Which Landscape Rake?

[Piston]

Befco.woods,or landpride rakes with gauge wheels.I bought a king kutter and it was very cheap made compared to the others I have listed.I ended up selling my king kutter York rake and bought a befco.

Just to touch on these suggestions (which are all really good) it's not just the manufacturer to look at.

For instance, just because you buy a Landpride rake, doesn't mean its good. I have a light duty Landpride LR1572 with a drop down grader blade and gauge wheels. Although it is a really nice rake, I consider it junk when I use it. It's too lightweight to do an effective job in certain situations. It's made for light duty work, regardless of the tractor pulling it. I would go with a heavy duty rake even if I had a 20hp tractor.

So just be sure to pay attention to the weight per foot as well as design, duty rating (which varies depending on who you talk to), as well as manufacturer. :thumbsup:

 

[Ken45101]

I bought a used Landpride years ago and it does the job very quickly. It seems to be well made.

I highly recommend the gauge wheels, they really improve the job.

 

[Poopdeck Pappy]

Just to touch on these suggestions (which are all really good) it's not just the manufacturer to look at.

For instance, just because you buy a Landpride rake, doesn't mean its good. I have a light duty Landpride LR1572 with a drop down grader blade and gauge wheels. Although it is a really nice rake, I consider it junk when I use it. It's too lightweight to do an effective job in certain situations. It's made for light duty work, regardless of the tractor pulling it. I would go with a heavy duty rake even if I had a 20hp tractor.

So just be sure to pay attention to the weight per foot as well as design, duty rating (which varies depending on who you talk to), as well as manufacturer. :thumbsup:

This seems to be a consistently valid point on ANY implement except maybe a grapple. Except in very limited circumstances (such as lifting), weight is an implement's friend.

 

[JMER817]

I had a landpride (2084 I believe) and was very impressed with it. I did get the gauge wheels with it and wonder how I got along without them for so long. Compared this rake to a woods before buying and seemed more heavy duty. Used it for installing new lawns before purchasing a Harley rake for my business.

 

[longrangelarry]

Which brings up a point about weight of implements. When the tractor is light, how heavy a rake can it handle? My Yanmar weighs something like 3200# and even a little bite in dirt by the grader blade will stop it cold (well, the wheels spin). I am looking for a rake now, but what weight can I handle? Not that I have so many choices in rakes because I will buy used and they go fast, but just in case I have a choice. Also have access to a heavy old JD but I am thinking we might be able to cultivate with the JD and then rake with the Yanmar right behind it, all in one step. (This is for working a new food plot that's going to rocky.)

 

[EverythingAttachments]

We have a couple of videos that show our ETA Xtreme duty rake in action. Peanut is using it to clean up one of his Dad's fields after it flooded earlier this year.
We also offer a Compact Tractor Landscape rake for smaller tractors, which features the same, high quality Italian tines.
The Xtreme duty rakes are Cat 1&2 Quick hitch compatible and the compact is Cat 1 QH compatible.
Here is one of the videos showing the punishment:

 

[EverythingAttachments]

And another video:

 

[longrangelarry]

Thanks. Actually I have already seen those videos and they were very helpful. The question about weight is partly answered, in that your compact tractor rakes are about half the weight of the standard. But is the weight limited because of the lift capacity of the 3 pt or the diminished pulling power of a lightweight tractor? And I can certainly see the value of the better tines. This is my first tractor and I am trying to learn all this stuff almost at once. I have small food plots and the turning radius of my Yanmar is just plain ideal. But when we do my buddy's nearby plots, they are straight for several hundred yards (I will break up the plantings but breaking ground and raking will all be done in long rows). All this land is full of potato sized rocks, so the purpose of the rake is actually for raking rocks. Will the compact rake work OK for this, keeping in mind there will be lots of trash (weeds) as well? (Probably not enough time left before spring for it to rot, considering it hasn't even been plowed yet.) If I end up buying whatever used rake I can find close by, is there a reasonable weight limit for my F18D? I am sure it can lift more than is good for it, so I want to avoid that. But mainly I'm interested in how much rake I can pull. Getting hung up constantly really slows things down.
Thanks.

 

[sixdogs]

If there is a lot of trash and rocks on soft ground, a landscape rake will not be real satisfying because you will spend a lot of time picking sticks, grass and rocks out of the tines. In my view, a landscape rake works best with hard ground that is mostly dirt and needs to be skimmed to make it smoother or to pick up--windrow-- a little bit of soft trash or rocks off the hard and packed dirt surface.

Smoothing gravel would work well, as I already stated earlier, as long as it is bank run and a sandy, slightly stony gravel mix that is firmly packed. A landscape rake does a great job skimming the high spots and leveling that kind of surface.

This is what a rake does well. Most other things, other than snowplowing, it does less well.

 

[EverythingAttachments]

The ETA Compact Rake would be ideal for your Yanmar.
Those rakes are lighter to better match the lift capacity of compact tractors.
They have the same great tine bar design as the heavier rakes, and we added the offset feature that will give you extra reach to either side if needed.
Travis