Rake Best attachment for turning gravel/clay into a yard

[WarrenPFJr]

Hey all,
Im new to this site and looking for a bit of advice. I just built a new home and have a ton of yard work to do now, mainly turning my construction site into a yard. I have used my Kubota B3200 to move the bulk of everything to where i want it landscape wise, mostly backdragging with the FEL. I live in the catskills and my soil is all clay and gravel so this meant a lot of getting off the tractor and picking out the 2ft plus boulders, back dragging again to pull out the smaller stuff and then keep working my way down to golf ball size stuff which i would wind up raking out by hand before throwing seed down. It has been a lot of work on the few sections i have done and i know there has got to be an easier way, plus i have a long way to go. Im on about 8 acres and considered just sprinkling top soil over everything but that sounds real expensive....

In researching attachments it sounds like a harley rake is the way to go but that is way out of my price range. Im thinking box blade or maybe a landscape rake with wheels, maybe scarification teeth? Im worried if a landscape rake is suitable for my rock yard? How fast will i break these tines? How do you pros turn a forest into a yard after all the stumps have ben pulled and things have been roughly graded to where they need to be?

Other than the yard i have about a 1000' driveway i have to do also, spreading stone at least. I already filled it with softball size material ontop of road stabilization fabric and had dozers, excavaters and concrete trucks pack it in, but its still a teeth rattler and a pain to plow in the winter- LOL. I know i can spread this stone with the FEL but would a rake or box have any advantage?

Any insight would be appreciated!

 

[amigauser]

A Harley rake or clone would work well but they are $$$ even used. One option would be to rent a skid steer with either a Harley rake or rock hound attachment. That is what most companies in my area use to put in new yards.

I used a landscape rake on my own property but it is not going to remove large rocks. It does do a good job of cleaning up smaller surface rocks and debris. Another tool which looks promising is a yard tool - 60 Inch Soil Pulverizer | Yard Pulverizer but I have no direct experience with one.

 

[jenkinsph]

I put in alot of lawns in rocky ground and it can be expensive to do. You can do some things to lower the cost a bit though. With stump holes and larger rocks I have dumped the rocks in the stump holes first leaving them well below the ground surface. For large areas hauling in top soil would be prohibitive for most of us but can be a reasonable solution for small yards.

I don't think you can get rid of all the rocks but you can get most of them below the surface, out of sight and out of mind. In some areas frost heave may keep these rocks coming up in continuum and there really isn't much you can do but collect them each year. I am not sure if you can bury them deep enough to allleviate this in your locale as your frost line is alot deeper than mine. So if you can't bury them and get them out of the way you will need to collect them to dispose, and that sounds like an ongoing project each year.

What I have the best success with in my locale is tilling the ground about 8 inches deep and collecting the large rock with a rock bucket. I have dug deep trenches to bury the rock below the freeze line. Having the ground tilled and softened up allows me to push the remaining smaller rocks below the surface leaving a smoother finish for a seed bed. With a Harley rake you could collect alot more of these stones and get better results. Renting or hiring this done would be recommended if the cost of the Harley rake is a deal breaker for you.

I use a landplane grader blade to smooth out lawns, pastures and driveways, this is a tool worth owning for you long term. I prefer the landplane over the boxblade for most of this kind of work. I use an 8ft wide landplane and run it in a few passes in different directions and this really helps with the smoothing I wan't done.

For your work I would recommend a landplane and rock bucket to keep and a rental harley rake as the major implements you need. For 8 acres there are lots of other tools you would need such as a spin spreader for fertilizer and seeding, a roller/cultipacker for firming the seed bed and a spike tooth harrow or pine straw rake for covering the seeds. I can recommend the pine straw rake as an economical cheap to own tool with lots of uses.

To recap I would buy a landplane/grader scraper, rock bucket, spin spreader and pine straw rake. I would recommend you rent or hire someone with a Harley rake and rent a roller cultipacker when ready to seed.

 

[leonz]

Hey all,
Im new to this site and looking for a bit of advice. I just built a new home and have a ton of yard work to do now, mainly turning my construction site into a yard. I have used my Kubota B3200 to move the bulk of everything to where i want it landscape wise, mostly backdragging with the FEL. I live in the catskills and my soil is all clay and gravel so this meant a lot of getting off the tractor and picking out the 2ft plus boulders, back dragging again to pull out the smaller stuff and then keep working my way down to golf ball size stuff which i would wind up raking out by hand before throwing seed down. It has been a lot of work on the few sections i have done and i know there has got to be an easier way, plus i have a long way to go. Im on about 8 acres and considered just sprinkling top soil over everything but that sounds real expensive....

In researching attachments it sounds like a harley rake is the way to go but that is way out of my price range. Im thinking box blade or maybe a landscape rake with wheels, maybe scarification teeth? Im worried if a landscape rake is suitable for my rock yard? How fast will i break these tines? How do you pros turn a forest into a yard after all the stumps have ben pulled and things have been roughly graded to where they need to be?

Other than the yard i have about a 1000' driveway i have to do also, spreading stone at least. I already filled it with softball size material ontop of road stabilization fabric and had dozers, excavaters and concrete trucks pack it in, but its still a teeth rattler and a pain to plow in the winter- LOL. I know i can spread this stone with the FEL but would a rake or box have any advantage?

Any insight would be appreciated!

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About the only way your going to gain any head way is spread gypsum and lime on the plot to dissolve the clay and bring up the PH to near neutral.

Ideally hiring a local farmer that owns a Schulte rotary rock picker is you fastest way to do serious business to all the rocks as a rock picker will save you a lot of time and money in the end and they can dig deep too. The Schulte rock picker will pick up the big ones too by the way.

Then the biggest issue is that you have to decide where to dump them out of your way.

I would rather see you hire a local farmer with a rock pickerand a grass drill and you will be done with it as the rock picker will bring out everything above 2 inches +- and you will have a nice seed bed.

A box blade will help spread your drive stone BUT the trucks should be able to choke the delivery rate down with the chains on the fump gate if they still have them on there. With this the issue is simply time and a front end loader will be very cumbersome and the leveling will become an issue as the stone will not settle. A back blade will permit you to spread stone in several layers and the implement lock valve will gaurantee a set height to control the depth of stone on the driveway.

The other option is to simply purchase a snow plow and frame for the B3200 and then manage the stone that way which is going to be more productive for you.

Buying a snow plow and adding ballast to the tires will be your better solution to spread stone.

You could also hire the same farmer to spread a couple of tons of lime and gypsum for you too if you can find a local man of the soil with a rock picker.

I am a bit surprized that your Kubota dealer did not discuss a front plow for your use as well as a plow will be better suited for leveling and grading anyway. You will be able to use it for snow plowing as well.

I hope you are not having a problem with excess vibration with your B3200 like so many other owners.

 

[tractchores]

I have similar soil conditions at my house and have tried a few different methods. On the first section I used a rototiller to mix the soil, I then raked it out (can do it by hand or by pulling a big rake), then used a roller to flatten it and planted. It came out really well. The other sections I spread topsoil on (3 - 4"), it wasn't cheap, but effective.

A harley rake can be rented pretty cheaply (200 / day around here) and that's a great option for what you describe. You might put a small amount of top soil and then mix it with the harley rake while taking out the stones. I haven't tried it yet because I have trees in the lawn (think roots) and poorly buried internet and phone lines, which I'd most certainly destroy. I'm doing another section of yard in a month or so and will probably use the harley rake after putting a layer of good composted loam down on top so I get a mix and it can be made smooth and level.

 

[wolftree]

Before you bury all that rock, consider piling it in a back corner. You will be surprised at its uses as time goes by.

 

[sparc]

I watched that rock picker on YT, you'll want an enclosed cab if its dry.

Schulte 2500 Giant Rock Picker & SRW 1400 Windrower Colima, Mexico - YouTube

 

[WarrenPFJr]

Thanks all for the responses and great ideas. One thing i want to clarify is that although i live on 8 acres most of it is still mountainous, dense forest and rock, the yard areas I'm trying to work on is about an acre or 2 with lots to navigate around- garden beds, trees, streams ect. So although that rock picker looks awesome, i think it would be tough to use where i am because its not a wide open space. See the pics of my space below....

After reading the above suggestions I am leaning towards renting a Harley Rake if i can find one to fit a B3200. Using a tiller with a box blade and rake seems an option as well. I guess i was thinking that since i needed to purchase an attachment to lay gravel down for the driveway anyway, i was hoping maybe there would be something multifunctional that i could use to help clean the yard too. I would hate to buy a ground planer for example just to do the yard because then what do i do with it? At least something like a rake for example i know would be used to clean up the gravel driveway each year....

Leonz- thanks for the tip about gypsum and lyme, good to know. And yes the tractor does vibrate a bit, especially all the loose pins. Within an hour after i got this machine i stuffed fluffy pine cones into each pin area to keep 'em from rattling. nothing fancy but did the trick.

 

[oldballs]

I'd sell that place and move to Kansas. :laughing:

 

[jenkinsph]

Warren,
I work and live in the mountains of New Mexico and have similar circumstances to deal with at times. I recommend you get the largest rocks out of the future grass areas then haul in clean top soil. Here's a few pics of a lawn I put in a few yeasrs ago, when I started a weed eater was about all you could use. While topsoil is costly I recommend you just add areas as you can afford it.