Sleeve Hitch/Box Scraper vs. York Rake

[mdc2544]

Thanks to the advice of a fellow TBNer, I am now considering a towable York Rake instead of a box scraper/electric sleeve hitch combo. It's $500 cheaper than the CC hitch plus scraper and the same price as RS Fab's hitch plus scraper. Is one better than the other? Seems to me the rake will do a better job on rocks while the scraper will do better finish work. I would love to hear from anyone one who has used either - pro's and con's.

 

[Brian_NC]

A rake works good on roots and rocks, it will fold back on big rocks though. For a rake to go a really smooth job, you need your ground loosened up pretty well, and you need to angle it, it will work similiar to a motor grader, filling in low spots and shaving off high spots, assuming the ground is loose. A box blade will work as well, if your ground is hard and rough, it will probably cut better. It will have a tendancy to go up and down with the rear of your tractor, think it is called wasboarding, the key to avoiding that and getting a smooth job with either of the two is to work the area in diffferent directions, maybe straight across all of it followed by crossing it at a 45 degree angle. You won't believe the difference that makes. Either one will work on smoothing gravel, although again a rake will have a hard time if it is very compacted. The most important thing to remember when using either one is to take your time, both work better at slower speeds. I didn't mean to write a book there, hopefully I have made some sense. Good luck with whichever you decide on. Brian

 

[dubba]

I have one of these from York modern . I tow it behind my JD325 17hp garden tractor.

I find it is too much for the garden tractor unless it is adjusted properly & not trying to move/do too much at a time.

The 325 has a sleeve hitch mounted on the rear & the rake does have a sleeve hitch mount, however I don't actually put the two of them together like they were designed to do.

What I do is set the sleeve hitch for the rake on top of the tractor sleeve hitch using a long (10") pin. In between the two I use 3/8" "hitch washers" to shim the proper height of the rake. The sleeve hitch has a handle to raise & lower the hitch, so when the tractor starts to bog down (loose traction) I simply lift the sleeve hitch a little to lessen the load & go around again.

Using the landscape rake in this fashion is kinda slow work, but the results are the best that I've ever had.

I'm sorry if none of this applies to you as I have no idea what a cub 2544 looks like /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[mdc2544]

Thanks dubba and Brian. I found out my local Taylor rental carries the York rake so I am going to try that out first before buying. dubba, sounds like you have a manual sleeve hitch. The cc 2544 has the tranny oil fill on the back plate preventing the use of the manual sleeve hitch. Otherwise, that's the route I would take with the box scraper. Thanks for the input. Any one else have any success with either????