Racket Rake or Piranha bar?

[dragoneggs]

The PTB has been a dream for me. I couldn't dig with my BX until I installed it. I use it for back dragging and it does a great job at that too. It seems like a natural fit for my bucket and will never take it off... no reason. I don't have any experience with a ratchet rake however. I suppose it depends on your use but I have beat the heck of my PTB and it is still in almost new shape. My soil is mostly glacial till so a lot of rocks up to volleyball size in the hard packed dirt.

 

[frogpond]

I have the same rocks mixed with a little soil, and the same kind of old slash piles to redistribute as dragoneggs (although his look bigger), at our place outside Snohomish WA. I also have a bx25d, and added a piranha to the bucket. It has been very helpful in ripping out brush (lots of salmonberry and devil's club, mixed with vine maple), and driving into piles of fill dirt. But for plain excavating, I still mostly have to loosen things up first with the backhoe. Perhaps a more aggressive toothbar version, like dragonseggs, would dig better. Still, the piranha in general is great to leave permanently on the bucket, and I use it quite a lot for backdragging, either with the teeth down, or with the flat of the bucket, as circumstances require. In
many places, dragging with the teeth has been a pretty good substitute for using the boxblade with the teeth down.
In the current downpour and resulting mud, I haven't been able to do much of anything with the tractor. I imagine it's just as wet where you are. Our streams are roaring, our pond has flooded, and some of our tractor roads are under water.

 

[txdon]

I have the ratchet rake (with chains - I broke the strap) a tooth bar, and a grapple. However if I had just the Ratchet rake and the Piranha bar to choose from it would be the Piranha bar because I could dig and load with the bucket without removing it.

 

[dragoneggs]

I have the same rocks mixed with a little soil, and the same kind of old slash piles to redistribute as dragoneggs (although his look bigger), at our place outside Snohomish WA. I also have a bx25d, and added a piranha to the bucket. It has been very helpful in ripping out brush (lots of salmonberry and devil's club, mixed with vine maple), and driving into piles of fill dirt. But for plain excavating, I still mostly have to loosen things up first with the backhoe. Perhaps a more aggressive toothbar version, like dragonseggs, would dig better. Still, the piranha in general is great to leave permanently on the bucket, and I use it quite a lot for backdragging, either with the teeth down, or with the flat of the bucket, as circumstances require. In
many places, dragging with the teeth has been a pretty good substitute for using the boxblade with the teeth down.
In the current downpour and resulting mud, I haven't been able to do much of anything with the tractor. I imagine it's just as wet where you are. Our streams are roaring, our pond has flooded, and some of our tractor roads are under water.

Yeah... pretty darn wet here on the Hood Canal. I'm trying to get my indoor honey do projects done at the moment. I have a guest bath I am remodeling and it is causing two trips a day to Home Depot!

 

[xring]

I live on the Gulf Coast of Texas and we have both tough brush and hard black Gumbo clay soil. After looking at tooth bars I decided to try the Piranha tooth bar. Digging is easily twice as efficient as no tooth bar and clearing brush is much easier. The ratchet rake does have the extra teeth to drag with but those same bottom teeth will keep it from digging well. I leave my Piranha toothbar on all the time but if I need it off it is only two bolts vs two straps for the ratchet rake. If you only want to clear brush then the ratchet rake may be a better choice but I do more than clear brush. Even so the Piranha toothbar is very helpful clearing tough brush piles. All that said my Kubota B2320 FEL Loader valve gave up the ghost after 50 Hours and am waiting on Kubota to see if they will cover an obviously defective part design after the 1 year warranty. If I was you I would go Piranha toothbar and never look back. Note: as mentioned before the Piranha tooth bar teeth are pretty sharp I use a pool toy called a funoodle to cover the teeth in th garage just slit one side ct to length and cover the teeth with it.