Rake Buying a Rake

GreatWhitehunter · Dec 10, 2006

I'm interested in buying a landscape rake. I was considering Woods, Frontier, Landpride and Bush hog. I was looking used and found a guy selling but then changed his mind. My question is he has a woods 6' rake medium duty and he told me he paid around $400-500 a year or so ago. I went to the dealer he bought it from and was quoted $700 for the same rake. I called other local dealers and found the prices close to the same. Did these things nearly double in a few years? I can't see paying that kind of money for something I won't be regularly using. I was also looking at the cheaper brands like KK and Howse. Are these worth looking into. I don't mind spending the money for the quality but $700 seems kind of high. Any info from folks who have these units would really help.

Thanks
Matt T.

botaman2 · Dec 10, 2006

Whatever rake you choose,having a set of wheel's on the rake should be a prerequisite! I bought a 7' rake 5yrs. ago,and have used it much more often then I ever thought I would. I never regreted the purchase.

IslandTractor · Dec 10, 2006

GreatWhitehunter said:
My question is he has a woods 6' rake medium duty and he told me he paid around $400-500 a year or so ago. I went to the dealer he bought it from and was quoted $700 for the same rake. /quote]

I suspect his memory is failing. Rakes may have gone up in price but not that much in the past year or two. A premium brand 6ft rake is going to cost about 700 bucks today which is only a hundred or so more than a couple of years ago. Maybe he bought is more than several years ago.

vallyfarm · Dec 11, 2006

botaman2 is 100% right. Those guide wheels change everything. Makes any job look picture perfect. You won't know how good these things can work without them. I bought a used York brand around 10 years ago and abuse it every year and have had not one finger,bearing,or even a grease fitting give me a lick of trouble. I think any of them should be just as good. I'd get a newish one to make sure the pivot tube isn't twisted. A few dollars more now, and no problems later is cheap money to me. Mike

EddieWalker · Dec 11, 2006

I made my own rake for a few hundred bucks, but it's not very fancy. Before I decided to build it, I looked around first to see what they costa and to compare different designs.

There seems to be quite a big difference in the tines. Some just have one bolt to hold them on with another bar on the tines, others have two bolts and thicker tines. The metal and pivot pin also seem to vary quite a bit from one brand to another.

It's one of those things that you need to spend some time looking at them first hand and comparing each ones features to how much before buying. We all have different ideas of what's heavy duty and how hard we work our stuff. What you might consider too light might be just perfect for me.

$700 does seem very expensive. The ones I looked at seemed to run from $300 to $500.

Eddie

BTDT · Dec 11, 2006

I would think soil type would also be a concern, hard packed, sandy, rocky, etc. What's it like where you are?

GreatWhitehunter · Dec 11, 2006

I live in New England so rocks galour! I was spreading 25 tons of gravel and I thought the rake would be handy. So I went to the dealer only to have sticker shock (although I did get an Imatch and a set of forks which ran almost 1k) I just couldn't bring myself to buy the rake. I felt that was a little too high. I stopped on the way home at another dealer to price the landpride rake and they were even more money. Finally I hit TSC to look at there products. I'll admit there's a real difference in quality between the TSC stuff and the big AG brands. But I just don't think I'll use the rake enough to justify spending that kind of cash. I was content to spend around $500 but no more. I will be taking the advice of follow members about the performance of the wheels. I think I'm going to keep my head up for a lightly used rake.(although I'll probably get impatient and end up going back to the dealer to buy the woods, or landpride units) Any pro's/con's of the woods/landpride or any other brands I should look at. Thanks for all the repies

Matt T.

AndyMA · Dec 11, 2006

I paid over $1400 for a heavy duty 8' Ford rake back in 1987. There is no comparison in the capabilities of light and medium rakes with true heavy duty rakes.

Andy

IslandTractor · Dec 11, 2006

GreatWhitehunter said:
I live in New England so rocks galour! ... I thought the rake would be handy. So I went to the dealer only to have sticker shock .... I just couldn't bring myself to buy the rake. ..... I think I'm going to keep my head up for a lightly used rake

That is exactly what I did. I did not really like the TSC brand quality but gagged on the Landpride/Woods/BushHog list price. I waited until I got a slightly used BushHog with gauge wheels for about $400 less than the dealer wanted. Nice rake.

GreatWhitehunter · Dec 26, 2006

Well the hunt continues, and the prices keep rising. I called around abit more now the landpride LR1572 is running $895 and a additional $429 for the wheels. The Woods medium is $765 plus $285 for the wheels. Is there anything special about the Landpride for the extra$$$$? Is there any Imatch fittment issues with either of these rakes? I still can't believe they cost so much. Are the gage wheels and absolute must have with these rakes? I can't seem to find any name brand used rakes around. Any thoughts on where I can look? I'm just not sure I can justify that kind of money for an item I don't absolutly need.

Matt T.