2 of my plots are 70' x 70' and it does them with ease. Treat it right and it does just fine.

I purchased this Champion Rear Tine Tiller to do several areas in my yard. The price was affordable and it seemed on paper that this tiller would fit needs. I assembled this tiller and after everything was ready I got to work. I was happy with the first section that I tilled and I expected to be ready for the load of gravel mulch and garnite gravel the next morning. Too bad that this tiller would prove to be inadequate. While the tiller was working at first it failed after only a half an hour. To my annoyance the shaft broke and the tiller utterly failed. I was very upset and I then called Canadian Tire where after I asked to speak to a manager I was put on hold for 5 minutes. That in of itself was very annoying. I get that the store could have been busy a customer service member could have come back on the line saying so. Armed with a picture of the failure I drove to the local Canadaian Tire store. I was told to bring it back and that they wouldn't pick it up. That's another annoyance because now it's assembled and harder to put in the truck. Once back at the store the manager had 2 people unload it saying "it was going to the recyclers". I was given a refund and a "I've never seen that before" yet when I dug a bit deeper into reviews for this very tiller I discovered that this model does in fact break in this very manor. Shame on Champion for continuing to produce such a low quality tiller. Shame on Canadian Tire for stocking a failure prone Chamion Tiller. It's too bad 1 star is the lowest I can go for my review. There is no positive spin that I can put on this review.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] So far so good. It was easy to set up, though some of the pictures used were not the best. I managed to break the spacer / washers for the handles, as I put them on the wrong side. Machine started right up and was able to dig deep after a few passes over weedy ground. I like the free wheeling ability, and found it easy to convert from drive. My first Champion machine purchase, I would buy again. The one caveat is that the machine has only been run for a total of 3 hours so far.

This machine has a serious design flaw in how the transmission shaft is put together. I used it for 1 1/2 hours and the shaft split in two. I see lots other reviews with the same problem. This is a very serious problem and looking at the way the piece is is welded indicates that it's under designed - it's not a matter of if, but when this will happen to you. The motor is great and the machine tilled really well until it suddenly split in two. 10 stars for how Canadian Tire handled it, they took it back no problem. Canadian Tire should pressure on Champion to fix this flaw. I do not recommend under any circumstance.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] Assembly was easy and machine runs great. Starts on first pull every time. Works as well as some Comercial rental tillers i have used in the past.