Rake Rakes

[ancientlake]

Landscape rake is a great tool. I think it only has to be as big and beefy as you need it. I recently picked up a used 6' King Kutter and added wheels. Rake is a little wider than my rear wheels and I'm amazed at what a great job it does at cleaning up/reclaiming areas of rocks, roots, etc. It can easily rip up turf and growth if I set the wheels lower. In my case I don't need the extra weight. Nothing really to break, and you can get new tines. Having said this, I paid my neighbor $175 for the rake. Not sure how I'd feel about paying the new price for the KK.

 

[Regal]

Will a landscape rake help with dragging off mulch?

My 3 acre lawn is heavy in some areas and light in others so when I mow, I end up with a lot of mulch, cutting after cutting after cutting. We have been getting a lot of rain and the grass is lovin it. Today I ended up spending a little over 5 hours mowing and windrowing with mower. Then I let the mower all the way to the ground and pushed the windrows to one end in piles. Still a lot of mulch out there.

 

[Charlie175]

Just happened upon a used Bush Hog 72" rake today at a dealer for $350. Looked barely used so I got it. They had the same model new for double the money.

Now to try it out.

 

[pitt_md]

How wide of a rake should a guy get? Is this related to tractor HP, tractor width, or none of the above? I see LEINBACH has a new 7' rake on ebay for $548 and free shipping. Is that a good rake/price?

 

[IslandTractor]

How wide of a rake should a guy get? Is this related to tractor HP, tractor width, or none of the above? I see LEINBACH has a new 7' rake on ebay for $548 and free shipping. Is that a good rake/price?

Rakes can be wider than the tractor. I don't know of a rule of thumb but a 20hp tractor can handle a 5ft rake easily and my 40hp is way more than needed for the six foot rake I now have. I'd guess that a 8ft rake on 40hp would not be too much for the power requirements but big rakes are kind of unwieldy.

I've not seen a Leinbach myself but believe they have a good reputation. That price with free shipping is suspiciously low. Shipping almost anywhere is $150 or more these days so $400 for a seven foot rake of decent quality is downright cheap.

 

[Charlie175]

I had just priced LEINBACH rakes, a 5' was $525 (MSRP $595 they said). So if yours is 7' then it would be up near $700 or more.

The 6' is bigger than I wanted but for the price I couldn't pass it up.

 

[jbrumberg]

I would not use the 5HP/foot "rule" for landscape rakes. My tractor handles my 8' Woods Landscape Rake pretty well. I can not argue about the price- it was "free". All I really had to do was pull it out from under a junk/scrap pile . Jay

 

[Charlie175]

WOW! I must say I am impressed, I can't believe me and the kids spent all that time picking up sticks when this tool does such a easy job of it.
I never went 1" or more into the ground so my 2015 pulled it real easy, even when I got a large gathering up.

Now to do even more work with it.