Rake Landscape rake advice??

HCJtractor · Mar 17, 2009

I'm looking at a heavy duty rake for my Kubota M 6800 to maintain roads and foodplots. Considering the Landpride LR35 (which presently is my first choice) or a Woods LR700 or 800. I probably won't get hydraulics at first as they are costly. Any opinions on which one, and should I get a 84" or 96". I like the way the Landpride can be offset, am not sure if the Woods will do that. What about guage wheels? Double or a single tail wheel? I don't have nice gravel roads, just rough "woods roads". Would also use it to rake out debris and thatch from food plots, and to do seed bed preparation after disking. Do wheels help with this?

Any ideas on cost of either? I believe the Landpride w/o wheels is about $1900. Have no idea what a Woods costs. Thanks for the input!!

IslandTractor · Mar 18, 2009

HCJtractor said:
I'm looking at a heavy duty rake for my Kubota M 6800 to maintain roads and foodplots. Considering the Landpride LR35 (which presently is my first choice) or a Woods LR700 or 800. I probably won't get hydraulics at first as they are costly. Any opinions on which one, and should I get a 84" or 96". I like the way the Landpride can be offset, am not sure if the Woods will do that. What about guage wheels? Double or a single tail wheel? I don't have nice gravel roads, just rough "woods roads". Would also use it to rake out debris and thatch from food plots, and to do seed bed preparation after disking. Do wheels help with this?

Any ideas on cost of either? I believe the Landpride w/o wheels is about $1900. Have no idea what a Woods costs. Thanks for the input!!

I have a standard duty Woods so cannot comment on the heavy duty directly. Why do you need a heavy duty rake though? Maintaining roads and foodplots are fine rake tasks to be sure but a standard duty rake should do fine IMO. I use mine mostly for cleaning up land that I have cleared of brush. I have gauge wheels but took them off as they are not useful at all for that sort of work (or I imagine in a food plot). Gauge wheels might be helpful for fine grading work but it doesn't sound that you are maintaining a gravel driveway so I'd say that they would not be useful. It does take a few hours to get used to using a rake without wheels but it really is not difficult. For my money I'd forgo the wheels and get a hydraulic topping lift instead to help control the rake angle of attack.

HCJ · Mar 18, 2009

Thanks for you reply, IslandTractor. The reason I was considering the heavier duty version was partially based on Wood's and Landpride's specifications. Their standard and medium duty are rated up to 40 hp, whereas the heavy is rated up to 60, which is about as high as rakes seem to go. My 70 hp weighs around 8000 lbs. with loaded tires, cast wheels and a loader. We also tend to be hard on equipment, as our land is fairly rocky, and pretty rough. We trashed a standard Woods rotary cutter in 4 years, so after that experience, I tend to lean towards heavier duty implements. I also like the off-set feature that seems to be only on the more expensive models. Our long narrow food plots have developed ridges of topsoil along the periphery where repeated disking tends to throw out soil to the outside. I felt an off-set rake could pull this soil back in more easily. Also, if I ever add hydraulics to change angles, the heavy rakes have this ability whereas the standard do not (at least from what I read) I am the first to admit for regular use in most spots, a standard duty would do fine.

By the way, I love my grapple. Your advice was excellent! Everything you said was perfect advice. I bought some heavy sleeve material and got my hydraulic lines protected as you suggested. Every spare moment, my buddy and I can't wait to hop on the tractor and clear some brush.