Rake landscape rake

[jarbill]

I'm thinking about getting a landscape rake, but I don't know whether it would be worth the money. My Kubota dealer has one for $585.00 for the six-foot version, and it seems heavy-duty enough, but I'm wondering how many times I would actually use it. Does anybody have any thoughts or experience on the matter? We have about 11 acres, of which about three are cleared of most underbrush, but there are lots of semi-small flat rocks (shale) in the remaining uncleared portions that I plan to clear later on, and I was wondering if the landscape rake would be good at getting those up off the ground as well as picking up limbs, mowed tall grass clippings, small rocks, etc.

Jerry in Texas

 

[greg_g]

Leave the clippings, they're good for the soil. The rake however, won't "pick up" a thing. Best you can hope for is to windrow as much as doesn't slip through the tines, then pick it up with something else. Trying to accumulate the windrows with the rake will usually end up with the rake riding up and over a ball of whatever you're working.

A six footer is ok for small compacts. But if your Kubota has any size, you might want to thing seven or eight footer. Goes to weight. The heavier they are, the less rolls under the tines. The down side is that heaver equates to more aggressive as well. Like ripping sod aggressive. In my view, that's a good thing. One use for my 7' rake in the fall is to scratch grooves in short pasture - then broadcast cover crop and fertilizer. The more that hits bare dirt, the better.

$585 seems pricey for a six footer. Or does that include gauge wheels?

//greg//

 

[TedLaRue]

greg_g,

I've never used a landscape rake, and like Jerry, I was considering buying one. Your informative post answered a lot of my questions (and hopefully some of Jerry's).

I think when Jerry said "pick up" he meant "catch and drag" but I think you addressed that when you talked about windrowing the material.

Jerry, I've seen other posts in the past saying the rakes were good for grooming a gravel driveway. Maybe that could be a something you'd use it for.

 

[TractorChick]

Depending on conditions, one pass with a "York-type" rake is likely to leave just a nasty snarled mess of crap you have to get rid of.

If it's heavy duty enough, a landscape rake is great for stone parking areas and driveways, but for cleaning up, it just doesn't cut it. If you've got mostly soil and you want to clear it of minor debris and level the ground and prepare a seedbed, now we're talking.

 

[dirtworksequip]

One very overlooked use for a landscape rake is snow removal on a stone driveway or road. They work great for moving off the snow and popping stone to the surface for better traction with vehicles.

Sincerely, Dirt

 

[Rowdius]

It is easy to clean up stuff with the rake, but it is not a matter of just lowering it to the ground and driving around having magic happen behind the tractor.

It is possible to adjust how the tines attack the ground my shortening the toplink, and this can help cure some of the "roll over" problems people have. One trick is that the tines are springy, so if you set the toplink right, it is possible to bump the control lever up a little before the rake starts to roll over your load and the tines will sort of push the load back in front of the rake as they spring forward. Takes a little playing around to get it right, and of course the heavier the rake, the better it will clean up. Some people use gauge wheels, and say that it helps them alot, might try it.


It might pick up the flat rocks you are speaking of, just depends on how embedded they are. It is possible to adjust how the tines attack the ground by adjusting the toplink, so if you can't get them to pop out, then make the toplink longer to get a better angle. This helps in two ways: (1) it allows the tine to better dig under the stuck rock, (2) the spring action of the tine under pressure will help knock the rock loose.


Some people also remove every other tine so that the rake does not foul up with small stuff quite as quick. With every other tine removed, it also scratches the ground pretty good for seeding.

 

[Charlton John]

I too am new to having a landscape rake. I purchased it to help smooth out my gravel drive as well as help with seeding large areas of land I wanted to seed. So far I have used it for both purposes and it has done a great job. After box blading a section of my property to clear out old pasture/weeds and prepare for nice grass I went over the area with the rake. It not only helped get some of the debis left behind by the BB but also prepared most of the soil for seed. So I found for these 2 purposes it has worked well for me. As mentioned though by another member it does just drag it to a section that you leave it so you still will need to get rid of the debris w/ your loader etc...

 

[ninefinger]

How are they speading and leveling wood chips ?

 

[Capt. Bob]

I feel I have to chime in on this thread. I have been using a 6' KK landscape rake with gauge wheels that belongs to my brother-in-law. I have to say it levels and grades my 1/2 mile of private road better than anything I have tried so far. I have been mixing in 120 cubic yards of soil stabilizer (red clay) into the sugar sand and the rake is making it a lot easier. I have tried a box blade and a grader blade before this. This is on my list as a must have attachment as soon as my ship comes in. JMTCW

 

[pitt_md]

I have a lot of bare dirt littered with chunks of bedrock and roots from some major construction that I have just finished. My rake did a great job at collecting the rocks and leaving them in a pile. I angled the rake to take the stones from the outside of the path to the inside and kept going around the site moving the rocks toward the center. When I was done I had a big windrow of rocks and junk. I used my loader to remove this stuff. I had to go over the site several times because the tines would pop a rock loose and jump over it sometimes when it came across rocks the dozer blade push part way into the ground. So my vote/advise on the issue is that they will collect rocks very good on bare ground. I also found it useful to rake up massive piles of pine cones. I used the gage wheels to keep the rake from tearing up the grass.