Rake Harley rakes - why so much?

[Tags]

Any reputable hydraulic shop can rebuild that cylinder for you or get you a seal kit so you can do it yourself. I found a place online that sells parts fairly reasonable,
I can't recall the site right now but will look for it and post it. They used to be a great company, you cod actually call and speak to people that were incredibly knowledgeable, now since they have been bought by Paladin they treat it just like another attachment, really sad...

 

[Piston]

It does SEEM that they work just fine, if you come in dead straight and the implement and tractor are level to each other,
otherwise I might as well do things the regular way.
I have to get off the tractor to hook up everything else anyway, top link, hydraulics, PTO, etc., so where's the "quick" ?

Reg,
I'm guessing you don't have top and tilt cylinders on your 3 point hitch?

Regarding your power rake in the snow/ice....I've actually heard of people using these to break up real bad ice, not sure how well it would work, but your not the first to try it, so your not crazy :laughing: I imagine it would make quite the racket though!

The angle cylinder on my HARLEY rake (not Woods) looks like a fairly standard small cylinder with fork ends.
Not sure I would mess with re-building it, given the age of mine I will probably just replace it if/when it leaks noticeably.

I checked the price of a new cylinder, it was OVER $300 DOLLARS!!!!! I could not believe how much for a little tiny cylinder like that. I'd send MtnViewRanch a PM on here and ask how much to purchase a new cylinder before you buy one elsewhere. I just bought a large cylinder from him for my heavy duty rear blade (offset function) and it was an all welded cylinder, not the cheaper ones held together with 4 long bolts, and a heavy duty cylinder for cheaper and better quality than I could find online. Even with shipping it was less than my local equipment dealer! Much less.

 

[Reg]

YIKES !!!
$300 is ridiculous, I would have guessed sixty or seventy bux at the most - at Surplus Center.
I added a 4 pair block of remotes with hoses, fittings, connectors, etc. for under $500.

I have hydraulic top link on the little tractor.
I don't seem to need tilt for hooking up, I just connect the lower pin first, then raise to meet the higher one.
If I am not in "square" I just budge the tractor back/forth a little bit with the bucket. SO simple.
I considered a hydraulic side link, but every time I think it through I decide that finding level or some desired tilt
would be harder than knowing I'm 5 or 6 turns high on the right (for example) and can get back to level precisely and fairly quickly.

It turns out that a Harley rake works pretty well at grinding surface roots in frozen ground - at least mine did this morning.
A patch about 60 ft by 8 ft. There is still some snow & ice at the edges, but that ground up pretty well too.
Whenever I have tried in the past to get rid of those with the stump grinder they have caught and whipped back and forth.
The frozen ground just HOLDS ON as it gets ground down at the same rate.
That area now looks better, a LOT better, than it has in many years.
Yeah, it bounced around (-:

BTW these are PINE roots, the technique may work differently on other species - or the same, I just thought I'd include that detail.
Another detail, I used the lowest tractor gear and put the PTO in its 1,000 RPM gear, but took the revs up to around 55% of where
the tach says the PTO turns 540. This little Kukje tractor works pretty well that way on most PTO tasks, if I need FULL POWER the
540 gear is always there, but I rarely need it.

 

[Reg]

Something like this ?;
2X14X1.125 DA HYD CYL W200140
but of course take measurements to get it RIGHT (-:

 

[Piston]

I considered a hydraulic side link, but every time I think it through I decide that finding level or some desired tilt
would be harder than knowing I'm 5 or 6 turns high on the right (for example) and can get back to level precisely and fairly quickly.

I could never remember how many turns I went I went on the side link, so I still had to "guess" where perfectly level was. :laughing:

The way I do it, which is the same way I leveled implements before I got a hydraulic side link, was park the tractor on flat/level ground, usually the garage slab or driveway, and level the implement that way. If I needed to make sure the side link doesn't "leak down" at all through the valve, I just unplug the quick disconnects, this will hold the side link at the right adjustment all day/week long.

I have to say though, I never really changed my side link much before getting a hydraulic one, I mostly just kept it in one spot.

 

[Reg]

For what it is worth;
My swing cylinder seems to be 15 inches clevis eye to clevis eye when retracted, 23 when extended.
"seems to be" because I am not at all sure if it at max extension or if the frame hits a stop.
The retracted position does look to be all the way in though.
The cylinder is 2 inches diameter, the rod 3/4. This is "eyeball" measured, i.e. squinting against a tape,
not with a vernier.
Woods may be slightly different, but I confirmed that Surplus center has cylinders in that size range
with prices under $80.
They also have rebuild kits, worth browsing their site.