Rake Do rock rakes work?

[jd1955]

We have a small ranch in the Texas hill country -- lots of rocks, big and small. Do rock rakes work and if you know, any recommendations? Thanks.

[texasjohn]

Welcome to TBN... it's a great site and full of good info. I don't have a rock rake, nor know of anyone in the hill country who has one.... There are lots of different soil situations there... from almost all rocks to places with soil and a few rocks... would perhaps help to know a few more details...maybe a photo.. we love photos... and, you might expand your profile to include area and equipment, etc...

here is a link to other folks in your area.

[Brahmus]

I just asked a similar question I was directed to the Rock hound rake!! I was told the Harley Rake works to but the rockhound collects them in a basket, which is what I was looking for.

[weldingisfun]

Jd1955, welcome to TBN. If this Tractor Supply Company - 5 ft Landscape Rake
is what you are calling a rock rake, the answer to your question is no. Take the advise from Brahmus.

[Cyberroc]

RockHound Rock-Rake should do the job and does collect the payload into a basket allowing soil to sift though, depending on how big the large rocks are; that you speak of. I don't have one, however I have used one or at least something close (not sure of brand). We had some properties that we could run for a few rows before dumping and others where we could only make one pass if that.

Harley Rake will windrow them off to one side for collections later. This would be a nice option if you have a way to drag them away after and don't want to dump bucket after bucket, depending on how many rocks you have.

If you are speaking of a landscape rake, they will drag rocks around almost like that of a blade, however I don't beleive that is what you are looking for and you won't collect even close to that of the other two options.

You also want to decide if you will be renting or purchasing, if purchasing, I would ask for a test run of the ones you are looking at. If you are renting, you may want to cosider renting a skid with it. I am not sure of models that have come out in the past year or two, however the rockhound type rake we had would shake the s... out of anything it was attached to. We mainly ran it off the skid in reverse.

One positive I will add is that we figured that we saved the time and labor of 3 to 4 people; that could then be done with the rock rake in a quarter of the time. Good Times.

[buckeyefarmer]

I rented one for a day to rake my "future" yard before it was planted, it was great.

[dnafziger]

what brand was the one you rented and how big of rocks would it pickup?

[deereguy]

A Rock Hound Rake will pick-up 3/4" to 6", so they say. I have both a Rock Hound and a Woods (Harley) Power Rake and prefer the power rake for most applications. You can windrow as well as pull them off to one side and pick them up with the loader and dump where you want. Same concept as the Rock Hound, but it picks up ALOT of dirt with it and found that the 6' Rock Hound is VERY heavy and I needed the loader filled with rocks/etc to counter the weight of the Hound. The Hound has much higher hydralic GPM requirements than the Power Rake and the soil should be dry when using the Hound. WHen I bought the Hound I was determined it was the machine I needed, but the salesman recommended the Power Rake, after renting a Power Rake I decided both where useful but really prefer using the Power Rake for a fine seed bed.

Good Luck in your decision!!

PS -Request a video or check out Harley's website and you will see the difference.

[TractorChick]

One thing to consider with the Harley rake / Rockhound choice is what you're planning on doing with the rocks. The Rockhound will give you a great deal of material to dispose of which is good if you want pretty much "rockless" soil and if you have a place to dump them. If you don't have a place to dispose of a lot of rocks, and you can deal with a couple of stones leftover that the Harley rake didn't get, you might want the Harley over the Rockhound.