Rake TR3 Rake Questions

Slippy · Sep 19, 2007

Anyone have or seen a TR3 Rake. It is made by Absolute innovations. It came up in my search for Harley Rakes. How good are they?

LoneCowboy · Sep 19, 2007

I saw one at the horse show earlier this year.
Was incredibly high pressure tactics, lots of "here's a DVD, here's more stuff"
and it was crazy expensive.
The one I saw didn't look very well built at all (esp. not for the money)
Never used one though.

Rara Avis · Sep 22, 2007

Slippy said:
Anyone have or seen a TR3 Rake. It is made by Absolute innovations. It came up in my search for Harley Rakes. How good are they?

Yeah...I have one...I does everything their advertising cd claims and then some....

But they are EXPENSIVE initially, but not having to spend any time fixing them pays in the LONG RUN....plus I get to depreciate mine because of the farm...

What do you want to know?

Slippy · Sep 22, 2007

how do you think it would work in a hay field. I have some really rough areas, dips, small holes. I don't want to go too deep though becasuse this part of my fields was strip mined about 30 years ago. I know from digging that I get more than a few inchs down, I run the risk of digging up a bunch of rocks.
My sod is pretty thick. It will come out in big clumps when I use my box scrapper.
I also would use it to groom some motocross tracks. Mostly in the turns and pre-jump areas.
Have you used it in fields, or in what areas have you used it and how did it do? Their ad claims it will do better than the harely rake. From the cd it look like it will go a lot faster.

Rara Avis · Sep 22, 2007

Slippy said:
how do you think it would work in a hay field. I have some really rough areas, dips, small holes. I don't want to go too deep though becasuse this part of my fields was strip mined about 30 years ago. I know from digging that I get more than a few inchs down, I run the risk of digging up a bunch of rocks.
My sod is pretty thick. It will come out in big clumps when I use my box scrapper.
I also would use it to groom some motocross tracks. Mostly in the turns and pre-jump areas.
Have you used it in fields, or in what areas have you used it and how did it do? Their ad claims it will do better than the harely rake. From the cd it look like it will go a lot faster.

Then you will LOVE the TR-3...it has a FLOATING drag bar and with the wheels and proper setup you can surface strip your hayfields for rejuvenation...

If your fields get rutty, then drop the scarifiers and break up the ground...

As for grooming motocross tracks, if all you want is a softening of the first couple of inches of soil while leveling....order the ROCK TEETH atachment...I use only the floating drag bar with the rock teeth attached for maintenance of dressage arenas(scarifiers are moved out of play)...firm footing for the horses with a 1 to 2 inch softened top layer...

Also, I maintain all my gravel roads as shown on the CD...the most important step is to break the ground up deeper than the pot holes...

The unit is a HEAVY!!!

The wide units require and FEL to get them off the truck...the smaller units are delivered by ROADWAY with a hydraulic loader on the back of the trailer...

Slippy · Sep 22, 2007

Which unit do you have and what do they cost?
And, how do you think this is diff from a harley rake?

Rara Avis · Sep 22, 2007

Slippy said:
Which unit do you have and what do they cost?
And, how do you think this is diff from a harley rake?

I got a 5 footer with rail guard for arenas and the rock guard and mine was about $3800 delivered...(Indiana to Vermont)

A TR-3 function for function is better than the harley...in fact, I keep finding new things to do with it...Like today, I locked the dragbar and the scarifiers up and out of the way and then cranked the toplink to us the back teeth for a quick grooming of the gravel roads...

I'm also ordering the toothed spinners for Aerate Pastures...they fit in the scarifier slots...

I have sold my BB and my RR because of this machine and now I just use my drag harrow to breakup the horse manure in the paddocks...

Mike120 · Sep 22, 2007

Slippy, I've got one and it's a VERY good arena drag. It will do everything they say it will do and as Paul pointed out...it's extremely well built. Having said that, I'm not sure about it's use in a pasture. Personnally I use a pasture roller to work out the ruts in my hay fields. It isn't perfect, but it works well enough and it doesn't kill the grass. I've tried using the TR3 to renovate paddocks and had trouble with grass clumping. My tiller does a better job. I expect it would work fine if I killed everything first, but that is more trouble than I think it's worth.

Paul, where did you see the "toothed spinners"?? I looked on their website and didn't see anything. I'd be very interested in them. I just sold my little aerater because it wasn't heavy enough. The big one I borrow for my hay fields is too big to drag around in my paddocks.

Slippy · Sep 22, 2007

Mike: I was the spinners on the dvd they sent me. What I can't tell from the video is whether they will pull plugs or if they just simply spike holes in the ground. Lots of stuff on one v the other. Most claim that plugging is much better.

Rara Avis · Sep 22, 2007

Mike120 said:
Slippy, I've got one and it's a VERY good arena drag. It will do everything they say it will do and as Paul pointed out...it's extremely well built. Having said that, I'm not sure about it's use in a pasture. Personnally I use a pasture roller to work out the ruts in my hay fields. It isn't perfect, but it works well enough and it doesn't kill the grass. I've tried using the TR3 to renovate paddocks and had trouble with grass clumping. My tiller does a better job. I expect it would work fine if I killed everything first, but that is more trouble than I think it's worth.

Paul, where did you see the "toothed spinners"?? I looked on their website and didn't see anything. I'd be very interested in them. I just sold my little aerater because it wasn't heavy enough. The big one I borrow for my hay fields is too big to drag around in my paddocks.

If you don't want to completely scrape the paddock...Lock the bar UP, set the scarifiers out of the picture and then crank the toplink so the back teeth are working the grass...

To make this even more efficient, order the hydraulic toplink...so you set the back teeth to drag...then lift the teeth by shorten the toplink...move over your grass pile...then extend the toplink to engage the rear teeth and then back up pushing the pile into BIGGER piles...which you then FEL into your dump truck...trailer...or pickup truck...

I use the rock teeth attached to the drag bar when stripping paddocks and hay fields, but only when I'm doing a complete reseeding...

As Slippy pointed out it's on their latest promotional CD...

Based on the TR-3's manufacture...I doubt they are pluggers...