Landpride Rake/Blade Questions

[Engine66]

I already know Landpride makes a great product, but I had a couple concerns before I buy a rake and blade. In reviewing the specs and manuals on the L.P. website, I am left with a few observations...maybe you can help clarify. 1) The 2584/3584 rake w/gauge wheels appear unable to turn 360 degrees due to gauge wheel brackets not clearing the 3ph frame. Can rake turn 360 with gauge wheel bracket removed? 2) Flip-down grader blade attaches to gauge wheel bracket...if gauge wheel bracket is removed, flip down blade must come off??? 3) If unable to swing 360, then using rake in reverse to "push" material rather than pull will cause wheels to ride over material...unless wheels are stowed upright in off-ground position??? 4) Flip-down blade does not appear to be able to work in reverse...seems that it must face the material.

When using rake for simple grading, leveling out area, or doing gravel drive, it's easy to to just operate in forward position and let gauge wheels do their thing. However, if in woods with a few trees that have been cut up and branches, twigs, leaves, debris, etc. need to be cleaned up, I find it easier to operate in reverse with the rake facing opposite direction to push material into piles. This helps avoid running over material to be raked in forward operation. Having gauge wheels on ground in reverse would result in rake lifting up on all the debris and causing rake to lift as well. Seems the rake should swing 360 to be able to operate in reverse or I have to operate without the wheels on ground. What's your experience??? I had a Woods rake that could swing 360 and it was not a problem, but before I buy Landpride, I'd like to hear some of your experiences. The rake I want is around $1,800...that's a lot of ice cream.

 

[MarkV]

I don’t have any experience with the rake/blade combination so I’ll be of no help on whether it can reverse. What I do recall from a tread started years ago were comments about the blade being for light duty use only. As I recall someone bent one up pretty good trying to use it in the same manner they used a previously owned blade only set up. Just something I thought worth considering.

MarkV

 

[Compadre]

I have a Woods LRC60 rake. The manual says it can be rotated 360 degrees for most tractors. But the rake has two safety reflectors welded to the top of the tine beam at each end. On my BX24 it's these reflectors, not the gauge wheels, that prevent me from rotating it under the hitch. The diagram of the rake on the cover of my manual doesn't show the reflectors, but they are there on the "Safety" page -- I wonder if they are a recent addition. It's too bad because I really wanted to reverse the rake last weekend for some simple yard work. Assuming I could have rotated the rake, I don't think I'd have to take off the gauge wheels (although it's real simple to do so).

I hope the Landpride works out for you. Make sure your dealer confirms that it will rotate the full 360 degrees on your tractor before you buy.

 

[mark.r]

My 3584 rotates 100 degrees but I don't use guage wheels . . .

 

[Diesel-ME]

I can't adress your specific Landpride question, but I have a Woods LR108 with flip down blade and wheels. I always push debris backwards and find no need to turn the rake around. One thing to keep in mind is that the blade depends somewhat on the angle that you set by adjusting the top link to work. So while the rake might work OK flipped around (and it sounds like that's your objective in any case), the blade would be of little use in that position w/o making major adjustments.

But I can assure you that the wheels will not get in the way of pushing stuff backwards. They may impede spinning the rake around though.

Landpride makes nice stuff though. Woods and Landpride have very similar product lines and build quality IMO. Plus both those lines are carried by full service dealers and parts are never a problem.

~paul