Failed Project - Homemade Blackberry Rake

   / Failed Project - Homemade Blackberry Rake #1  

woodlandfarms

Super Member
Joined
Jul 31, 2006
Messages
6,110
Location
Los Angeles / SW Washington
Tractor
PowerTrac 1850, Kubota RTV x900
I have a huge blackberry issue, along with surprise ravines and major chuck holes hidden in my blackberries... I am trying to find the property without dumping my PT into a pit....

I found with my mower a piece off a spring harrow. Wanting to practice my welding skills I decided to build a device to reach up high into trees as well as over edges of ravines and pull out / level my blackberries and such...

Basically pipe, some angle iron, and a bit of plate and some bolts... I attached the boom attachment to the backhoe (I had been using just the backhoe to test the ground ahead before). Figured I could use the reach to get into the trees and down the ravines.

Well, it worked... Kinda... Here is the failures... The harrows are a bad idea for landscape rakes. They really hold onto everything... Second, I am a terrible (novice) welder, finally, the blackberries are really heavy and pretty firm into the ground.

Basically, I got about 15 minutes of use before I broke it. Snapped a weld. I could build it stronger, but the Tines are the failing. I also need to make the mount ambidextorus to work on both the back hoe and out on the long boom...

Also it is a PITA to remove the bucket head and then put on the boom pole. I know I am soft from having a PT where every implement is no more than a 45 second change, but....

the resolution will be to look for some different tines and figure out a more universal mounting system...
 

Attachments

  • IMG_4495.jpg
    IMG_4495.jpg
    672.7 KB · Views: 1,935
  • IMG_4496.jpg
    IMG_4496.jpg
    745.3 KB · Views: 1,338
  • IMG_4497.jpg
    IMG_4497.jpg
    708.3 KB · Views: 1,282
  • IMG_4498.jpg
    IMG_4498.jpg
    718.7 KB · Views: 1,348
   / Failed Project - Homemade Blackberry Rake #2  
Interesting idea! I wonder if cutting about a foot off each tine might make it a little less aggressive and not hold on to everything quite as much, more of a raking effect? I've been mowing and cutting them back for 12 years now and still don't dare turn my back to them.
 
   / Failed Project - Homemade Blackberry Rake #3  
Carl,

That's quite the reach. Almost makes me wish I had got the lifting boom attachment.

Do you have your rake welded to the boom or bolted?

Ken
 
   / Failed Project - Homemade Blackberry Rake
  • Thread Starter
#4  
Bolted, and on further inspection I bent the heck out of that. Will need to beef it up in future designs...

Also, yeah, the length is Way Cool. until you have to drive it around. Trying to get in and out of trees... Heck, trying to get it out of the carport... But, it is cool to be 15 feet out ahead of your tires..

I just went out with the PT and backhoe... Found myself staring at some sort of man made pit... Glad for technique, wish this arm method would work.

Those tines would be a bugger to cut without a torch. I am going to just go buy some... Can't be that expensive...
 
   / Failed Project - Homemade Blackberry Rake #5  
You folks probably already know this... Crossbow is extremely effective on Himalayan Blackberry, roots and all. Maybe not as fun as as destroying them w/a tractor, but effective. Desirable plants grow well in treated areas also. Must be residual nitrogen from the dead blackberries???
 
   / Failed Project - Homemade Blackberry Rake #6  
Yep, Crossbow works good but you've got to be able to apply it at the root. The vines root as they grow so one beginning will eventually result in multiple interconnected plants that shoot vines like crazy into a nearly impassable barrier. That big wall of berry vines has to be gotten out of the way before crossbow can be applied for affect..
 
   / Failed Project - Homemade Blackberry Rake #7  
Wow!

What you need is a hydraulic line all the way out to the end, with a big pair of "Snippers" powered by a cylinder, actuated by a valve.

Maybe ditch the ctines, and go with a 2 foot piece of flat bar stock, ground sharp, and pull it back toward you, keeping it close to the ground?

Really looks like a job for a rotary cutter, or something that is powered-up to slice.
 
   / Failed Project - Homemade Blackberry Rake #8  
Oooops, actually I just had another thought.

A "V" shaped steel attachment, that is sharpened on the inside angle of the "V".

Something that could be placed just beyond the base of the bush, pulled backward so that it catches the bush near the base, and allows you to pull the bush out by the roots. The baclkberry bushes branch out, so, the "V" should catch no higher up than where the bush branches out?

Just thinking out loud.
 
   / Failed Project - Homemade Blackberry Rake
  • Thread Starter
#9  
Yeah, I am a huge crossbow fan... That said, after last years expereince where I basically was only able to spray 10 feet or so into the blackberries, I elected to groom them down, then apply crossbow and a weed control... Using a tractor sprayer... You have to understand, the blackberries can be 10 to 20 feet tall. go out and look at a tree in your yard and that is how hight these bad boys are. If I were to spray just that plant it would take me a year to go 5 feet...

As for Skunkwerks Idea... Yup.. I have this dream of a spinning headed something that would cut and mulch this stuff up and also allow me to mash up my alders... Problem is I have only 1200lbs of lift.... And I also have a wife who has cut me off financially so all projects are in the $50 range unless the $500 worth of crossbow counts...
 
   / Failed Project - Homemade Blackberry Rake #10  
hill said:
That big wall of berry vines has to be gotten out of the way ...
I used the loader bucket skimming the ground to snag the canes. They are so many and so strong that this would stop the tractor. Then lift the bucket to yank the clusters out, hopefully including roots, and later shred the debris with the rotary mower.

Here I had to use pruners to clear some personal space. I started a tunnel along a terrace but got thorny stems wrapped around my head as I backed out. http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/...e-after-746903-dscn4593rtractorinbrambles.jpg

The permanent roots are so deep that discing won't reach them. http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/...fore-after-746540-img_5898rblackberryroot.jpg

In this orchard, Himalayan Blackberries were fought with nasty herbicides plus discing for nearly a century. Down in back where it's too steep to disc downhill, the blackberries are winning along the face of each terrace and those rows are no longer harvested.

I tried grubbing them out scraping the surface with the loader (2004 photo) http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/...08683-more-blackberries-743361-img_5842r1.jpg but the vines are winning and all we can do there is pick berries. Same terrace, 2007:
 
 
Top