Attachment for cleaning a lake bank??

[jewing3227]

I've been thinking hard about the best way (attachment) if there is one to help clean the edge of a lake bank. We recently purchased some acerage and it has an acre lake on it that is fairly grown up. We are clearing around it and me and the wife have been trying to think of a attachment that we could use to help get out in the water a little bit to help drag debis in. I know a long stick (track hoe) or maybe just busting the leevy and cleaning it all out would be the best bet but it's pricey. Any ideas or suggestions from anyone who has tackled this would be great. Thanks in advance

 

[murphy1244]

I will be interested myself.Ihave the same thinggoing on.Leaves and black stuff.

 

[murphy1244]

I will be interested myself.I have the same thing going on.Leaves and black stuff.

 

[Hollow]

You should be able to rent a mini excavator for around $300 a day or $1200 a week. Other than that I'm not sure you have any more cost effective options other than a pair of waders and a long chain.

 

[ENG18LT]

I used a CAT 303.5 and was able to get most of the cattails and sludge out about 10 feet from edge. Worked real well. You may want something with a cab, ground nests are not fun with an open station machine. As I recall the rental was 200 a day no delivery, I picked up.

 

[yanmars]

Just be careful. We had a guy a few years ago in a closed cab slide in and he ended up drowning. Just watch yourself.

 

[OBWON]

I run a water ski lake and have the ability to drain it up to 4 feet every winter with a four foot drain box (we don't get ice). I don't have to pull anything in from the shore, but I do groom my shoreline from wave erosion every winter with a box scrap and my Massey 1533. Works fine.

For lowering the lake level I suggest using a 6" SDR pipe...much cheaper than a pump (gravity is free). You just need some elevation to get it going. Standard trap at the top of the dam that screws shut. Cap the bottom of the pipe. After filling the pipe with a gas operated water pump, close the trap, uncork the cap, and it will pull the air through and start running. This is a heavy duty 12" siphon that had about 80 feet of vertical drop. It lowers a 30 acre lake that is 20 feet deep one inch an hour. [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLyknJHxGz0[/ame]

My plan was to put in a white sand beach early this spring, but we had a huge rain storm coming and it beat my sand delivery. I'd rather have a full lake then a white sand beach I guess!!! Next year...

Before the rain...

After the rain...

 

[ricksmith5645]

i built a rake to use on a nabors lake he had cat tails on one side and wanted to get rid of them due to snakes. on my bucket i have a reciever hitch welded on top so what i did was made a boom pole that one end would go into reciever hitch and be pined to secure it to keep it from bending top of bucket i supported it with a section of tubing that was welded to a 4 ft section of angle iron that rested on bottom lip of bucket. made pole out of 8 ft section of 4 in tubing then used smaller 8 ft section that would go into first section then on the end welded a 3 ft section of 4 in angle to act as a rake. i welded on around 15 teeth made from 2 in square 1/4 in thick flat plate angled back at 45 degree angle back toward tractor. after set up it sets out from bucket around 12 ft. i have a 2015 mahindra 4wd so i was able to drive tractor to edge of lake lower rake into water and pull weeds and cat tails out. i attached bush hog to rear for ballast. hydralics worked good except when rake was full of mud and weeds so we had to pull weeds off by hand to get it ready for another pass. after pulling weeds and they were piled on bank then i bushed hoged them away. i dont have pictures but can take some if requested. seems like a lot of work but it works pulls them out by the roots.

 

[20 20]

Not really sure what you're trying to clean up. If it's just simple weeds then a hand lake rake(landscaper rake@lowes) attached to a rope and tossed out then slowly pulled in does a good job. If it's cattails muck and hard to move garbage then your best bet is to drain and dig/clean other wise you'll accomplish nothing. One other thing that may work would be something like an old bed box spring(metal type), tie a rope to it and pull through weeded area. Do you have any pictures of the area you're trying to clean?

 

[GolfAddict]

i built a rake.... i dont have pictures but can take some if requested. ...

You did a pretty good job of explaining, and I think I can picture it, but wouldn't mind seeing actual pictures of it if you don't mind posting.