Hi N-N. Clearly I'm a bit late to be saying this, but maybe it wasn't the best choice? Sorry.... I've used several cultivators as a result of owning a couple and being given a few to 'try to make them work properly'. These included Wolseley, Merry Tiller, Howard Gem, Howard Bantam, and a few others. Despite what this may suggest, I wouldn't call myself an expert. However, for anyone else contemplating a similar choice/machine, I would make the following observations:
All machines that have a drive to the tines only, and rely on the tines for propulsion as well as cultivating, have the same drawbacks.
1. All of them, regardless of size, 'skip' over hard-packed, dry, or VERY weedy soil, rather than cutting a regular swathe.
2. They all use a single bar at the back as a 'leg', to set the cutting depth and slow the 'surge-ahead' tendency, supposedly allowing you to pace the speed of progress. With so many variables of soil structure, stones, weeds, dryness/compaction, etc, this system can't cope, and the machine will either skip merrily over the top or dig itself in deeper and deeper.
3. Some people recommend allowing the machine to career all over the plot when the ground's hard, and simply go over it again and again, in all directions, until the thing's broken the soil enough 'to do it again properly'! Besides being a collossal waste of time and fuel, this is still hard work for a few hours and rather haphazard at getting the job done. From experience of trying this, I've also found it leaves dips and mounds like a bad attempt at the medieval 'Ridge and Furrow' system or the Scottish Run-Rig cultivation!
4. Combining the propulsion and the cultivation in one 'axle' is a compromise, and this kind of machine does neither very well.
5. SOMETIMES, it's better to remove the outer tines and use the narrower ones only, giving you more control. It's far less effort to handle the beast, and you can adjust the depth and speed of progress with more precision as you go. It's less tiring, but it takes twice as long to work the ground with the narrower tine set.
6. BECAUSE you invariably have to manhandle the machine when using it; either holding it back or trying to get it to move forward, and because you have to lift them on and off transport (as they don't propel themselves), this type of machine tends to be smaller in its' capacity. Either they cut deep enough, with a narrow swathe, or they cut wide enough, but not very deep. They seldom cut at full depth AND full width unless the soil has already been worked!
The other main sort of 'walk behind' machine uses two drives; one propelling the machine on wheels, and the other cultivating the soil with tines. They have one engine serving both functions.
1. The tines work the other way round, not moving the machine forward, but cutting the ground from the 'already cut' side towards the 'hard' side. This is more effective when cultivating. It throws less dust at the operator, too.
2. Even though the same engine drives both the cultivators and the wheels, neither interferes with the other. So the machine plods on at a steady speed, regardless, and the tines work the soil for as long as they are on it (according to the ground-speed selected). This makes a better tilth.
3. Because the wheels set the speed, you don't have to! You neither have to hold the damn thing back, nor haul it out of the pit it's dug itself into!
4. Even though wheeled machines are usually larger and heavier, they are easier to use. They usually have at least one forward and one reverse gear, so they can propel themselves around the smallholding, and in and out of a trailer or pick-up. So you do't have to carry them or lift them about.
5. Simpler wheeled machines are dedicated rotovators; that's all they do. But some, even smaller ones have a range of attachments. This makes them the 'Black and Decker' of the smallholding! Even allowing for drawbacks from having to swap gadgets, this versatility is much cheaper than having to buy a range of different powered machines; cultivator, mower, plough, ridger, harrow, etc. You can even get a range of things you'd not thought of, like snow-plough, hedge cutter, different types of mower (finger-bar, topper, flail, rotary, etc).... Some also have a true 'power take off', to drive other bits of kit, like saws, generator, stump-grinder, etc. It makes the machine a true 'two wheeled tractor' (or 'single axle tractor'), as they are called throughout Europe.
There isn't one simple technique for using a wheel-less rotovator such as you describe. What you are doing; the experience you're having, is exactly what they do. They CAN dig their way through weedy or compacted soil, and they can make later use of hand tools much easier. But when you've worked your way through even a 1/4 acre with a rotovator that's inclined to gallop away or dig for victory, with you alternately heaving it out of a pit or holding it back in a dust-storm, it may feel as though you've done enough hard work already!
After having my Howard Gem stolen, I've tried several others, with the same experience as yours. Even though the Gem was forty years old, weighed in at around three hundredweight, and had to be started by hand, it was streets ahead of the others. It's wheels (and 11 h.p.engine and low gearing) would drag a car out of a ditch, and it would plod all day through weeds, 'concrete-hard' ground, rocky soil or anything. Nor was it expensive to run. Nor did I feel after a day's labour that I'd carried the thing, as I have with the non-wheeled types. It also gave a deeper and wider swathe, with no need to take off tines to make it manageable.
I'm currently looking for a machine to replace the 'Gem' rather than spend any more time or effort with the wheel-less machines. I have three of them, and they are such hard work, I don't use them!
I think it may have been on this site that someone recommended a 'Maxtra' rotovator for around £200. Certainly, there are several testimonials on the internet. Perhaps they aren't ALL posted by Maxtra employees (cynic that I am!). The list price is around £240, but several suppliers seem to have them for far less. They cut about 60 cm / 2 feet wide and around 30-40 cm / 12-15" deep; as good as any non-wheeled jobbie. In value-for-money terms they seem sound, and they're reportedly reliable. So that's what I'll be going for, unless I happen on a used 'single-axle' tractor somewhere, with a range of attachments I'd find useful, or a working Howard Gem...!
If you're really stuck with your machine, persevere, and yes, you ARE using it right. That's how they are. I guess it does beat trying to break new ground with a spade... just! And sorry if I'm sounding like a smart-arse or like Harry Enfield's "I don't think you meant to do that..." character. It just goes to show, if you'd come to this forum sooner....
Best Regards, John