Ratchet Rake Questions - specific to our tractor bucket & our use

[dlctcg]

Thanks for all the replies... I have no doubt the R.R. is a good tool.... just looking for someone that has used it for my purpose... Rip-Rap does an awesome job for its intended purpose but is a pain to deal with to begin with & to clean out....

My concern is with your intended usage whereas much has been said on the mounting of the RR to the bucket. I would agree that a call to the mfg would be in order to discuss those specifics with.
Working ditches with any width bucket is always a pain. 1) pain is only can do the width of bucket (if lucky) and need to reposition, lots of time and frustration with this process.
Bigger issue, ditches are rarely even/smooth/whatever description you want to insert. This is in several areas 2 I will point out. A) the ditch bottom for drainage is pitched while your ground you are working from may slope a different direction do the angle of the ditch and the angle of the bucket do not match up, making raking near impossible. B) the sides of the ditch you want to rake up likely are not smooth, dips and rises in your raking path. So you lose material or pick up unwanted material as you rake up the ditch bank.

Then another issue—raking small material from among rip rap with a 5’+ flat rake. What a headache without the afore mention troubles. You want to leave the big stuff, but as anyone who has ever raked any rocks knows you leave behind the smaller stuff.

My only suggestion is a multi step process.
1) remove all rocks (or at least as much ad feasible)
2) a multi step separation process. Easiest to remove the stuff you want to return to the ditch. Most any rock bucket will accomplish this.
Then remove the processed gravel from the dirt. Screens are available for this, but my experience has been disappoint in the results. I either have most of my fines (the glue that keeps my gravel together) in the dirt making the dirt less useful in other places as this is often very rich dirt from runoff topsoil settling. Or large dirt clumps remaining in my gravel, making it less desirable in the driveway.
Now depending on your results, you have 3 piles, 1 to return to your ditch if you did not when it was separated, a 2nd to return to your driveway, and a 3rd to use for low spots in your yard.
My experience has taught me to leave that rock in the rip rap to help reduce the washing away of soil between the large rocks and add more material to the drive. I have thrown out some mortar near culverts to provide extra fines in areas prone to washing away.

@CoyPatton Thanks for the reply... You have touched on many of my real concerns, especially the concern I have of pulling the process stone out of the Rip-Rap. I wouldn't mind if it pulls some of the Rip-Rap up with it, but my thinking is along the lines of yours that only the Rip-Rap will be pulled up & most of the process with just stay behind. I was also under the same thought process as you for the past many years as to just leave the process as it packed the Rip-Rap well. However due to weather & the inability to stay on top of it this past year I've lost to much of it in certain places & really need to reclaim it to help re-establish the culvert to the way they worked prior.

I realize no matter what I use there will be a lot of repositioning to do this project due to the angle / slope of our driveway & the areas I need to work. I'm ok with this & even only working in 5+ft sections if I can achieve the result I'm looking for... Just don't know what attachment makes sense... and being the R.R is fairly inexpensive, removable, & works on the front.... It interested me.

I have many implements for driveway maintenance, all having there place & use, but I really haven't come up with a good way (or implement) to reclaim some of the process in order to reshape the culverts. Really don't want to dig them out...

 

[bearthebruce]

We have had ours for two seasons to help with trail building. We have not tried clearing the run off ditches as Jeff did. On our crazy slopes, I not sure we could manage to get the tractor lined up with the ditch.

We refreshed our ditches last year when we had an excavator (and a professional operator) on the grounds to do other work. We figured it was less cost to have them stay an extra day rather than bring the equip back.

So while I find value in using the rack for all sorts of trail work, including grading as such, we really don't have the experience with your exact need.

I'm with those who say call the folks at Ratchet Rake. We had a question about our bucket, they were super helpful and a pleasure with which to do business.

 

[AWSubie]

I’ve used my 72” ratchet rake to spread and level a gravel base for a 40 foot shipping container and it did that job very well.

I can’t speak to working on a slope; but now that I have seen Jeff’s pictures of grooming a fire break I am now interested on trying mine on my fire pit that has sprouted a lot of vegetation.

 

[GeneV]

Prior to buying mine, I watched some videos, one of which was a dude using the rr to tidy up his gravel drive. It worked pretty well for that, so don't see why you couldn't use it similarly for what you're looking to do. I love mine, I've used it for a bunch of stuff besides just pulling out brush.

 

[dlctcg]

I’ve used my 72” ratchet rake to spread and level a gravel base for a 40 foot shipping container and it did that job very well.

I can’t speak to working on a slope; but now that I have seen Jeff’s pictures of grooming a fire break I am now interested on trying mine on my fire pit that has sprouted a lot of vegetation.

Yeah... based on the many videos I've watched, I don't think you would have any issue using it on a slope with vegetation (ie your fire pit). I would think it would do pretty well...

I wouldn't be using it to spread stone or materials (have other implements for that)... going to call R.R. & see what they have to say but still not sure it will pull the process out of the culverts with the Rip-Rap in there, & being it will mostly be used for that & possibly taming some vines in our wooded trails need to do some more research.

If I could find a better attachment or process for this I would be looking into it.

 

[dlctcg]

So I called R.R. about fitting the bucket with the bolt-on edge... & after much discussion they recommend the 68" because I would have a little movement either left or right to miss the bolts with the mounting parts of the R.R. Also the standard R.R. will accommodate a bucket (or bolt on edge) up to 7/8" without modification. However with (designed) modification it can handle up to 1 3/8" thickness....

Just thought I'd update my findings. They didn't have a real answer for my use... but I expected that...

 

[fried1765]

So I called R.R. about fitting the bucket with the bolt-on edge... & after much discussion they recommend the 68" because I would have a little movement either left or right to miss the bolts with the mounting parts of the R.R. Also the standard R.R. will accommodate a bucket (or bolt on edge) up to 7/8" without modification. However with (designed) modification it can handle up to 1 3/8" thickness....

Just thought I'd update my findings. They didn't have a real answer for my use... but I expected that...

Thanks!
Good to know information.

 

[Midniteoyl]

So I called R.R. about fitting the bucket with the bolt-on edge... & after much discussion they recommend the 68" because I would have a little movement either left or right to miss the bolts with the mounting parts of the R.R. Also the standard R.R. will accommodate a bucket (or bolt on edge) up to 7/8" without modification. However with (designed) modification it can handle up to 1 3/8" thickness....

Just thought I'd update my findings. They didn't have a real answer for my use... but I expected that...

Nice. Thanks for the info!

 

[CoyPatton]

As I glanced over my comments, I think my remarks could be construed to indicate, I think little of the RR.
Actually I think they are a great product at last I looked good price when used for projects in their design and marketing.
I just do not see them working for the proposed use by the OP. I have dig more ditches and cleaned out more ditches than I can remember. 1 basic thing about ditches is they are much easier to screw up than fix. An experienced operator can work one and make it look easy with any number of pieces of equipment, but raking uphill is a near impossible task, make even more impossible with small weighted items you want to move.
I wish I had a suggestion for the OP, but I am not alone in not having one from comments I gave read! Lots of folks praise the RR and again for their described uses, it is a great product, but what they describe does not touch on the OP desired use.
The only real suggestion I have is not cheap—it is to rent a wide enough backhoe or mini excavator that will straddle his ditch, then dig out the ditch shallow enough to remove very little dirt, then separate his rocks and put what he wants in the ditch and what he wants in the drive there.
Or leave it alone. As for culverts, I have not seen any in any of his photos to have an opinion.

 

[dlctcg]

As I glanced over my comments, I think my remarks could be construed to indicate, I think little of the RR.
Actually I think they are a great product at last I looked good price when used for projects in their design and marketing.
I just do not see them working for the proposed use by the OP. I have dig more ditches and cleaned out more ditches than I can remember. 1 basic thing about ditches is they are much easier to screw up than fix. An experienced operator can work one and make it look easy with any number of pieces of equipment, but raking uphill is a near impossible task, make even more impossible with small weighted items you want to move.
I wish I had a suggestion for the OP, but I am not alone in not having one from comments I gave read! Lots of folks praise the RR and again for their described uses, it is a great product, but what they describe does not touch on the OP desired use.
The only real suggestion I have is not cheap—it is to rent a wide enough backhoe or mini excavator that will straddle his ditch, then dig out the ditch shallow enough to remove very little dirt, then separate his rocks and put what he wants in the ditch and what he wants in the drive there.
Or leave it alone. As for culverts, I have not seen any in any of his photos to have an opinion.

@CoyPatton - Thanks for your in-sight again...
I didn't take your comments as an anti-R.R. post, actually you really addressed many of the concerns I had about it for my particular planned use... I appreciated your perspective. Like you I have no doubt the R.R. is a good product & works really well for many of it's intended applications. We may be purchasing one anyways, to use for our trails & removal of vines & briars on the property....

I think I'm going to take your suggestion & try the backhoe route... although I didn't want to dig out the drainage trenches / culverts, I do think it will work... even if it is a slow process. I have a 758C backhoe for the TC40D & a 12" bucket I can swap over to. The TC40 should be able to straddle the drainage trenches in most areas. Again it will be slow but there are some areas that need to be reshaped & I definitely want to do it prior to repairing & possibly topping the driveway with new process....

Sorry for the terrible pictures... some of them are older but they give an idea of parts of the drainage...