New (to me) Landscape / York Rake

[woodlandfarms]

Got a very rusty John Deer Rake for $300. Not in great shape but it is a friggin rake so I got over the rust and gave the guy some coin.

Works like a charm. Drilled some additional angle holes and bobs your uncle.

Carl

[cqaigy2]

Nice paint job.

Looks like you have a couple different tires on it. Seems like it should do the job just fine.

[wasabi]

i'm jealous

[3238dpw]

It is funny how this came up now. i have been wondering if mounting a box blade with wheels in the front would work well. I know I have seen people mount them and pull them bacwards but I would like to go forward. Any thoughts?

[Clumber]

It is funny how this came up now. i have been wondering if mounting a box blade with wheels in the front would work well. I know I have seen people mount them and pull them bacwards but I would like to go forward. Any thoughts?

My PT-425 seems to have more torque or power pulling backward. But I've used a box scraper in pulling or pushing mode with good results. When pulling you can see what is being pulled, so you can judge how deeply you are grading.

I've never seen a box blade with wheels. What would be the advantage?

[MossRoad]

It is funny how this came up now. i have been wondering if mounting a box blade with wheels in the front would work well. I know I have seen people mount them and pull them bacwards but I would like to go forward. Any thoughts?

My PT-425 seems to have more torque or power pulling backward. But I've used a box scraper in pulling or pushing mode with good results. When pulling you can see what is being pulled, so you can judge how deeply you are grading.

I've never seen a box blade with wheels. What would be the advantage?

When you push something with the PT and it grabs the ground the pressure travels up the FEL arms and if the arms are not it float, it will start taking pressure off the front tires of the tractor and dig the implement into the ground further, raising the front further, etc...

When you pull something with the PT and it grabs the ground it will pull on the FEL arms and put more pressure on the front tires of the tractor increasing traction. If the implement has gauge wheels, it should not go any deeper than set.

[Clumber]

I have been using a box blade to attempt leveling a rutted and compacted crusher stone driveway. The function needed is to scrape the high areas to fill the low areas to level the surface. The final passes are made in float mode. I thought that this is the primary function of the box blade. Using casters would impede this task.

Now if you have had new gravel or dirt dumped on an area that needs leveling, the casters would be useful. However, I have a snow blade with casters for that purpose. If one only has a box blade then casters would help in this situation. However, I would be using the box blade without casters most of the time.

[Kernopelli]

You will get your moneys worth out of it. I use mine all the time....believe it or not, I even use it on an angle for plowing snow and it works pretty well. I like it better than my box blade for dressing my driveway. Its excellent for finish work on dirt and gravel. I built a rack to hold cinder blocks so I can have some down pressure on mine which really lets it dig into hard surfaces....you have the advantage of having it mounted on your FEL so you can control all the down pressure you want easily and even the ability to "curl" the tines which after all the way's I've used mine, can already imagine seeing that to be a great advantage. You'll be surprised at what all you can do with it. The only thing I would do personally is see if I could modify it so I could make the gauge wheel assemblies easily attach/detach. The only reason I say that is because I could see using it in ways where the wheels might possibly interfer. Great buy!

BTW...Your PT's got to be a brute. Every time I see a pic of it I realive that thing's a monster!

[J_J]

I don't think the PT was designed for dozer type work. Skidsteers and dozers, push using the frame. If you push very hard with the PT, you will be trying to jam the piston rod further back into the cyl. Sometimes the PT will try and climb over the implement if it catches on something. If the cyl is not fully collapsed, the fwd momentum could generate more pressure than the cyl or hose can take and burst. There is no hard stop on my PT.

Does anybody's PT lift arms rest on the frame when fully down, or just sit on the cyl rod?

[3238dpw]

I agree with everon, but I thought with the wheels it would give better control so it would not bite so hard and you could stop these problems. Isn't that the way it works with the rake?