Rake Side delivery rake

[Anonymous Poster]

Has anybody cut down a side delivery hay rake to about 4 feet? I'm trying to come up with a mini rake to clean up pine needles from the "grass" area along side the lane since the wife has decided they are ruining the "lawn" there.
She who derams of being obeyed believes this job must be done at the beginning of spring, when the only machine that won't sink there is a garden tractor, and I have an alergic reaction to a rake handle in my hands.

 

[spencer200]

Franz

This company makes a rake to do just what you want and may save you lots of hassle. They are not that expensive if I remember right. We Have rebuilt the hitch on the larger one for one of our customers so he could tow it with a boomer. They are designed to work with lawn and garden tractors. http://www.estateyardcare.com/

 

[nicklan]

Spencer200,
I have one of these and they work pretty well. The only beef I have with them is weighting them down. They have small boxes for putting brick sized objects in them, I put in some small steel plate scraps. Works much better /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif. One last problem though - sooner or later you end up with and must pick the windrow. I used my JD 216 to pull it. I just looked at their website, and they now make a larger unit (8' - 185lbs) too. I just might have to get it. Anyone like to buy a slightly used estate rake?
Nick

 

[Thomas]

I believe I saw side rake in Northern Tool catalog,you might want to check out there website.

 

[rlw]

Nicklan,
I've been thinking hard about getting one of these estate rakes for a while now. Are you happy with its performance. Does it do a decent job of windrowing thatch and grass clippings? Does it work best at slow or "fast" speeds? I've been wondering if a standard 3pt finger wheel rake used for haying would work just as well - the tine spacing may be too large to work well with grass? Estateyardcare.com sent me a message indicating that a local rental company sells them. I am going to go by their tonight to take a look and possibly rent for a test drive.

 

[Carl_NH]

Franz,

Another option is to get a lawn vacuum that attaches to the tractor. These claim to pickup twigs pine needles etc, plus you don't need to pick up the windrowed materials after raking. Just dump or blow the debris. The capacity ranges from 20-40 CF so a good amount of materials can be picked up.

Two are Cyclone Rake and Trac Vac, and there is another TBN discussion that talks more about this.


Carl