Mantis 7262-15-02 4-Cycle Honda Gas-Powered Tiller/Cultivator with Border Edger and Kickstand
June 7th, 2010 | 
Author: Mantis 7262-15-02 4-Cycle Honda Gas-Powered Tiller/Cultivator with Border Edger and Kickstand
|
 List Price: $449.00 Sale Price: $447.49 Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Eligible For Free Shipping 
|
Product Description
NOW FEATURES A FREE KICKSTAND SO YOU CAN SET THE MANTIS UPRIGHT ANYWHERE. ALSO INCLUDES A BORDER EDGER. THESE ARE VERY USEFUL ADD-ONS! The one and only Mantis Tillers are the best of the best. You can have complete confidence in tilling your garden because the tines are guaranteed for a lifetime against breakage. Small tiller head reaches tight spots. The curved teeth chop through tough sod down to 1051 deep, and they reverse for shallow garden and flower bed cultivating. Fingertip speed control and shut-off switch. Designed for comfort during extended use. Honda Engine Mantis has a 22cc, 4 cycle Honda engine for extra power without the need to mix gas and oil. All that power weighs only 24 pounds!
Details
- The 4-cycle engine powered by Honda is powerful, reliable and does not require mixing of gas and oil
- Weighs only 24 pounds which makes the Mantis Tiller simple to maneuver, carry and transport
- The compact 9 inch wide design allows you to use the tiller to get in narrow rows and be stored where larger tillers cannot go.
- The patented reversible tines can be used to till down 10 inches or shallow cultivate the top 2 to 3 inches of soil.
- 5 Year consumer warranty on entire tiller including engine, plus a lifetime warranty on tines against breakage.
Posted in 
Tags:
Rating
I just recieved my tiller, place it together, (easily done, comes with instructional video) and tilled my flower beds for spring planting. The engine started on the second pull, and was suprisingly silent. I would reccomend this tiller for anyone with a green thumb.
Rating
i have been thinking about buying this product for awhile. i had been delaying for awhile due to the high price but when amazon offered a discound on this product along with the $30 off for signing up for the amazon chase credit card, i broke down and bought it. it finished up being only $30 more than the 2-cycle model after all the discounts. i gave it 4 stars due to the price that you would have to pay if you didn’t factor in the discounts.
so far i am pleased with the way it runs and works. its very simple to go around to the different parts of my yard due to it being small and light…it helps too when other family members want to use it. they can just throw it in the trunk of their car and go.
it worked very well in areas of my garden where the soil had been turned over in the past, making the soil very light and soft. this is a nice alternative to using the shovel which can be hard on the back if you want to plant several plants.
i also have a large area that i want to use the tiller but the soil is very hard clay and dry. this makes it hard to use the tiller since the ground is so hard the tiller just bounces off the ground. the tiller is not heavy enough to dig into the ground. my solution to this is to wet the hard ground at night with the hose and give the water time to soak down into the dirt and in the morning use the tiller to turn over the softened wet dirt.
finally, since its a 4-cycle engine, i like the fact that i don’t have to mix the oil and gas together trying to get the right mixture. all in all i am very pleased.
Rating
This Tiller is truly an incredible tool — if you buy new – squeeze excess oil out of air filter foam (into a paper towel) before use. Assembly a snap –Starts easily — does the work of a huge machine while being light and simple to work with.Mantis 4-Cycle Tiller/Cultivator with Border Edger and Kickstand #7262-15-02
Rating
Best tiller I have ever owned. Very light and very powerful. Starts on first pull. Very simple to use. I would recommend this tiller to anyone with a vegtable garden or flower garden.
Rating
The Mantis is a nice small tiller, but I am spoiled after having a Troy Bilt tiller for 40 years. The mantis is so light that it bounces off small stones and into your garden plants before you can regain control. Because it is plagued with “Ralph Nader save the operator controls”, it is hard to control the throttle position easily. It also gets stones jammed in the tines easily.
I’m not knocking it, because it makes a nice BACK YARD tiller for the home owner. Just be aware of its shortcomings.
Rating
Simple to use, works really hard, can carry around to different spots in the garden. How did we manage before our Mantis?
Rating
I bought the Mantis with Honda GX25 engine. I bought the dethatcher and aerator tine also. My original intension is to use it as a dethatcher only. It worked very well. It pulled out so much dead grass in incredible. The excellent thing is it did not beat up the lawn. THe lawn looked excellent right after dethatching, not like the huge dethatcher that place bare spots on the lawn and you have to wait weeks for the lawn to recover.
What surprised me was how well it work to cultivate weeds. It take some getting use to, at the begining, I have problem of it jumping. But I soon learn all you have to do is pull it back slightly and it will stop jumping. It takes some getting use to but it work. I even remove one tine and place the edger wheel on one side and I can get a very narrow line of tilling into nerrow space. I use it to dig holes for planting also.
Bottom line, I am using it all year round.
I know there are always people complaining about engine hard to start. My suggestion is read the manuel on how to start or question someone that know small engines. Both the Honda GX25 and the 2 cycle engine on the cheaper Mantis are ALL tried and right COMMERCIAL engine. They both have iron clad reputations. If you have problem starting, chances are you are doing something incorrect. Make sure you use fresh gas with StaBil fuel stabilizer. Stale gas is the main problem of gas engine. You have to do maintenance like washing the air filter or changing it in the 2 cycle case. Follow the instruction. If you don’t maintain the gas engine, all will die in the first year. This is not for taking it out every few months, use it for 10 minutes and hang it up for another few months. It will die!!!
If you reckon it is too much distress, get the electric version.
Rating
For years I’ve used a Troy-Bilt tiller to till our garden. But I am the only one in the family who can use it. And since there are tilling needs throughout the year, and I am often on travel, we tried, and were disappointed by, those cheap tiny tillers at home improvement stores. But we are very pleased with our Mantis tiller (we got the Mantis 7262-15-02 4-Cycle Honda Gas Powered Tiller/Cultivator with Border Edger and Kickstand), and here’s why:
This tiller is smaller than normal tillers, but larger than those tiny home improvement store tillers. The huge tillers are too huge for everyone to use and the really tiny tillers only seem useful in flower beds with potting soil. But everyone in the family can use and control the Mantis tiller. Also, it is strong enough to use in the garden. Not too huge, not too small — just right!
We really like the convenience of not having to mix the gas and oil. They are separate, and that’s a lot less hassle.
The handle is not too tall, which means the everyone in the family can use it comfortably.
We found the engine to be much quieter than either the Troy-bilt or the tiny home improvement store ones.
There are a decent number of tines, and they really do the job of tearing into the soil.
So we really delight in our Mantis tiller, especially since anyone in our family can use it throughout the year.
(review by Kendall Giles)
Rating
I bought the 4-cycle Mantis, and it was honestly simple to place together. Once I found the primer to force gas into the lines the engine started right up. Restarts only took one simple pull. The tines really churn up the dirt, and you can dig down 10-12 inches. I had clay, rocks, and sod with plastic mesh to mix up. The clay caused the Mantis to bounce, alot! Pulling back on the Mantis tilling a 5 foot area, and then slowly moving forward tilling the same area a small deeper was the only way to get down deep. Sometimes I had to go over the same area a couple of times to get an even depth, but it was some pretty hard clay. Not any more, the clay is all broken up and mixed with the excellent dirt.
The plastic mesh did get wrapped around the tines pretty terrible, but I had installed the weed reducers and I had the weed detangler tool to help get the mesh out. I had to stop many times and clean out the mesh and clay buildup, but it was a nice break from constantly pulling back on the tiller.
The one disadvantage to the tiller is that it contantly wants to take off on you, and you are the only thing stopping it. It requires alot of forearm and upper body strength to keep pulling back on the tiller at all times. Working the tiller from side to side and back and forth seemed to provide the best results. If you have a huge area to till, I would recommend investing in a rear tine tiller that you can walk beside and guide with one hand. If you have a small, or raised, planting bed (3-4′ across by 8-15′ long#, then the Mantis will work fine. Unfortunatly, my garden was more than twice that size and took me about 8 hours to till #day and a half). Your arms may be sore for a couple of days, but it is a excellent workout, and your planting beds will look fantastic.
I haven’t tried the border edger yet, but the kickstand was very handy to have. Wear ear protection, even the quieter 4-cycle was loud.