Rake JD's Frontier Arena Rake

[RedHawkRidge]

Does anyone have any experience or knowledge of these attachments? Is the Arena Rake the equivalent to an attachment called TR3?
I regularly am patching and restoring areas of a grassy field that has lots of depressions and erosion-caused ruts. And am wondering if this is an effective tool to level and fill.
Thanks
Jim

 

[jenkinsph]

I tried one out about Feb of this year, leaves a nice finish. I used it on bare ground though, not sure how well it would do encountering sod and patches of grass, would be concerned about it clogging up the comb.

Here is one on machinefinder normally these are about $5000.
2009 Frontier RA1108 Arena Rake - XFRA11X100040 - John Deere MachineFinder

 

[Mike120]

The Frontier arena rake is a Riata rake painted green with a Frontier sticker. Like most arena rakes, it will do a good job DEPENDING ON GROUND CONDITIONS. I've got a TR3. It's advantage is that I can use the scarifiers for a dirt arena and switch to the profiler blade for my sand arena so I don't disturb the base. It's a very good arena rake and probably weighs 3X the Riata rake.

I wouldn't use it in a "grassy field" unless I wanted to turn it into a riding area. It will do a good job of leveling but it will also destroy the grass. If you are planning on completely stripping the field, leveling it to get rid of the depressions and causes of erosion ruts....there are lots of cheaper implements to do that. How big is the field, whats the ground like, etc, etc? How big is your tractor?

 

[bcollida]

I have a Frontier Riata Rake RA 1108. it is a great tool. so much so that I wanted to write this review because I couldn't find much on it when I was evaluating tools.
I use a 45 HP JD tractor 6 ft wide wheels. the tool is 8 ft wide and weights about 760lbs. I use a limestone base with 2 inches of sand as the footing. It is an outdoor ring that is crowned in the middle and also has a very small grade for water run off. The Riata rake has a unique adjustable tine array. I use this part of the rake as a depth gauge for my sand. If this floating part of the tool starts to rattle, I know I need to add a little sand in this area of the ring. I typically run the tool with my three point hitch in full float mode. When set up correctly the riata rakes wheels ride slightly above the sand base. When I want to move sand around or add sand to an area, I change the 3 point to slightly less float and raise the tine bar array about 1/4 of an inch. This set up allows me to catch a little extra from the deep area of the ring and automatically distribute it to the area of the ring that is needs more sand. It is a great tool, easy to use, easy on the base. Sort of expensive but I really happy with it and think it is a better design than a TR3 for a sand arena.