Howard rotavator’s were available in three sizes, 20 inch, 24 inch and 30 inch machines, although they don’t make the Howard Gem any more, they were extremely good machines.

I have owned a Howard Gem rotavator many years, I originally owned a BCS 745 rotavator, which was a great machine, but just couldn’t dig hard ground.  Originally I was going to buy a Howard Gem, or Dowdeswell 650 as it was latterly, but my local dealer told me to buy they BCS machine, as it was about £1000 cheaper at the time.

 Although it was a very nice machine to use and the BCS had many accessories and implements that could be attached to it, I ended up buying a Howard Gem as the BCS  rotavator would not do the job is that I wanted to do, as in using the machine for contract work.

 The first Howard Gem I brought was a 24 inch width and had a rather Ruggerini 12 hp diesel engine, which I brought brand-new and paid precisely £4012!  I had two of these machines quite quickly, but unfortunately they both got stolen!  Later on, I brought a second hand Howard Gem, which was a 30 inch machine, this was powered by a 10 hp Hatz diesel engine.

I found a 30 inch rotavator much easier to use than the 24 inch machines, due to the fact of the dual wheels on this machine, especially when the ground had a very fine tilth, the dual wheels help the machine to stay on top of the ground.  The Hatz diesel engine was a much better engine then the Ruggerini engine on the previous machines, the Hatz engine, was a very economical engine and works extremely well when tackling hard ground when low revs were acquired.

It is a great shame that they don’t make the Howard Gem rotavator  anymore, they are great machines for contractors and keen gardeners etc.  If you are a keen gardener or a landscaper, you can still find these machines, but they are are getting much rarer now.

If you are looking for a Howard Gem, eBay is probably the best place to look in the first instance or you can go to this website where they specialize in restoring and trading in older pieces of garden and horticultural machinery.

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