Rake Usefullness of Landscape Rake?

[Ches]

Been looking at various landscape rakes and wonder how usefule they might be in helping me clean up a wood lot. I've been cutting brush, mostly removing anything less than 4 inches. Would like to go in and clean up smaller debris that is on the ground. I've seen where the landscape rake appears to be more for leveling gravel, cleaning cleared lots, etc. How usefull would one be to go in the woods with the tractor and "rake" debris out (space between trees permitting)?
Also, would pallet forks (clamped on to the loader bucket) be useful, and most economical attachment, for moving brush piles to a location for burning?
Thanks

Ches

 

[Bird]

Ches, I haven't ever used one of the rakes, but sure think I'd like to have one occasionally. But I do sometimes put my pallet forks on the bucket to move brush. That works pretty well.

Bird

 

[MChalkley]

Ches - Rakes work pretty well, especially if you turn them around so you can push backing up. Then you don't have to drive over the stuff first.

Pallet forks work better on big stuff and not as well on smaller stuff.

Mark

PS - My mind is going: I have to keep editing posts this morning because I'm forgetting things.

I really like the bolt-on toothbar for clearing brush, especially if you don't have too many big rocks or stumps. You can let it just barely skim the surface and the brush piles up in the bucket. When it works, it's very fast, but it works in less situations than a rake, because of the forgiveness of the spring tines on the rake.<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by MChalkley on 7/27/00 10:42 AM.</FONT></P>

 

[Thomas]

Ches,
The York model RI might fit your needs??
The website is www.yorkmodern.com
Stay safe and be/w3tcompact/icons/cool.gif


Thomas..NH

 

[Keoke]

Mark, I agree with you completly on the rake vs tooth bar for moving brush.
The one problem I have when using my tooth bar is that the teeth are to far apart (8 inches between teeth) this allows a lot of the small stuff to slip through.
I have been thinking of adding additional teeth in between the existing teeth. This would give about 4 inch spacing between teeth.
I know this would be better for pushing brush.
But, what would be the downside, if any, when using the bucket for just plain digging?

 

[W5FL]

You aren't going to like this, but using the bucket teeth for digging is a recipe for disaster. Sooner or later, you are going to ruin a cylinder or break a mounting bolt. Loaders are not designed for digging. Use scarfiers on a box blade to dig and use the loader to pick it up.

I would think the only downside to more teeth is cost. I think I would prefer the 8 in spacing as it lets the little stuff (rocks and dirt) fall out and keeps the limbs where you want them.

 

[MChalkley]

Keoke - My teeth have 6" spacing between them. In addition to cost, which Wen mentioned, putting on more teeth decreases the force available for digging because it's spread across more area. This is the real reason that teeth are an improvement over a straight edge when digging. All the force of the tractor is concentrated on the points of the teeth until the edge of the bucket hits the material, by which time the teeth have broken it up enough that the edge will usually push in, too. So, you need enough teeth to break up the material all the way across, and any more hurts rather than helps.

By the way, perhaps Wen's objection to "digging" with the loader is more a matter of semantics than anything else. Most of the digging I do with my loader is really just pushing the bucket into a material pile, though often the material pile is fill or topsoil and pretty hard: whereas the plain bucket is very hard to get into the pile, the addition of the toothbar makes the process much less stressful to the tractor, loader, me, etc. Now, I agree with Wen on this: Using the loader to actually dig into packed soil, especially when it contains stumps, large rocks, etc, without breaking it up by taking small slices at a time, is very hard on the equipment.

Mark

 

[Keoke]

Yeah Wen, I know the bucket is not a bulldozer blade. I take it slow and easy when working the hard stuff.
Mark, the 6 inch spacing on your bucket teeth sounds just about right. I wish mine was at the same spacing in instead of 8 inches. Putting a tooth in the middle and going to a bit less then 4 inches makes no sense now. Cutting the present teeth loose and moving them over to 6 inch spacing makes no sense now either. Best to find these kinda things out before and not after buying the product.
By the way guys, Keoke is Hawaiian for George. Of course somebody beat me to "George" in the user name chase, so in went Keoke.

regards,
george

 

[Hawgee]

Check out the grapple on the front of this little Case tractor.
http://209.24.94.181/index.htm/used.htm
I'd go with the Rock,Landscape rake on the rear and the grapple on the front with tooth bar. All that should be left on the ground would be too small to worry over.

"What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered."
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

 

[MChalkley]

George - I wouldn't lose too much sleep over the tooth spacing. It's not likely to make a whole lot of difference in cleaning up brush. I like to use it to collect the larger stuff, and the green branches, but the broken, dry stuff is going to escape almost anything except perhaps a landscape rake. And they'll rot away in a few weeks anyway.

Mark

 

[Alan L.]

wen, I guess there is some happy medium somewhere, but if I thought my tractor was too big a puss to dig with the loader I would have bought a boat instead. I dig with my loader all the time according the instruction manual that came with it. I wouldn't dig a whole pond or lake with it, but I have dug out quite a bit of material out of hard clay. If I should be afraid of doing that I'd just as soon take the toy back to the dealer and get some real equipment.

 

[W5FL]

Yeah, mine will dig too, but don't hit any immovable objects (rocks). I dig with the scarfiers on the Gannon Box Blade and that will dig a lot of soil very quickly. It loosens it, scrapes it, and carries it for up to about 3000# of soil at a pass. The loader picks it up if it has to move to a different location. I don't have hydraulics on the scarfiers, but do have a lever operated one that drops 8 scarfiers on a 76 inche box blade.

Be careful though, because I have seen people dragging with the bucket fully extended and if you jam the bucket in that position, you can tear up a cylinder and Kubota will not do warranty on it. I like the diggers on the tracked loaders that are hydraulic operated. They come down and loosen the soil and then the loader finishes the job with the bucket. Still takes a lot of weight on the scarfiers.

I wish I had your soil if you don't have rocks, but you wouldn't dig around my place very long without tearing your loader up.

 

[Bird]

It seems I've read quite a few messages about "digging" with the front end loader, and I'm not quite sure I understand all of them. Maybe it depends on individuals' definitions of the word "digging." I'll have to admit I don't do much digging with mine because the ground is so hard, it stops me and I just spin my wheels (no rocks though). At any rate, though, Alan, if I can dig what I need to dig with the front end loader, I do. And if the tractor won't go forward, I use the scarifiers on the box blade to tear it up first, like Wen says. And I haven't damaged anything on either of my Kubotas yet. A couple of years ago, I went and helped a neighbor bury a dead horse, and he dug that hole with nothing but the front end loader on a John Deere tractor.

Bird

 

[Kelvin]

I found a used 6-foot one for $75 and like it a lot for that price. I not sure that I'd pay the price of a new one (typically over $300).

I have an area with a lot of spread out trees that I rake up most of all the large piles of leaves. It leaves occasional gouge marks in the dirt but that doesn't bother me much. For another area that had trees cleared out and a lot of left-over debris, I have found the rake to be the best way to clean up the small-to-medium sized wood stuff. I usually use the rake pointed forward while making the long runs (dragging stuff over to a general area). The rake can then be turned around facing rearward to push the debris into a smaller pile.

The main problem with the debris clearing porcess is that after every 2nd pass or so you have to stop and clean all of the sticks that have gotten stuck between the rake teeth.

 

[MChalkley]

George - Sorry, I lied. My tooth spacing is 8", too. I haven't found it to be a problem, though. But perhaps I tend to use it for heavier brush clean-up than you want yours for.

Mark

 

[Alan L.]

I don't have any rocks to speak of, but the clay is really heavy. I just had a 12' deep pond dug and there were a few 3 or 4 inch rocks down deep, but thats about it. The problem with using the scarifiers is that they are on the box blade and it seems I always have the rotary cutter on when I decide I need to dig something. Too lazy to switch them out unless there is some serious work to be done.

My heavy clay has discouraged some of my digging desires, but it seems you should be able to try within reason without tearing up anything.

 

[MChalkley]

Alan L. - It sounds like you could really use a Freedom Hitch. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Mark

 

[W5FL]

Or adjustable 3 point links.

 

[gordon]

Now thats a grapple did you notice all the welds on that bucket? I thought my bucket had a good deal of welds but that one beats mine. I would love to have a rig like that it sure would come in handy.

As for a landscape rake works good for the smaller brush and comes in handy for so many other things as well its one of my favorite tools. If you get a rake get a set of gauge wheels for it. The wheels are well worth the investment.
Gordon

 

[dav]

I think the rake will do what you are needing to do. You didn't say if you are planning to seed grass after you clear the area, I can tell you from experence that these things are worth there weight in gold for lawn prep, spreading gravel and removeing rocks. A few things you might think about though, are that rakes seem to work best for windrowing materials by driving round and round in smaller circles until you get to one big pile or row to remove, all those trees are going to be in the way of this and I have found that longer branches ect seem to get stuck in the teeth but smaller materails are no problem........ Good luck