Landscape Rake! Who knew?

[stephan]

Picked up a cheap Chinese Landscape Rake today and who knew how handy they are?

I have been moving about 60 square meters of river stones that the last owner of the house surrounded the place with and the Landscape Rake is great to gather all the rocks close to the house into piles to grab with the FEL.

I ran it up and down the driveway as well and what a good job it did.

When the stones are gone I'll be replacing them with topsoil so I think the rake will come out again for leveling.

So far it has my vote for Attachment of Year 2014.

 

[kco]

I agree. Landscape rakes are very handy. I have a fairly heavy duty Farm King rake and use it much more than the rear blade. I have loaned my rear blade semi-permanently to my neighbour and said I'll just get it from him if/when I need it.

Some others don't agree, but guage wheels make it far easier for finish levelling.

 

[almost canadian]

I had thought about purchasing one to use to "harrow" our outside arena that we use for horses. We don't have a soft, top of the range, type of surface and, to me, it looks like all the previous owner did was scalp the grass off the top and use the dirt underneath.

Currently, we use a chain harrow towed behind a quad but, ideally, we need something heavier to loosen up the surface a bit.

Does anyone have any thoughts about whether a landscape rake could achieve this?

 

[ttriff]

My landscape rake just skips and bounces over the top of hard packed soil

 

[SmallTrac]

Almost Canadian,

I would think about putting some weights on that rake to give it just a little more heft. A long time ago I bought a cheap Chinese grader blade that was too light to grade effectively. I added two 40# suitcase weights and now it feels like it has a real "grip" on the ground as I go over it. I would be willing to bet that just a little weight would make your rake that much better at digging into the soil/dirt you have left.

Hope this is helpful,

Smalltrac
SubcompactTractorWorld.com |

 

[almost canadian]

My landscape rake just skips and bounces over the top of hard packed soil

That was my fear!

 

[almost canadian]

Almost Canadian,

I would think about putting some weights on that rake to give it just a little more heft. A long time ago I bought a cheap Chinese grader blade that was too light to grade effectively. I added two 40# suitcase weights and now it feels like it has a real "grip" on the ground as I go over it. I would be willing to bet that just a little weight would make your rake that much better at digging into the soil/dirt you have left.

Hope this is helpful,

Smalltrac
SubcompactTractorWorld.com |

This sounds encouraging.

I had thought about buying a Kiser Edge, and then I saw the price:shocked:

 

[DKCDKC]

Bought an old, rusty rake at auction for $100. It has some bent tines, but I straightened them. Works almost as good as new - big heavy rake, but I still tie on some cinderblocks for raking my drive. You can add blocks or take them off to get the right depth for your job.

 

[ustmd]

We have a landscape rake for the horse arena. We have a sand arena and it works well in it. The only issue we have is that if the arena is overgrown, then the grass and debris block the tines and the rake acts more like blade and drags material.

 

[stephan]

My landscape rake just skips and bounces over the top of hard packed soil

I think the principal of a rake is that it is a maintenance tool rather then a digging tool similar to a hand rake. Great for finishing up or clearing and leveling but you'd never use it to dig a hole.

I think once you loosened up the hard packed with a scarifier and then regularly maintain with the rake will get the best results.

My road is hard packed and the rake would remove the bulge in the middle and a bit around the sides it had little chance on the tyre ruts. I have had some scarifiers welded to the back of my back blade to deal with them.