tiller suggestions?

[JMac]

I'm in need of some ideas of how I can clear a 17'x17' area in my back yard for a stamped concrete patio. When I put a garden in the back yard for my wife a few years back, I used a rear tiller to dig up the ground and due to the hard packed, large rocked soil, it really didn't do the job very well. It couldn't penetrate the soil and just seemed to bounce around. I've watched video for the honda fg110 tiller and it claims to handle packed soil very well, but I've got my doubts. Anyone familar with this unit or something else that I may be able to use (short of a bobcat!)

[Surface Tension]

If you have a lawn there a sod cutter will take that off and get you into some less compacted soil. Set the depth of the cutter deep.

Other then that even a good troy built tiller is going to bounce on hard compacted soil.

[Tom7227]

I was having a similar problem and I rented a lawn aerator that pulled plugs and ran that thing back and forth and tore the stuff up pretty good. That allowed the tiller to get a bite and do the job. Obviously it only worked for 3 inches or so. Maybe you should bite the bullet and get someone back there with a bobcat rather than spend the time doing it by hand and ended up spending the bucks at the chiropractor. That's a pretty big area and you're going to need to bring in sand and such for a base for your patio anyway.