Yard Raking Attachments

[robertm]

Anybody have a GOOD way to rake their yard with some sort of attachment or yard tool outside of a good old-fashioned hand rake?
I have over one and 2/3 acres of yard with many maples and Sycamore trees that lose branches and twigs like leaves. Every time there is wind, I am out there raking by hand and in many cases, I am raking the complete yard by hand.
I have tried a Pineneedle Rake, and the tires are so springy that they release the raked contents after a little loading, and do no good. I do have an Estate Rake, but twigs are not its friend. It does wonders for detaching, however.
Other options I have thought of our a power rake like a Shindiawa or Stihl, and although it’s not manually raking, hustling a 40 pound yard tool with an 18 inch brush or rubber, paddle roller, seems like a fair amount of work.
Having a $20,000 tractor sitting there, sure tries to get me to think of ways to either find an attachment, or make something that would work to save me some time.
Any thoughts are appreciated.

 

[FullMetalBucket]

I use a Stihl 800 magnum backpack blower to clear leaves, or grass (when it’s cut too long) . I get a lot of acorns too.

I did buy a crappy lawn rake from Amazon last year that goes on the 3 point a while back . I actually just got around to putting it together a few weeks ago. Going to give it a try probably next week.

 

[Jrasband]

You could go over the yard with a flail mower to mulch the debris.

 

[D&D]

Anybody have a GOOD way to rake their yard with some sort of attachment or yard tool outside of a good old-fashioned hand rake?
I have over one and 2/3 acres of yard with many maples and Sycamore trees that lose branches and twigs like leaves. Every time there is wind, I am out there raking by hand and in many cases, I am raking the complete yard by hand.
I have tried a Pineneedle Rake, and the tires are so springy that they release the raked contents after a little loading, and do no good. I do have an Estate Rake, but twigs are not its friend. It does wonders for detaching, however.
Other options I have thought of our a power rake like a Shindiawa or Stihl, and although it’s not manually raking, hustling a 40 pound yard tool with an 18 inch brush or rubber, paddle roller, seems like a fair amount of work.
Having a $20,000 tractor sitting there, sure tries to get me to think of ways to either find an attachment, or make something that would work to save me some time.
Any thoughts are appreciated.

Sweep all says they have your answer

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[robertm]

Let me know your results. I’m thinking I will need to build something.
Landscape rakes seem like they might be too harsh.
I’m considering stiffening the tines on my pine needle rake by adding a horizontal by crossbrace across the complete set of tines, about six inches above grade. This would prevent flexing, but the debris would likely clog it up too quickly.
Just a real pain. I’ve raked 3x this year due to high winds. There’s gotta be an easier way.

 

[robertm]

Oh yeah! Sweep-All. NOT! At least not for $13,000. Looks very effective, though.

 

[jfsawatzky]

Have you thought about a light weight version of a York landscape take with guide wheels? York rakes can be very expensive but there are clones available

 

[RayIN]

Think about using an old 3-pt hitch side-delivery hay rake.
It's adjustable for how close to the ground the spring-tines run. Of course if the ground is undulating it can skip depressions and dig in on humps.
That will leave 1 windrow of grass, leaves, twigs, for each 2 passes with the rake; or, you can keep raking the same direction and push everything to one side of the yard.

 

[CalG]

I get a lot of utility from High Lift blades into a bagging lawn mower.

2 acres is a lot of material to dump if the grass is up.

 

[Jrasband]

If your grass is well established a landscape rake will not hurt it if used periodically. You can adjest the top link so that the tines are not angled forward towards the grass as much and that will help not tear it up as well.

 

[oldballs]

I too have two full grown (80 ft) Sycamore and a full grown Soft Maple in my front yard. The Sycamores are the biggest problem. .... with stix galore after every routine storm. I can't think of a thing, nor even imagine something that will collect the branches and stix that they drop year around.

I bought a Cyclone Rake a few years ago. It is great for leaves and such things as pine needles, pine cones...maybe even a walnut or two....but, mowing over the stix, just cuts them up without sucking them up. Likewise, my Pine Needle Rake is good for Pine Needles etc....and somewhat effective at general debris in rough areas.....but of no use in gathering Sycamore stix/limbs.

Your idea about stabilizing the Pine Needle Rake tines sounds like it's worth a try. In the meantime.....I just "pick up' or hand "rake up" the crap every now and then.....and then haul it off to a burn pile or run it thru my Chipper Shredder.[

Cheers,
Mike

 

[jfsawatzky]

If your grass is well established a landscape rake will not hurt it if used periodically. You can adjest the top link so that the tines are not angled forward towards the grass as much and that will help not tear it up as well.

JraBras and makes a good point above. A landscape rake could be aggressive if you don’t have the wheels to adjust / limit the depth of the tines

 

[Fladogman]

If your grass is well established a landscape rake will not hurt it if used periodically. You can adjest the top link so that the tines are not angled forward towards the grass as much and that will help not tear it up as well.

I actually use a short chain for the top link on my landscape rake. This allows it to float more and not dig up the grass

 

[chim]

Any small twigs or branches smaller than my thumb normally get mowed over.

 

[D&D]

Oh yeah! Sweep-All. NOT! At least not for $13,000. Looks very effective, though.

you can pick up one for less than 1/2 of that.

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[leonz]

Anybody have a GOOD way to rake their yard with some sort of attachment or yard tool outside of a good old-fashioned hand rake?
I have over one and 2/3 acres of yard with many maples and Sycamore trees that lose branches and twigs like leaves. Every time there is wind, I am out there raking by hand and in many cases, I am raking the complete yard by hand.
I have tried a Pineneedle Rake, and the tires are so springy that they release the raked contents after a little loading, and do no good. I do have an Estate Rake, but twigs are not its friend. It does wonders for detaching, however.
Other options I have thought of our a power rake like a Shindiawa or Stihl, and although it’s not manually raking, hustling a 40 pound yard tool with an 18 inch brush or rubber, paddle roller, seems like a fair amount of work.
Having a $20,000 tractor sitting there, sure tries to get me to think of ways to either find an attachment, or make something that would work to save me some time.
Any thoughts are appreciated.

The Cyclone Rake will do this for you if you have a belly mower.
A good ground drive lawn sweeper will do this as well.

 

[nyone]

Keep the grass short and just use a decent backpack blower.

 

[D&D]

A good ground drive lawn sweeper will do this as well.

Please elaborate, Where does one find a good lawn sweeper? Seems like all I have found are pretty junky ones.

Not a whole lot of price difference between the cyclone rakes and sweep all's either

 

[Carl_NH]

I use a dethatcher like this VEVOR Tow Behind Dethatcher, 48-inch Tow Dethatcher with 24 Spring Steel Tines, Lawn Dethatcher Rake for ATV or Mower, Tow Behind Lawn Rake with Lift Handle for Garden Farm Grass | VEVOR US in the spring and as needed to get twigs up- once a twig gets in between the tines it collects other ones and every so often I pick up and clean the tines.

whatever is left gets mown down

 

[rider89]

Anybody have a GOOD way to rake their yard with some sort of attachment or yard tool outside of a good old-fashioned hand rake?
I have over one and 2/3 acres of yard with many maples and Sycamore trees that lose branches and twigs like leaves. Every time there is wind, I am out there raking by hand and in many cases, I am raking the complete yard by hand.
I have tried a Pineneedle Rake, and the tires are so springy that they release the raked contents after a little loading, and do no good. I do have an Estate Rake, but twigs are not its friend. It does wonders for detaching, however.
Other options I have thought of our a power rake like a Shindiawa or Stihl, and although it’s not manually raking, hustling a 40 pound yard tool with an 18 inch brush or rubber, paddle roller, seems like a fair amount of work.
Having a $20,000 tractor sitting there, sure tries to get me to think of ways to either find an attachment, or make something that would work to save me some time.
Any thoughts are appreciated.

whatever you're mowing with won't grind up the leaves and twigs?? I have over an acre with about 20 sizeable trees and other than picking up larger branches, I don't rake anything. I use a handheld blower in a few places to move debris out for lawnmower access, but otherwise, all the leaves are mulched in situ.