What Attachment is Right for Me?

[DeadlyGnat]

Hi everyone,

First time poster.

Here is my situation. I have some landscaping I need to do to my property. I had a lot of trees (57 oak) taken down and the stumps ground and a bunch of mountain laurel/brush removed. Now I would like to work the land to get it ready for topsoil/seeding. The yard is in pretty nasty shape right now.. as you could imagine a once heavily forested area would look like once the trees/brush was removed. I have a lot of work ahead of me.. some that needs doing by hand (big rocks and some left over laurel stumps).. but I'm looking for something to make my life a bit easier to complete the job.

I own a 2001 John Deere 445 (with 60" deck). I currently have a cat o / cat 1 combo 3-point hitch on it and a Johnny Bucket Sr.(with tooth bar) on the front. Now here is the thing.. I was thinking of an attachment for the 3-point hitch to "round out" my tractor and help me in my work.

I was thinking either a box blade or a landscape/york rake. (Most likely a 4 foot version of either one.. my tractor is not that big and wouldn't want to over do it).

The box blade looks like it would help me greatly in the grading aspect. But, with the Johnny Bucket Sr. on the front, would it be kind of repetitive? The Johnny Bucket can be angled all the way to 90 degrees and can be used to back drag or as a dozer blade.. the tooth bar can also break into the hard packed soil.

The landscape/yard rake also has appeal as it would help with the initial clean up of forest debris and help with the final touches when I'm readying to topsoil/seed. But, after that.. I don't see much use for it.

I'm pretty new to all of this, so I never worked with either a box blade or rake and this is the first time tackling a landscape project for me. So, I'm about as green as they come. I do know the ground is going to be nasty to work with. There are roots everywhere from all the trees/laurel that was there. Also, I have the typical New England yard where you can blindly go to any spot, put a shovel in the ground and hit rock...

I'm open to suggestion and knowledge. Anything that can help me out would be great!

Thanks,
John

 

[rekees4300]

Sounds like a landscape rack would be useful

Tractor 3 point hitch Category 1, Landscape Rake, Root Rake, Rock Rake, York Rake

 

[pitt_md]

This might be a case where renting some equipment is the best solution. A small dozer will make short work of that stuff and be less expensive. The down side is you don't have the implement to use later.

if you think you want to do this with your own equipment I don't know if I would go with the rake. I have the rake that is pictured in the link. I't a tough rake and works well but if you have a lot of roots/big rocks still in the ground your going to be bending the tines. Box blade might work better.

 

[Johndeere3720]

:wellcome: to TBN! I think that the root rake would get the job done. It will pick up the sticks and rocks and put them in a nice pile for you to scoop up and haul anywehere you want. Rock rakes also are great for removing snow from gravel driveways as well as grading them. Boxblades are more for if you plan on moving large quanities of dirt to low spots and filling in holes. The teeth are nice to dig in but to grade and clean up the rocks and roots, get the root rake. :thumbsup: when you bring er' home, be sure to get pics!:thumbsup: