Ideas needed!

nasdaqsam · Jul 9, 2005

OK, heres the deal. I have a parcel of property that has a beach. Well could be beach......currently it is clay base (so limited movement is the order of the day, bucket work other than back bragging and dumping is out) with pea stone/sand mix and then 2" to 2' or larger rocks scattered through out. I want to have my fabricator build some kind of a rake to mount to the BH bucket so I can set-up and "rake" the beach, pulling all the stones and leaving the peastone sand mix. The bucket itself works good for this but 12" at a time is very time consuming. I'm not worried about the large rocks as we are building a thumb for that. A rock bucket will not work as I will just sink out of site trying to push through it. Ideally it would be easy-on. easy-off type set-up.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance

Bob_Skurka · Jul 9, 2005

If I was you, I would buy something like a 3pt mount Midwest TILT landscape ("22 series" Landcape rakes have the tilt feature). The reason I would buy a Tilting landscape rake for the 3pt is because I could take apart the rake at the tilt pivot. Then I could fashion a way to mount the rake end onto the front bucket. When you are done raking the stones out of the beach, then you could simply put it back together and have a landscape rake for the back of the tractor too!

The only thing you'd have to fabricate would be the mount to clamp it to the FEL bucket. The rake would then stick out in front of the tractor, and you would simply back drag with the tractor pulling the rocks.

I would think a landscape rake would do a very nice job of straining out the rocks.

bobodu · Jul 9, 2005

How about a boom pole dragline type thingie?

nasdaqsam · Jul 9, 2005

Hi Bob,

I think your right a landscape rake would work best. I do have a woods but like I said I can not pull it with the limited traction on the beach. Also the area is very small so any type of dragging or FEL work is very limited thats why I was thinking along the lines of something around 3' or so wide for the BH. I could work an area then move and work another.

I guess I was a little confusing on the FEL work. I can dump loads of pea stone/sand mix then back drag slightly. I'm pretty sure I could not drag a rake with any amount of stones in it at all.

Maybe I can find a small landscape rake (cheapy) and fashion that somehow. Possibly something with removable tines so I could remove every other one to get the larger rocks and work my way down to the small stuff that is left. Any thoughts?

To explain the beach and base a bit better. Being the base is clay and always wet (prox. to lake) it barely holds this size tractor up. If I work it back and fourth at all it becomes soup very quickly. I pulled a mid size BH on it the other day and instantly buried it to the cab. Also because it is a beach the land slopes to the water which means I am pulling everything up hill. I believe the BH is the only solution. It's a lot slower but still better than hand work.

nasdaqsam · Jul 9, 2005

( How about a boom pole dragline type thingie? )I'm not quite sure of what that is. Do you have a link to such a thing?

Thanks

Bob_Skurka · Jul 9, 2005

I guess I didn't realize you had a BH. That said, why not take the bucket off, and just mount the Landscape Rake onto the bucket pivot points, then use the backhoe to back drag the modified rake?

nasdaqsam · Jul 9, 2005

( I guess I didn't realize you had a BH. That said, why not take the bucket off, and just mount the Landscape Rake onto the bucket pivot points, then use the backhoe to back drag the modified rake?

)Now that would work. I kinda wished I could do it with out removing the bucket but by removing it and fabricating the rake to pivot like the bucket may give me more flexability. Now I just need to find a small cheap rake with removable tines to hack up...er fabricate.

Thanks

jmc · Jul 9, 2005

Maybe you could find the landscape rake tines and make a rake any width/spacing you want just by bolting them to a bar.

Or possibly rake teeth (Rural King rake teeth) might work for certain size rocks. You almost have to see one to judge. As I recall, they are about 12" long made from about 3/16" diameter spring steel. Looks like they could just slide on a round bar and be held on with a central bolt.

Bob's idea of a pivot would be nice in mounting your bar of springs since the ground you are raking will often not be parallel with the ground your BH is sitting on. Otherwise, your're raking on one side of the rake or you need whimpy springs.

nasdaqsam · Jul 9, 2005

( Maybe you could find the landscape rake tines and make a rake any width/spacing you want just by bolting them to a bar.

Or possibly rake teeth (Rural King rake teeth) might work for certain size rocks. You almost have to see one to judge. As I recall, they are about 12" long made from about 3/16" diameter spring steel. Looks like they could just slide on a round bar and be held on with a central bolt. )I think making it from scratch may be a viable option if to much fabrication is required. I think the rake teeth you have shown may be a bit small for this application but I will look into it a little deeper. As "most" of the rocks are in the 6" and under range and well embedded in the clay it is going to take a pretty strong tine to handle the load.

Thanks

jmc · Jul 9, 2005

I agree they would be too light for embedded rocks. If the ground is very soft, you may just need to make a rigid "comb". Sometimes things like this are best designed by the fabricator around the materials he has on hand, preferably scrap.