Eastern Hardwood Forest Fire Break Rake?

   / Eastern Hardwood Forest Fire Break Rake? #1  

scollins

Silver Member
Joined
Jul 26, 2010
Messages
118
Location
Rolla, ND
Tractor
John deere 2305, X520 and LX188
I'm wondering if anyone has tried one of these for clearing leaves off of mowed fire trails?

Graetz trail rake.jpg

Here is a web site you tube video.

Graetz Yard & Trail Rake


How do you turn off the rake while transporting from site to site?

Right now, I just use the high-lift blades on a lawn tractor X 3 passes to clear an 8 foot wide trail to burn off of.

This unit is $650 plus tax ans shipping. Rocks should not FUBAR it up, but I do not know what would happen in hardwood brush if the trail was not already brushed out?

Kinda neat.

SC
 
   / Eastern Hardwood Forest Fire Break Rake? #2  
I think..... TSC sells a smaller wheel rake for leaves and such. If you have not seen them already:D

Wheel rakes usually less cabbage.

Is kinda of a nifty mini hay rake in picture there, to bad it not on a 3pt set up.
 
   / Eastern Hardwood Forest Fire Break Rake? #3  
How about a blower, seems like it would be faster and easier to use? A cheap option would be a pine straw rake too.
 

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   / Eastern Hardwood Forest Fire Break Rake? #4  
Ah ha!!!
NorthernTool.com has got those wheel rakes I was thinking of.... They call'em acreage rakes

Expensive one $430.00 cheap one $300.00
 
   / Eastern Hardwood Forest Fire Break Rake?
  • Thread Starter
#5  
I think..... TSC sells a smaller wheel rake for leaves and such. If you have not seen them already:D

Wheel rakes usually less cabbage.

Is kinda of a nifty mini hay rake in picture there, to bad it not on a 3pt set up.

Hello there, sprucedeere;

I happened to look at one of the little TSC ATV wheel rakes last Spring. It was awfully lightweight construction. There is an Estate Rake. I do not know if it is the same one, or a heavier version. At work, we ended up buying a pull sized Tonutti wheel rake to clear off fire breaks in mowed pastures.

10-4 on the 3-point setup. It could be lifted when not in use.

SC
 
   / Eastern Hardwood Forest Fire Break Rake?
  • Thread Starter
#6  
How about a blower, seems like it would be faster and easier to use? A cheap option would be a pine straw rake too.

Hello jenkinsph from somewhere (in the pines) USA!

The backpack blowers ARE very comonly used across the Eastern hardwood region for fireline construction and move as many leaves as 4-6 guys with leaf rakes. In fact, I bought a Stihl BR-600 that is placed in the "fire cart" when I conduct an oak leaf litter understory burn. It also comes in handy for getting leaves out of bushes, underneath wooden decks, from between bushes and those other pesky places. I paid $500 some for mine. T%he good thing about a "blower"? Rocks do not affect it as there are no moving blades or tines.

Your little pine straw rake (on a JD X540??), for your (southern?) pine leaf litter looks like an excellent idea, and in fact the Missoula Equipment Development Center has tried them out. If the leaves or pine straw is wet, that is going to work just as well.

Right now, this is how I clear my trails of leaves, in areas clear of stumps and rocks. I can clear a 48" path in dry leaves at about 1 MPH (80 chains/hour)

Lawn Tractor Trials 10-28-2011 011.jpg

I clean up the line with a heavy spring tined leaf rake as I burn off the line, to catch "creepers" across the mowed fire break.

Agri-Metal also makes a cool pull behind massive leaf blower for over $2000 (A good down payment on a JD X500 that I could use to mow trails).

The nice thing about your pine rake? It has other uses, like smoothing out gravel drives and such.

SC
 
   / Eastern Hardwood Forest Fire Break Rake?
  • Thread Starter
#7  
Ah ha!!!
NorthernTool.com has got those wheel rakes I was thinking of.... They call'em acreage rakes

Expensive one $430.00 cheap one $300.00

Yep;

I looked at em just now. They look like the ones at TSC. The $300 one pulls the grass and such to the "middle" instead of off to the side. They had some nice landscape rakes on the same page.

The Kisatchie NF down south uses a 2-wheel full sized home made 3 point 2-wheel rake for cleaning pine litter off of their fire breaks.

For the pine and spruce litter in Idaho, I think that your little rake is ideal.

SC
 
   / Eastern Hardwood Forest Fire Break Rake? #8  
scollins,
I have a Sthil 600 backpack blower that you speak of and it is handy but I was thinking more of a pto driven larger blower. If all you need to do is clear a four or five ft path then I would think a mower deck with a power flow blower with a custom side deflection chute would do the trick nicely. When these things aren't connected to the long chute and cart/bags they can move alot of material in a hurry. I would think 5 mph would be obtainable. FWIW my mower is an x749 diesel, 4x4ws with limited 3PH and 540 rear pto, very manueverable. I should also mention that Everything Attachments has a new pine straw rake of their own that has replaceable non welded tines should be an improvement.
 
 
 
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