Rake Landscape Rakes

[KML]

The rake is one of the most used implements I have. I like my gauge wheels for road work but don't use them much for any other job.

I find the rake very good at bringing the rock that gets pushed off the sides of the road back up. Though it can be done without wheels, it requires keeping an eye on what the ground is doing and adjusting the rake. With 1 3/4 miles of road to keep up, I'd need surgery to straighten my neck out after just one pass! Wheels make it much more "hands off".

I agree with buying a well built rake if it's in the budget. Mine was a TSC special (Farm Force) and has twisted up a little. I'll have to straighten it and add some reinforcements soon.

Happy hunting, and remember - there's always room for one more implement!

 

[pitt_md]

I have to make my standard pitch about the Lienbach rake. It's about $700 with the wheels for a 7' model and seems to be very strong. I moved a LOT of rock and dirt around with it and never had a problem. Quite often the rake was filled with rock and I just kept going and didn't do any damage.

Your Milage May Vary...

 

[KML]

Here's a pic of the twisting I mentioned. Not the end of the world and definately fixable. A more heavily built rake would hold up better I'm sure.

 

[AndyMA]

Guage wheels are a must. Make sure there isn't a lot of up and down movement at the pivot. My KK would move up and down about an inch before I modified it and it made a big difference.
Bill

I've been using York type rakes for over 40 years. Guage wheels are not a must. They help some operators, particualaly inexperienced ones. All the early york rakes I did 10's of lawns with had no guage wheels. My current very heavy duty 8' Ford rake has guage wheels which I very rarely mount.

I do spin my rake around 180 degrees quite often and push up to building etc. Then I spin it again and pull away from the buildings. Very quick and effective.

Andy

 

[tractorman99]

Land Pride Or Leinbach

 

[RobJ]

I made mine. Love using a rake, actually works like advertised. I flipped it around a couple times. REALLY bites the ground and will not let anything pass. Never needed guage wheels because I'm mostly raking up crap, leaves, twigs, maybe covering some seed, etc. I use a BoxBlade to move dirt if I need to. Much better suited IMO.

I did finally break 2 tines pulling crap from a next years food plot/garden. I can be a little rough on it at times.

I have to manually flip mine...but 99% of the time I just pull it.

 

[Captinjack]

One rake feature that I find very worthwhile is the ability to offset the entire rake to one side or the other. This allows the tractor wheels to stay on a road or pond dam breast and rake the gutters or whatever to the side.



The black bar can be shortened or lengthend to get about 3 feet offset to either side. This works really well when I have to clean the leaves out of my property dirt road ditches.

The Landpride rake isn't cheap, but it sure is heavy and stout and has taken a licking so far. I have home made wheels for it, but haven't installed them yet as it works good enough so far without them.

 

[tude]

Don't buy a York type rake, buy the original from York Modern.

 

[teach]

Guage wheels work well for spreading loam when nstalling new lawns.
Teach

 

[ninefinger]

I wanted a Fred Cain but could not find one in my area. I have been cruising craigslist and stumbled on a 6' for $175. Picked it up this afternoon, not sure who made it yet but looks pretty stout. Plan to clean it up tommorrow, knock some rust off and paint it. It will be fine for me.