Tips on Harley rake use and adjustment

[Larry_Van_Horn]

Folks,
I have rented a Harley rake for the weekend, and spent 4 hours this evening with it. I am preparing my grass seed bed, about 2 acres. The Harley rake is doing a nice job, but I am not sure that I am setting it up right. In particular how should the toplink and guage wheels and 3 pt depth be set so that I kick the rocks and not overly rototill the ground.

Second once I have put down the grass seed would you roll it in, use my chain harrow to drag it in? THanks,
Larry

 

[SteveBenson]

I found the rake will let you know how deep it's willing to go depending on how hard the ground is. They are not very useful when the ground dries up in the summer. The biggest adjustment is the blade on top that dictates what size rocks it will pass thru. Don't make the mistake of dropping it too low (small gap) as this will slow you down to a snail's pace.

The rake leaves a perfect bed for grass seed. Seeding and rolling is the best. If you want to chain harrow for to smooth things out I'd do that first, then seed, then roll.

That's just the way I'd do it /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[AndyMA]

I agree with Steve's info. I'll just add one thing. My father and grandfather were nurserymen and the one thing they said about putting in lawns was that most people rolled with too heavy a roller and didn't give the seed a chance to breath. Of the hundreds of lawns we put in, we always used a empty roller (very light) and had great results. To cover the seed before rolling, we often used a very light touch on a push broom jsut to mix up the soil with the seed.

Andy