Help with fixing a landscape rake?

[bumperm]

I have a newer Country Line (TSC) landscape rake. While picking up some rock with FEL, I managed to back into a tree with the rake, twisting one side of the tine bar so the tines are forward and lower on that side (the main C channel is still about level but torqued maybe 20 degrees of rotation) tines not damaged. I tried hooking the now lower tines on the bent side to the edge of a concrete driveway and driving forward - that helped some, but not a lot.

Problem is the C channel tine carrier is welded to its center pivot and that is welded to the top plate that has the angle adjusting holes - nothing comes apart without cutting steel, so it is not at all convenient to put parts in my hydraulic press to straiten things. Also, the rake is too heavy to manhandle easily. I have a plasma cutter, so could lop off the bent part and either buy a piece to weld back on or straighten out the bent bit (either hot or cold), but I guess if I were trying to heat it to cherry to bend it back, then there might not be a lot of sense to cutting if off first.

I also have a port-a-power, but can't conjure up a way to hook things up to use that to straighten it.

Any thoughts or ideas appreciated - hopefully I'm overlooking something . . .

 

[bcp]

This style? Bottom channel bent?

Bruce

 

[bumperm]

It's that style, bottom channel is painted black and easily removable, - - unfortunately, it's the top channel that's twisted.

I've thought about a way to perhaps straighten it:

1) Remove all tines.

2) Position rake frame on concrete driveway with wood block under twisted end.

3) Place jack under front (3 point hitch end).

4) Place stabilizer pad on backhoe on top of twisted end.

5) Jack up 3 point end. It may be necessary to hold down, but not clamp down, opposite end of tine channel to keep it from lifting, so all the jacking force goes into rotating the twisted half (I hope).

Does that sound like a workable solution? Everything else I've thought of either has flaws or is more work intensive (cutting, welding etc).

 

[bcp]

That may work.

Since I don't have a backhoe to hold it down, I would bolt-clamp a long bar onto the channel and try twisting manually.



Bryce

 

[bumperm]

Bryce,

Good idea, I will admit to having considered that, along with simply bolting a bar to the outer most hole in the channel (holes used to secure lower "tine clamp" channel).

Since I have a backhoe, that alternative might be easier. Absent the backhoe, one might also put a stout plank on top of the bent channel, and then drive a vehicle wheel up and centered on it to hold if from twisting. If using another vehicle to do this hold down function, then the tractor 3 point hitch could be used to lift the 3 point end of the rake - - hmmm.

This is going to have to wait a few days, as I just got a chunk of cancer (not the melanoma kind) removed from the back of my knee. No bicycle riding for a few days - - hate sitting on my butt (I would not be a model welfare recipient).

 

[Sodo]

Pics will generate better advice.

It's always useful when you know exactly how it bent, and if you can do the opposite, its often a good way. You backed into a tree. Put a chain around the channel, in the same place as the tree contacted it, and wrap it around a tree. Then drive the tractor forward until the chain snaps tight. Start really slowly, and bounce the tractor against the chain tension, increasing the power of the "hit" a little each time, paying close attention to how the rake flexes. This method requires skillful driving.

If there's is buckling, put tension on it with the tractor (lock the brakes), and hit the buckling with a sledge hammer. If it goes down you are winning.

Stop if it doesn't seem to be working --- it's time for plan "B".

 

[bumperm]

Pics will generate better advice.

It's always useful when you know exactly how it bent, and if you can do the opposite, its often a good way. You backed into a tree. Put a chain around the channel, in the same place as the tree contacted it, and wrap it around a tree. Then drive the tractor forward until the chain snaps tight. Start really slowly, and bounce the tractor against the chain tension, increasing the power of the "hit" a little each time, paying close attention to how the rake flexes. This method requires skillful driving.

If there's is buckling, put tension on it with the tractor (lock the brakes), and hit the buckling with a sledge hammer. If it goes down you are winning.

Stop if it doesn't seem to be working --- it's time for plan "B".

If it were only so . . . the twisted steel channel didn't contact the tree, only about 3 of the tines did that, contacting the tree below the level of the channel and thus acting to twist (torque) the channel forward. I already did the next best thing and that was to hook those tines on fixed concrete and drive forward. Ain't happening, the tines slip off the concrete, though that did straighten it some. Chaining the tines, as you suggest, may work, but would require a bar or something behind the tines to carry the load into the tines - a chain alone would damage things by tending to pull or squeeze the tines together.

I'm thinking my plan B, removing all the tines and holding the channel in place while lifting the front, is what to try first. I'll be able to get to it in a week or so.

 

[PhysAssist]

Pics will generate better advice.

It's always useful when you know exactly how it bent, and if you can do the opposite, its often a good way. You backed into a tree. Put a chain around the channel, in the same place as the tree contacted it, and wrap it around a tree. Then drive the tractor forward until the chain snaps tight. Start really slowly, and bounce the tractor against the chain tension, increasing the power of the "hit" a little each time, paying close attention to how the rake flexes. This method requires skillful driving.

If there's is buckling, put tension on it with the tractor (lock the brakes), and hit the buckling with a sledge hammer. If it goes down you are winning.

Stop if it doesn't seem to be working --- it's time for plan "B".

My plan is much like the one Mr. Sodo suggested- except that I was going to say to use a tow strap because of the flexibility of it, and wrap it around the C-channel, from the center outwards to the end (opposite the way it has been twisted) and then when you hook the unattached outer end of the tow strap to an "immoveable object", whether it be a big tree, post set deeply into concrete, or whatever, the pull will torque it around as well bending it backwards.

Alternatively, you could use its attachment to the three point hitch as a stationary point and use a come-along to apply the force in a more measured way.

I was able to "un-torque" the bed of my pickup truck similarly after bending it trying to lift a too-large boulder with my truck crane (before I got its mounting brackets welded to the truck frame.

Good luck!
Thomas

 

[bumperm]

Thanks for all the help and inspiration . . . sometimes you just have to air the laundry to figure out the best way to clean it.

Sure wish one of you would'a been there to yell at me to stop before I bonked that tree.

At least it didn't bend anything on the tractor - 3 points being stronger for pulling rather than pushing, so I was going in the "weak" direction. Though Kubota's tend to be fairly stout at the rear hitch. My neighbor has a John Deere and cracked off the tractor pin for one of the lift arms. The pin was mounted on the axle housing on a boss that was made of cast aluminum. He was kicking the arm to get it to go on the pin of an implement when it let go. One of those things that has you scratching your head wondering what the heck were they thinking (which is what I was doing as I surveyed the damage to my rake :c(

 

[Shield Arc]

If I'm understanding the damage correctly, I would heat the twisted C-channel with a rose bud, and use a 36-inch pipe wrench to twist the C-channel back into place.