Rake Landscape rake basics

Eric_Phillips · Sep 20, 2005

Once I get the ground loose with the disc I need to windrow the gravel out. Should I run the rake around first with it perpendicular to the line of travel to get the rock to the top then turn the rake to get the rock into windrows? How deep should I set the guage wheels? And lastly what about the top link? Since the soil is already loose does it matter how the top link is set, short of long? Thanks for any tips.

Eric

beenthere · Sep 20, 2005

Which landscape rake?

The powered one like the Harley Rake?
I can think of a number of different things to try, but not knowing for sure what you have, I would suggest giving several things a try to get the best one to do what you want to do. Soil conditions, dryness, depth of discing, etc. all make a difference from past experience. And as the soil dryness changed from damp in the morning to dry in the afternoon, different settings were needed to have the same effect.

I can see gleaning rocks from the surface by a light setting, angled, and windrowing the stones to the side. I can also visualize taking a deep cut with a good 'head' of dirt and stones in front of the powered roller moving the rocks to the side (angled) and letting the dirt flow over the top.

But can't say for sure without being there to do it.

tawilson · Sep 20, 2005

There's a lot more experience with a rake around here than me, but I'll throw my 2 cents too. Starting with it angled should be fine. When the soil is loose, I keep the gauge wheels pretty shallow, so as to not drag around so much soil. I think the top link adjustment is very important. It determines the angle of the tines to the soil and affects how they pick up the rocks.

Eric_Phillips · Sep 21, 2005

I was out tweaking the york rake today and all I was able to do was drag a bunch of soil around. The soil is damp not wet. It didn't matter if I had the guage wheels high or low or the top link long or short. As soon as the tines hit the ground they started collecting dirt. So the rake was dragging dirt with rocks in it and behind the rake was dirt with rocks in it. Does the soil need to be bone dry or am I expecting too much?

Eric