Rake Land scape rake or Box blade ??

NIXON · Mar 3, 2004

Andy
Thanks for the suggestion . I put in a call to York for some literature . While I'm sure it won't be inexpensive , It looks like a very flexible piece of equipment . I'd always thought as a York rake as just a landscape rake . But with the blade , scarifiers and Guage wheels it's a whole different beast .
Once I read over the literature I'm going to go down to my local dealer and ask him about specific models . John

SPIKER · Mar 3, 2004

hi all:

I've got my box blade, and was the best tool and most used i have! it is a 6' unit form TSC: I bought it at clearance 2 years ago for 179.00 as a damaged (bad weld) unit. I didn't even have to repair it. I used it just in time to finish moving a ton (over 20 CU yards) of dirt hard packed clay. and made water diversion berms as well as grading NEW and well packed drive stones. I've cleared brush (low level weeds) with it too. though it doesn't work real well for that. It does great on the drive, (winter packed #57 tops, with only my center ripper down to tear out the hump that seems to appear every few months.) did that yesterday! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif anyhow I've got a 6' rake on order awaiting the arrival of the 12" PHD and i'm picking up a 5' brush cutter too, (all from a place about 1 hr drive away for 1100.00 total.) so I'll be able to compair the rock rake vs the box blade>!

Mark M /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

surfran · Mar 3, 2004

I have a question maybe someone can answer. I currently have a 10" 1 bottom plow for plowing my garden. Afterwords I rototill (front tine walk behind unit)as needed for the wife when she is ready to plant.

I was thinking that maybe a box blade or york rake might make it easier to smooth/level out the soil after I plow (or maybe eliminate plowing except every couple of years).

Anyhow, what I envision is something to act kinda like a drag. When I grew up my Dad had a small set of drags we used on the garden and they worked great.

Would either the landscape rake or boxblade do this?

Thanks,

sbrem · Mar 3, 2004

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( My reasoning is that I have a fairly substantial rear blade (hbl84 -2 ) )</font>
John, A little bit off topic, but how do you like your hbl84-2? That is the blade that I am thinking of buying in the spring. Thanks.

Stephen

NIXON · Mar 3, 2004

Stephen .
I'm real pleased with it . It's heavy enough to bite into the dirt . I like the offset feature a lot . I got the end plates so I could use it as a "kind of Box blade ". John

OkeeDon · Mar 4, 2004

I got a box blade, basic simple one like Henro's, with my tractor as a package deal. I had a lot of dead wood (sticks and twigs) on the property, and the box blade teeth seemed too far apart to drag them. So, I bought a TSC rake. It did a pretty good job with the twigs, but couldn't handle anything that was still rooted. Then I got better with my box blade skills, and I hardly ever use the rake. In fact, I've gotten really good at back dragging loose brush and small rooted plants with my FEL bucket, especially from under tree branches. I'm just glad I didn't invest a lot in the rake. It may be more useful once I get the property in shape and am doing just light maintenance.

Soundguy · Mar 5, 2004

Generally after plowing, you can disc, with a disc harrow. Since you are tilling.. there won't be furrows to disc down. While you could buy a flexible tine harrow.. many people just tow a piece of telephone pole, or railroad tie, or hunk of railraod track i-beam behind the tractor to flatten it out.. etc.

If you are looking for compaction.. box or rake won't really do it. If you just want to knock it down even.. probbaly wither will do it.. unless it is super thick clay.. then I'd use a blade or box... still the railroad tie would probably be way cheaper and more than adequate..

Soundguy