Love all my Ryobi attachments. So versatile

Bought this Ryobi Expand-It cultivator attachment locally to use on a previously neglected split shaft string trimmer (Ryobi SS26 / RY28141) that came my way. I looked at the cultivators that are available on the market as I needed a tiller to eliminate flower beds in short order and I was not inclined to get a large front-tine tiller for the job, as I had one many years ago that managed to shake itself apart and it had poor tine design.

Blowe's and Home Despot had competing models made by two different manufacturers (one by MTD, this Ryobi by TTI) at near the same prices once the marketing stars aligned. This has a metal shield, while the one made by MTD is plastic. This matters when the tines kick up a fist-sized rock and lodges it against the shield. The plastic cracks and has the potential to injure the operator. AYP/HOP sells its own design under its brands, but it lacks widespread availability and judging from the reviews of their design, brass gearing isn't the smartest engineering element. All of the mentioned types are designed to operate on other makes of power equipment.

The tines on the Ryobi are reconfigurable and in the instructions on the quick setup, the general configuration is shown. Tilled up a rock and it was lodged between a tine and shield and the gearbox does not release or reverse. Had to read deep in the manual to get it configured to till rocky soil. The configuration instructions could have been laid out better. The tiller has a clutch safeguard, but it only kicked in when it kicked up that rock and when I reached established roots (the gearbox clicks). On performance, it did a lot better than I had expected in the rocky soil configuration--it was the most effective. Just understand what the limits are.

All cultivators of this type are very awkward to move from place to place as the attachment is a bit heavy and will throw the entire tool out of balance. Perhaps a set of wheels need to be supplied with the kit (Stihl does have this feature on their cultivator designed for their Kombi line). It comes supplied with a handle to attach to the trimmer and I did find it to be better than using the trimmer's stock handle.

Highly recommended at this price point.

A little heavy, but for a garden box...its great!!!

bought mine used works great, be careful it will pull you...lol

I couldn't start my existing tiller this season, and was looking at possibly $100 in repairs. Since I already had the 4 cycle power head, the cultivator attachment seemed like a no-brainer. It did the trick. I was able to churn up my 200 sq ft garden in a few hours (this is a new garden and I had many spots with clay and rocks).
This product handled both pretty well. When hitting rocks, it does jump a bit, but I think that is expected. As other reviews mentioned it is a heavy attachment and is quite tiring to use (especially if you are digging up hard stuff). I am still feeling it the next day. That being said, it did the job, and I have something much smaller that I have to store now. I would recommend it as long as you don't have a ton of area to cover. And if you do, just plan a few days and break it up.