What attachment do I need?

[TheGoose]

I need to pick the right attachment for my Kubota L3400. I have some pasture that I am cleaning up. It has been sitting for a few years and has quite a few dead trees, fallen limbs, etc. scattered out. I have made several large piles with my FEL to move the bigger logs, and it has worked well with that. I am finding that I have a lot of debris left in the field mostly made up of medium size limbs, sticks, brush, etc. The FEL is really too big to handle this stuff without getting off the tractor. What I have been doing is parking the tractor close enough and just loading everything into the bucket by hand.

I was looking at a landscape rake and I think that this might be what I need. The 2nd option would be a chain/drag harrows that I could pull behind the tractor and it would supposedly grab the debris, but how do you "unload" it when you reach the destination? I guess with the landscape rake I could drag the debris to the pile, raise up and then push it back with the FEL or turn the Landscape rake around? Would the landscape rake also be good to spread manure etc. around? I heard that chain harrows is good to bust up the manure the cows leave and spread it around and also good to smooth out rough pasture etc.

I have no extra hydraulics etc. so a brush grapple etc. is not an option.

 

[gerard]

a landscape rake would work moderately well but when dragging a lot of loose branches and things a few things happen. If branches they wedge into the tines and won't release with gravity meaning you have to get off and remove them manually. For leafy hey like material, it tends to roll up in a bundle and eventually the rake will slide over the top, leaving the pile behind. Not a real problem because at least you now have a pile. A chain harrow works very well for busting up manure (horse or cow) without trashing the grass to badly. It will NOT move material as it just rides over the surface and busts it up. If you use a rake you best option is to make short forward passes, raking things into a windrow without letting it build up too much. Then drive down the windrow with the same motion until you have a bunch of piles, then use the loader to remove the piles.

 

[TheGoose]

That is kinda what I was thinking. Thanks for the info. I wouldn't even mind having to manuall remove the items from the rake as long as I could get them to the pile. Might even try the old jerky 3-pt hitch. See, it's actually useful for something!!

 

[NSBound]

Would a ratchet rake work for what you need to do? Ratchet Rake, LLC .

 

[TheGoose]

I don't really know. I have never seen one in action. I thought they were for getting vegitation out? How well would they do for removing small logs, sticks, etc? It really don't appeal to me to drive backwards all the way to a brush pile, which is what I understand I would have to do with a R/R. Looks like a neat idea, not sure if it would do what I want.

 

[/pine]

If you gather the debris you still have to deal with it...I'm no expert but it sounds like you have a prime candidate for some heavy duty brush hogging...

 

[gerard]

Would a ratchet rake work for what you need to do? Ratchet Rake, LLC .

that looks interesting. Should do the trick

 

[TheGoose]

I think I would still have a lot of debris....but I might try it. I have not brush-hogged after the clean-up to see what would be left. Some of it I can't get to with the brush hog, but I might be able to back a land-scape rake into it.

If you gather the debris you still have to deal with it...I'm no expert but it sounds like you have a prime candidate for some heavy duty brush hogging...

 

[gerard]

YouTube - Skid Steer Land Sculptor - Scarifier

this gizmo would work pretty well too but it probably isn't cheap.

 

[TheGoose]

Not in my price range. Looking to spend in the $500 range or less. Preferably less...

 

[TheGoose]

Any more opinions?

 

[Egon]

Make a rake for the three point hitch using pickup tines.

I made one up a few years ago and it works quite well. I can rake grass that has been cut with a finishing mower with it.

 

[RPW]

For debrie you might try a rock/brush rake with a grapple. I picked up on recently from an auction (bradco) and works pretty good at picking up all types of debrie. Sometimes I do wish it had a grapple on it.

Good luck.

 

[pitt_md]

Would a ratchet rake work for what you need to do? Ratchet Rake, LLC .

Well that's something I have never seen before. looks like it could be handy. That said I think the rake would be a better option.

 

[TripleR]

We always use a Box scraper with the tines lowered enough to catch the debris, run over it and drop it and drag along the ground once it starts accumulating and the take it to the pile, raise the BB to dump and then use it to push it onto the pile. If the stuff is too big to drive over, we just push it with the box scraper; works well.

 

[JOHNTHOMAS]

I have a RatchetRake and had a Landscape rake. The RatchetRake is best for final clean up of lose debris and for leveling out loose dirt for grass seeding. I'm not saying the RatchetRake wouldn't do it but the fine teeth are close to the ground and when you got a volume of debris, it would roll over it and it does have to be done in reverse. The forward teeth are for clearing out brush. The Landscape rake, in my opinion, would be your best implement for what you say needs to be done. Sometimes you/we have to get off our tractors, that's just life but I believe there would be less hand work with the Landscape Rake.

 

[paccorti]

I've used a toothbar for this purpose. The teeth will help load material into the bucket and then you can carry it to wherever for dumping. With that said it won't pick up stuff that's too small. In those cases I'll put the loader on float and drive all the way to the dumping pile.

Peter

 

[Mike120]

I don't know what kind of hydraulics those little tractors have but if you just need to add an extra outlet for a grapple you might look at these:

V&M Inc. Valves Page