Yard Raking Attachments

[charlessenf]

I did buy a crappy lawn rake from Amazon last year

And the link to the crappy lawn rake?

 

[thieany]

Umount blower works very well for me. You can adjust the speed and direction from tractor seat. Stronger than a Little Giant and with direction control much more efficient. Mounts on nearly every thing.

 

[Fxfymn413]

I use a DR lawn vacuum. It works well and I use it to mulch up straw before I spread it on newly seeded areas as well. Makes the straw much easier to spread evenly and because it settles in quickly it is more resistant to being blown away.

Keep you eye out for used vacuums. I see them pretty regularly and they are usually priced about half of a new unit.

 

[robertm]

I really appreciate all the feedback. Somehow, this halfway morphed into a leaf issue. It’s not. It’s sticks. I have a bagger for my BX. It does nothing for sticks. I also have an estate rake. Clogs up with sticks.
I’m not sure some of you know what type or amount of branches and twigs a sycamore dumps every time a large bird flys by. The Good Lord looks down on the sycamore and says “Well, that was a failed experiment”. There literally is no rhyme or reason to the length, diameter, or condition of what it drops. It drops live and dead branches. six inchers, and 8 footers. Eighth inch diameter to four. It craps branches, twigs, and bark 365 days a year.
I can pick up the larger and longer stuff, but picking up and taking the smaller stuff, which beats blades up if “mulched”, is a full wasted day job.
A bagger will do nothing, as the debris varies in size, length, and are as twisted and bent as a coat hanger caught in a garbage disposal. A type of RAKE is really what is needed, and the dethatcher rake presented above may be the ticket, but $1000 seems ludicrous. Maybe I should just controlled burn once a month.

 

[aircommuter]

Never tried this but I might. My need for a rake is to clean the road before grading since of course I don’t want to incorporate debris into the road surface material, old or new. I have a six way Gannon box and I thought about welding some pipes on the top that would accommodate several hand rakes that would be pinned in place and box can be tilted or lowered and raised as needed. Could be done on other attachments perhaps on the smaller machines more suitable for yards.
You did say any ideas!

 

[2manyrocks]

Sycamore tree here seems to have brittle limbs. Easily break off the tree, but hard enough to mess with lawn mower blades.

 

[SPM]

One good chain saw, also, perhaps a strong helper or 2. Sycamore seems popular for some woodworking or even building material so if you have some larger logs you could even make some money off them. A lumber mill in your area, if there is one, might even come and pick them up. Then, all you have are stumps to keep you awake at night.

 

[qualsite]

I just use my old riding mower to mulch and shoot the leaves out the side into long rows from both sides, which are then easy to pick up and put in the small trailer for mower, which then goes out on the garden area to decompose and till-in next spring with the cover crop and some ashes from the wood stove, and in our bad dirt, I need all the organic matter I can get, and this will give me a few yards of mulched leaves. We have a lot of mulberry trees with lots of big leaves, and this has worked well for me for many years. It's not as neat as raking the whole area, but the mulched leaves that are left decompose quickly.

 

[kmesr9]

Anybody have a GOOD way to rake their yard with some sort of attachment or yard tool outside of a good old-fashioned hand rake?
I have over one and 2/3 acres of yard with many maples and Sycamore trees that lose branches and twigs like leaves. Every time there is wind, I am out there raking by hand and in many cases, I am raking the complete yard by hand.
I have tried a Pineneedle Rake, and the tires are so springy that they release the raked contents after a little loading, and do no good. I do have an Estate Rake, but twigs are not its friend. It does wonders for detaching, however.
Other options I have thought of our a power rake like a Shindiawa or Stihl, and although it’s not manually raking, hustling a 40 pound yard tool with an 18 inch brush or rubber, paddle roller, seems like a fair amount of work.
Having a $20,000 tractor sitting there, sure tries to get me to think of ways to either find an attachment, or make something that would work to save me some time.
Any thoughts are appreciated.

I have an acre of yard to mow and I use a JD with a Powerflo. It removes leaves etc. but does not get the pine cones that the neighbors Doug fir trees are constantly littering my yard with. Leaves from the surrounding cotton wood and other trees are no match however and it does a great job mowing. If anyone has a remedy for pine cones I’m all ears lol!

 

[ktm250]

Been using this one for many years, has worked awesome, on pine needles, thatch and crushed granite driveway.

Heavy Dury Tractor 3-Point Dethatcher from machovec.com

The heavy duty dethatcher landscape rake is ideal for not only dethatching but also grading, leveling, spreading topsoil and removing stones. Proudly made in the USA

machovec.com

 

[willimi1]

You should look at a Cyclone Rake, best attachment I have installed. It handles small sticks and pine needles and small cones. It attaches to your belly mower or zero turn deck and sucks from the discharge.. I found mine on FB marketplace for much less than a new one. Good luck

 

[KennJ]

Let me know your results. I’m thinking I will need to build something.
Landscape rakes seem like they might be too harsh.
I’m considering stiffening the tines on my pine needle rake by adding a horizontal by crossbrace across the complete set of tines, about six inches above grade. This would prevent flexing, but the debris would likely clog it up too quickly.
Just a real pain. I’ve raked 3x this year due to high winds. There’s gotta be an easier way.

I've found with landscape rakes the grass balls up and rolls out the back. They are great for gravel but no good for lawns!

DR Power Equipement sells tow behind gas powered lawn and leaf vacuums: https://www.drpower.com/power-equipment/leaf-blowers-vacuums/tow-behind-leaf-vacs

Here is a good article comparing DR and Cyclone Rake: DR Lawn Vacuum Vs. Cyclone Rake: In-depth Differences

 

[airbiscuit]

Have tou tried attaching a board to stiffen up your tines yet?

Otherwise I think a dethatcher with shorter/stiffer tines would do what you are looking for.

 

[Signmandave]

Anybody have a GOOD way to rake their yard with some sort of attachment or yard tool outside of a good old-fashioned hand rake?
I have over one and 2/3 acres of yard with many maples and Sycamore trees that lose branches and twigs like leaves. Every time there is wind, I am out there raking by hand and in many cases, I am raking the complete yard by hand.
I have tried a Pineneedle Rake, and the tires are so springy that they release the raked contents after a little loading, and do no good. I do have an Estate Rake, but twigs are not its friend. It does wonders for detaching, however.
Other options I have thought of our a power rake like a Shindiawa or Stihl, and although it’s not manually raking, hustling a 40 pound yard tool with an 18 inch brush or rubber, paddle roller, seems like a fair amount of work.
Having a $20,000 tractor sitting there, sure tries to get me to think of ways to either find an attachment, or make something that would work to save me some time.
Any thoughts are appreciated.

I have used a 60” lawn sweeper for the last several years. It does take a little patience to find the best setting for the lawn but once you have it everything set up it works great. I have pulled it with my tractor, side by side and lawn mower, it has a fairly large hopper but during the fall I will make several trips to dump the leaves. My problem leaves are from Magnolias that line 750’ of my property. The leaves are thick and extremely hard to rake by hand. The sweeper definitely makes the job easy.

 

[TORQUIN]

I have a rake like this: VEVOR Tow Behind Landscape Rake, 72" Tow Dethatcher with 32 Steel Tines, Lawn Dethatcher Rake Attaches to Category 1, 3 Point Hitch for Tractor, for Leaves, Pine Needles, Straw, and Grass | VEVOR US
, but made in the USA, and it works well for light stuff, like leaves and pine needles. Dad used to use it under the oak trees in his yard. It is not as harsh on the dirt as a landscape rake.
The one above seems to be a little better design, as it looks like you can replace the tines easily. Mine has welded-on tines.

Chris

 

[robertm]

I have a rake like this: VEVOR Tow Behind Landscape Rake, 72" Tow Dethatcher with 32 Steel Tines, Lawn Dethatcher Rake Attaches to Category 1, 3 Point Hitch for Tractor, for Leaves, Pine Needles, Straw, and Grass | VEVOR US
, but made in the USA, and it works well for light stuff, like leaves and pine needles. Dad used to use it under the oak trees in his yard. It is not as harsh on the dirt as a landscape rake.
The one above seems to be a little better design, as it looks like you can replace the tines easily. Mine has welded-on tines.

Chris

I have the same thing. The long tines are too springy, and once loaded, the tines roll over the collected debris and drag it across the yard. As I mentioned above, I’m thinking about bolting on a crossbrace to stiffen them up and try that.
The dethatcher from Good Tractors looks good, but I might make my own and add it before or after the pine needle rake tines.

 

[Carl_NH]

Roberttm - for that price $160, buy two and bolt or piggyback them into one double rake and if debris still gets thru, slip a 4" x 48" strip of chicken wire or mesh wire on the second set of teeth. $350 or less and you have a yard rake.

 

[airbiscuit]

I made my own dethatcher many years ago to pull behind my lawn tractor. I used baler/siderake tines bolted top a u-channel I welded up. It is heavier than the homeowner styles that are for sale. I hate raking, so I use this on my wooded lawn. It does pretty well collecting the sticks and debris (a few slip through, but not many. Here it is.

I think your pine straw work will work better if stiffened up with a horizontal board(s). Otherwise this

 

[FullMetalBucket]

And the link to the crappy lawn rake?

Amazon link

Going to give it a go tomorrow.

 

[howardjohn]

What about one of those carts with a vaccum that attaches to a mower? Or mdifying one that you could vaccum up the lawn as you go over it? Or a big blower that goes on the back of a tractor? That is what I use to blowmy leaves into the woods.