Rake Harley Rake - To Rent or Buy ??

[tcrider33d]

I have been calling around the Western NY area trying to find a 3pt Harley rake to rent, and it is just about impossible. It seems this must be Bobcat and Rockhound territory. Well anyway, I did happen to find a rental at a New Holland dealer near me (the only place), but they want $200 per day, plus delivery ($150). The way it has been raining, I may have to hold it for a week to get 3 days worth of raking done.

Should I just buy one of these implements? I was thinking about starting a side business, do you think there is money in just Harley raking as a specialty? How much would you charge per hour? Is the risk worth the reward? Could I just rent the Harley rake to people with a tractor? I do have the tractor (TC33D) and a 18ft landscape trailer. I have noticed that every landscaping contrator around this area has expensive new equipment, so there must be money in it.

Let me know what you think.

 

[AlanB]

A Harley is a good compliment to an existing business, but I would wonder about it being a business unto itself.

If you wanted to go that way, I would suggest contacting landscapers and lawn maintenance guys in your area, and offer that to complement their services.

We do not own a Harley, but the guy that rents property from us does, and we sub that portion of the work to him.

Have you priced one yet?

At the cost of about 6K up, you better have plenty of yards lined up to get an ROI.

There are some other tools out there that work as well (though I am not quite convinced they are as good as the Harley)

If I was doing it for my lawn, a pulveriser and a hand rake, or maybe a york rake will go a long way towards making a yard.

 

[AndyMA]

I owned one for quite a while and tried to line up work with local landscapers. The ones who were big enough to have a decent amount of need owned their own. I did some work for one and thought it would result in quite a bit fo work. He then purchased his own. I sold mine and will rent one when I need it. In my opinion, no other tool or collection of tools do as good a job as a Harley or one of its clones.

Andy