Tiller Best attachment besides Harley power rake to pulverize wild grass, soil & weeds??

[Rocky Hoffler]

Re: Best attachment besides Harley power rake to pulverize wild grass, soil & weeds??

a tiller with 6 tines instead of 4 really chews it up I have had both and the end result there is no comparison

 

[Rocky Hoffler]

Re: Best attachment besides Harley power rake to pulverize wild grass, soil & weeds??

duplicate post

 

[BamaDude]

Re: Best attachment besides Harley power rake to pulverize wild grass, soil & weeds??

I have seen it's not a lot of difference moneywise to get 6 tines vs 4 on a box blade or a tiller, so I'm definitely getting 6.

 

[nc redneck]

Re: Best attachment besides Harley power rake to pulverize wild grass, soil & weeds??

You need a PTO powered over seeder. Very expensive to buy 6 to 15 K. Maintenance is high also. They till ,fertilize seed and roll dirt smooth in one pass. Do not leave fertilizer in it for over 24 hours. They require a complete cleaning after every use. New blades are expensive also. About 60 for 5 footer several 100 dollars to replace.

 

[BamaDude]

Re: Best attachment besides Harley power rake to pulverize wild grass, soil & weeds??

I lay sod, not seed. I made that plainly clear in the previous posts.

 

[RDrancher]

Re: Best attachment besides Harley power rake to pulverize wild grass, soil & weeds??

Nothing leaves a better seed or sod bed than a power rake and move the junk out of it while you're at it. You can use it to grade too. Heck, you can even attach a machine laser receiver to it for drainage grading. Based on the sand prices you stated, it would only take five jobs to pay off a $3k used power rake.

 

[/pine]

Re: Best attachment besides Harley power rake to pulverize wild grass, soil & weeds??

JMO...before investing is high priced "powered" attachments I would see what just pull behind implements could do for you... so first off I would buy the heaviest box blade the L-48 can handle...and just for learning purposes see what you can do to the soil condition(s) with just the scarifiers...even if it takes multiple passes to achieve what they (rippers) are capable of...set the bb tilted forward enough so until the scarifiers have reached their depth potential the blade is not making contact with grade... then a roller/pulverizer (on a side note...a rack of scarifier teeth, stand alone attachment or on a box blade...does basically the same thing as a "subsoiler" only multiplied by the number of rippers)
Secondly I would get a landscape rake to follow up...but with either a box blade or LR...IMO hydraulic top and tilt is paramount if you want to achieve professional results in a professional amount of time...

Again, IMO...your biggest challenge to "start doing my own site prep work" is mastering everything a box blade is capable of...(T&T is the ticket)...

Also...when tilling my varying sloped garden areas I am constantly making minor tilt adjustments to keep it parallel with the grade...

Good Luck...

 

[Hiltz]

Re: Best attachment besides Harley power rake to pulverize wild grass, soil & weeds??

I had said earlier that "I'm leaning toward buying a tiller to chew up & pulverize the soil to create a 3" to 4" minimum loose bedding, then box blade it to level it out, as I need it smooth for sod", so I'm aware that the tiller will not leave the soil smooth enough to lay sod.

I would suggest as stated before a tiller, pto powered, and then go over it with a spike harrow. Not a chain spike harrow but one on a three point frame. This is what I do to prepare areas for lawn, food plots, and repair of customers lawns from heavy trucks or septic systems that have been dug up. The spike harrow does a great job of leveling the area (after tilling) and has it ready for any type of seed or sod.

 

[Stonehaller]

Re: Best attachment besides Harley power rake to pulverize wild grass, soil & weeds??

I started with a disk harrow and box blade. It took a lot of passes with the scarifiers and disk trying get root clumps pulverized. I then went with a rotor tiller and that was a big improvement, but root clumps were still an issue. Hard to finish level with the box blade when there are root clumps. I then added a landscape rake with gauge wheels. Vast improvement in the finish leveling. A hydraulic top link helps immensely. My tiller is only a 4 tine and as other have said a 6 tine may make a big difference.

Like you I was put off by the cost of a Harley rake, but this year I picked up and restored a used Harley rake. So much faster and easier to get the job done I wish I would have just bit the bullet and got the Harley rake in the first place.

 

[BamaDude]

Re: Best attachment besides Harley power rake to pulverize wild grass, soil & weeds??

Yes, I'd rather have a power rake, and I agree that the savings in lawn sand will pay for a power rake at some point. The only problem is that I don't build a lot of homes anymore since the recession hit --- I'm happy to get 1 or 2 big custom homes a year now, so at that pace, it will take me 4 to 8 years to recoup the cost. In 2006, I would have paid for a power rake inside of a year as I had a lot of new homes going up. In trying to save upfront money, I may be costing myself more money in labor & fuel in the long run using a tiller & box blade in numerous passes vs using a power rake with 1 pass as I've seen them work that well around here, and I know I'd get the performance & results I need with a power rake. The difference in cost is actually about $4K, as a GOOD used power rake is about $5K vs a small used tiller at $1K, and I still have to get a box blade for site prep & pad work --- the power rake is for the lawn work, as I have to remove the organic matter from the foundation & pad areas, not mulch it up there like a power rake would, which is fine & best for the lawn work. The question is, do I want to invest for the long run, as at 51, I'm hoping I won't be doing this much longer, but retirement doesn't seem to be an option anymore. I was hoping to get some side work with the L-48 to at least make the payment each month, so the power rake may pay for itself if I can get some side work laying sod with it, and I could always sell it & get my money back if it doesn't. I think I'm going to get a power rake.