Rake A brush rake for Skidsteer?

[Rolando]

Does anybody make a light duty brush rake like the attached? I'm looking for something that would attach to an FEL skidsteer quick attach and can gather brush and small branches. I'm not looking to move heavy logs or pick up anything, just drag things to gather them up. I would them use a hydraulic root grapple to pick them up.

I would want to be able to use this rake both pushing while going forward and also to reach up and over to pull stuff away going in reverse, such as reaching up next to a tree truck and pulling away branches that are laying against it. Hence the curved tines that reach forward on the upper end so that they can get to the ground with the FEL in the dump position.

I'm not mechanical, so this sketch it just to give you an idea of what I would want it to do. Take a look at it and let me know if you know of anything like this.

Thanks,
Rolando

 

[KentT]

Find an old horse-drawn hayrake. It has tines very similar to what you're looking for. With reinforcing bars, I think they'd be strong enough for your purpose, since they're spring steel.

Picture of a horse-drawn hayrake

 

[Rolando]

Hey Kent,
The link just gives me a logo saying Image hosted by Tripod. Is something wrong?

 

[KentT]

Don't know why, but it works for me...

Try this one:

Try Again

And again

 

[RonMar]

I don't know of anyone that makes something like that off the shelf, at least a light duty one such as you described and certainly not at an affordable price. The ones I have seen are pretty heavy duty and their construction is pretty labor intensive, hence the high price.

One issue I think you will run into, like a normal landscape rake is that this thing will really want to dig into the ground and may be a little difficult to operate without really ripping things up. Once in the ground, old stump heads/roots and big rocks will bend up the lightweight tines and it will lift any smaller, shallow rocks to the surface. I built a 60" 11 tine fork bucket for my FEL which has been great at putting the junk into piles to burn. http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/showflat.php/Cat/0/Board/buildit/Number/694604/page/0/view//sb/5/o/all/fpart/1/vc/1

It is also handy for back raking in the dump position But I run it into the ground all the time and it can really tear things up and it brings any rocks right to the surface. I built the tines heavy enough that the tractor stops when I hit an immovable object before it bends the tines. I have been thinking about the same type rake as you described for my FEL for suface cleanup and I keep comming back to the traditional landscape rake solution of gage wheels on the back to keep the tines from going too deep into the ground. The FEL would also need to be operated in the "float" position.

You can purchase relatively inexpensive landscape rake tines from Agri-supply.com I made a rake for my garden tractor a few years ago from these which worked pretty well for cleanup except it dosn't have gage wheels and digs in pretty good at times.

Good Luck.

 

[KentT]

I have a 5-foot Howse landscape rake with a QA plate on it for my PT-425. RichP adapted it, and it came with the package when I bought it. See linked picture of the package, just after unloading it.

PT Package, including landscape rake

With my limited usage of it so far, I don't think the tines are nearly stiff enough for what he's trying to do -- that's why I recommended the old hayrake approach. I grew up using one of those things, and the tines on them are truly spring steel, plus the shape of the tines helps strengthen them (they're not flat stock).

 

[Rolando]

Yeah, I was thinking of something that would have some spring so that if could give some as opposed to digging in. I guess it's a fine line of using a spring steel that's stiff enough to still be able to overcome the friction of the branches against the ground. I'm thinking of branches that would be at most 2" in diameter and 8 ft to 10 ft.

I'm thinking in terms of being able to pull the brush away out into the open where I can them get behind it and push it to a pile.

 

[Highbeam]

Hydraulic root grapple seems to be the tool of choice for those bigger items. Then a ladnscape rake to pick up the little stuff.

 

[Rolando]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Hydraulic root grapple seems to be the tool of choice for those bigger items. Then a landscape rake to pick up the little stuff. )</font>

I agree. The thing is though, that I have only seen landscape rakes for 3PH attachment and I need to attach to the FEL (no 3PH).

 

[bam747]

You can buy a SSL QA to 3PH converter. Here's one from Skid Steer Solutions (3PH Adapter ). They even offer an adapter with a PTO driven by a hydraulic motor. Also, the standard adapter even offers a standard receiver hitch plug in.

The problem I see with these is that 3PH implements are generally designed to be pulled rather than pushed, excluding reversible implements like a rear blade. So, although you can hook your Toolcat to a 3PH landscape rake with the 3PH adapter, you might end up driving backwards to use it effectively unless the rake can be reversed.