Rake for bucket to clean up acres of brush

[I Stand Alone]

Until I have the money for a grapple bucket this is my thought.

I have an old spring tooth drag that I broke the frame on a few years back. I was thinking of removing the individual spring teeth and mounting them to a piece of channel. Probably about 6" apart. Then weld some ears on the channel and bolt it to the sides of my bucket so the teeth are under the front lip of the bucket. I think I would also add a lip on top of the channel to be supported by the cutting edge on the bucket.

I need to clear acres of loose brush after having an area cleared by a tree harvester. It was awesome to watch 90 foot trees being removed every 2-3 minutes. It is fast but leaves a mess behind. I have cleared areas before with a york rake but then you need to drive over the brush. This has cost me 2 hydraulic lines and a transmission filter.

The teeth should grab the brush and when I encounter a stump I will not be impaled by the steering wheel.

Thought?

Thanks
I Stand Alone

 

[bcp]

If you already have a York rake, it could be put on the bucket like this, then turned to push the brush.

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/build-yourself/135503-kubota-bx-front-end-loader.html#post1652502

Bruce

 

[rekees4300]

Thought?

Would a Ratchet Rake work? There have been many recommendations for it on TBN.

TractorByNet.com Store

 

[I Stand Alone]

The problem with the york rake is that the tine are so close the brush get stuck between the tines and then they break, I am missing several already, A ratchet rake might work but that will cost money.

The area I have to clear is full of stumps which once the brush is cleaned up I will grind out. I pulled the ones in my last pasture expansion and it left a lot of depressions.

I need something that will allow me to go in, around and over the stumps without causing a sudden stop in forward motion when I encounter one. The spring teeth should allow this.

 

[muddstopper]

After looking at the racket rake video, It looks to light duty for serious work. I suspect the racket straps would see extreme wear if used for pileing brush. I think I would look for one of those bolt on toothbars. If your fel uses the quickattach setup, you could possibly rent a tooth bucket from a rental store. I have cleared may an acre by just tilting a toothed bucket slightly, skiming the ground, and easing thru the brush, pushing it into a pile.

 

[smiley]

Until I have the money for a grapple bucket this is my thought.

I have an old spring tooth drag that I broke the frame on a few years back. I was thinking of removing the individual spring teeth and mounting them to a piece of channel. Probably about 6" apart. Then weld some ears on the channel
Thanks
I Stand Alone

It should work as long as you don't try to weld the teeth on. I'm speaking with the voice of experience. We used to have a motorcycle track and couldn't afford a York rake to remove stones. We put several hours into removing the teeth from a couple old drags and welding them onto heavy steel flat stock, then bolting it to our grader blade. About every 5 feet we'd hear a loud SNAP and SPROINGGG as another weld broke and tooth took off like a rocket. The welds didn't break, the teeth themselves broke next to the weld.

 

[saltbranch]

After looking at the racket rake video, It looks to light duty for serious work. I suspect the racket straps would see extreme wear if used for pileing brush. I think I would look for one of those bolt on toothbars. If your fel uses the quickattach setup, you could possibly rent a tooth bucket from a rental store. I have cleared may an acre by just tilting a toothed bucket slightly, skiming the ground, and easing thru the brush, pushing it into a pile.

I have the 72" RR and have cleared alot of brush/mesquite trees here in S.Tx. The straps have lasted with no problem and I have push alot of brush into piles for burning. I have 4 piles waiting for the burn ban to be lifted right now. I've had mine for 2-3 yrs now I think and last weekend I broke one of the cables(1st time to break one), i replaced the cable with chain and will see how that lasts. Light duty its not, I have pushed trees over 4 to 6" diameter, I use it to rough trim tree limbs in pastures to make shredding around the trees easier. see this thread for my pics
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/projects/270552-need-advice-land-clearing-any-2.html

 

[muddstopper]

Salt, I will defer to your experience with this particular piece of equipment since I have only seen a video of it working. I will say after viewing the pics of the work you have done, it seems to suit your purpose pretty well.

Now for my thoughts on the light dutyness of the product. Since the OP of this thread stated that he had timber cleared, I assume some decent sized stumps hid in the brush. Brush most likely to consist of tree tops and limbs laying where they fell. Your mention of 4 to 6inch brush is probably a lot smaller than the stumps likely to be incountered after timber removal. To be quite honest, I think any attachment on a tractor fel would suffer serious damage if ran into a tree stump at any speed faster than a crawl. A grapple would probably be my first choice if i was using a FEL to pile brush. A grappel would also make for a cleaner brush pile without all the dirt that would be accumilated using some sort of rake. Since the Op doesnt have or cant afford a grapple at this time, and since whether using a rachet rake or some sort of tooth bar or bucket attachment, the operator is going to have to be very careful not to tear up his equipment. I personally wouldnt waste my money on buying any attachment for the FEL to pile brush. Instead, i would look toward renting a grapple bucket or a bucket with teeth, or spend the least amount of money possible and purchase a bolt on tooth bar. JMHO.

 

[RDrancher]

The only thing a Ratchet Rake can't do that a tooth bar can is dig and cut grade. But it wasn't designed to take the place of a tooth bar. I've cleared heavy brush, pushed down and piled lots of honey locusts and chipped off limestone "iceberg" tips with the 72" RR mounted to a 75hp Kubota track loader. "Light duty" its not.

That said, the RR or tooth bucket will chuck you out of the seat if you encounter an immovable object...just what the OP is trying to avoid. I like the idea of a bucket mounted tine bar. I'm not sure how you would fasten them though...maybe some type of flat clamp like the Everything Attachments landscape rake? Everything Attachments Brand Tractor 3 Point Hitch, Category 1, Landscape rake, Root Rake, Rock Rake, York Rake, available in 60", 72", 84", and 96 inch sizes, Free Shipping within 1.000 miles! It would take a light touch on the FEL, but looks like it would work pretty good.

 

[zing]

Salt, I will defer to your experience with this particular piece of equipment since I have only seen a video of it working. I will say after viewing the pics of the work you have done, it seems to suit your purpose pretty well.

Now for my thoughts on the light dutyness of the product. Since the OP of this thread stated that he had timber cleared, I assume some decent sized stumps hid in the brush. Brush most likely to consist of tree tops and limbs laying where they fell. Your mention of 4 to 6inch brush is probably a lot smaller than the stumps likely to be incountered after timber removal. To be quite honest, I think any attachment on a tractor fel would suffer serious damage if ran into a tree stump at any speed faster than a crawl. A grapple would probably be my first choice if i was using a FEL to pile brush. A grappel would also make for a cleaner brush pile without all the dirt that would be accumilated using some sort of rake. Since the Op doesnt have or cant afford a grapple at this time, and since whether using a rachet rake or some sort of tooth bar or bucket attachment, the operator is going to have to be very careful not to tear up his equipment. I personally wouldnt waste my money on buying any attachment for the FEL to pile brush. Instead, i would look toward renting a grapple bucket or a bucket with teeth, or spend the least amount of money possible and purchase a bolt on tooth bar. JMHO.

I agree, any tined item that you run into those stumps with attached to your loader is going to get busted up. I think you would be better off fixing the frame on your drag and using it to drag the brush to an area where you know there are no stumps. Dragging it will ride over the stumps a lot better than running into it with tines on the FEL. Once you have everthing in an area that is cleared of stumps you could push into piles with the FEL and burn or chip it there.