How good or useful is a tractor rake?

[Fuddyduddy1952]

I guess I'll soon have 40 attachments!
I recently got a stump grinder which does a great job but leaves a foot deep pile of chips and dirt. I have 40 pines all in a row to do.
I was thinking about a rake like this TSC or similar.
1) if I use it for small limbs, sticks or leaves does it work for that?
2) does it damage the lawn. I have hydraulic top link so I can change angle
3) It won't get a lot of use. What's the best bang for the buck?
4) 6ft.? (50hp Deere)
5) We have a horse paddock that's compacted with sand on it. It's about 50x60, level & hard as concrete. Horse piles I clean area every 2 weeks or so. Would it work for that?
I have a 7ft rear blade or sometimes just the FEL bucket...but I then have to put a little more sand down.
6) Is it useful for anything else?

Thanks so much...

 

[old and tired]

I use mine on the gravel driveway... to make it look nice.

 

[Alan46]

We use ours in the spring to rake the small branches and things that fall on the trails. Was it worth the 950, 2 years ago I think so, it’s not used much but saves a lot of time!!!

 

[AntiqueIron]

I have one. Old school york industrial model. Hydraulic angle. Works great for grading gravel and picking rocks.

I like it.

 

[scootr]

I've had mine for a long time, it's 7 ft for 6ft wide tractor. Never does exactly what I want... the exception being windrowing fist rocks on hard ground for pick up. In tall stuff it just pulls grass and weeds until it clogs up. On deep gravel it digs deep every chance it gets. I added hydraulic angle. Rock collection it's good at, may work for your manure collection in a hard pen too.

 

[Gem99ultra]

I use mine for both raking up smaller limbs, leaves, gravel driveway, etc. but also it's great for de-thatching lawn areas early Spring. That not only pulls up the dead grass layer but also lets the rainfall soak into the grass roots rather than simply running off. Simply flip the rake around with the curve side forward to prevent ripping up the grass.

I consider my rack to be not the first attachment, but well worth the cost to compliment my collection.

 

[EddieWalker]

I built one that was 8 feet wide. I placed tines about three inches apart. I found that it worked great for about 50 feet, then the debris would work itself off the rake and create rows on either side. Once that happened, I stopped, lifted the rake and left a pile. Then I moved over and did it again with the same results. Eventually I had about two dozen piles all lined up that I ended up picking up with my grapple.

Eventually I cleaned up the area, but it wasn't really worth the effort that it took to get there, and once the grass started growing, I realized that it had all been a waste of time. What branches I missed, I chewed up when I mowed the pasture.

After that it sat for years until I gave it away to somebody that had given my wife some chickens. He thought he would use it to clean up his land, but never used it and the last I heard, it was still sitting next to his barn, covered in weeds.

 

[John0829]

I bought that exact same one and the first time I used it to gather up small limbs after cleaning up a downed tree it bent and twisted like a pretzel and some of the tines fell out. That cross channel that is used for the main beam is just to soft for the job on that brand. The one I have is headed to the scrap metal yard next trip.

But I do intend to get another rake of better quality.

 

[Carl_NH]

The rake for the wood chips IMO just spread them around more. It might be easier to drop the bucket to the left side of hte stump leaving room for the tractor and chip into the bucket then rake by hand whats left when your done.

No easy way to clean up wood chips unfortunately. But for your other users paddock etc would work for that but a pine straw rake might be a better choice for the paddock and sticks etc.

 

[JeepHead]

I have been considering one as well but figure I would spend way too much time constantly removing buildup from it. My intended use would be to drag brush into piles to be picked up by the grapple.

 

[bdhsfz6]

A rake becomes much more useful if it has gauge wheels. They can be set to minimize surface damage when raking lawns or gravel driveways instead of relying on 3pt height adjustments. Add a T&T kit and you have a very versatile implement.

 

[Omega Woods]

The only regular use mine gets is on the gravel driveway or moving brush. It's great for gravel ops.

It's murder on grass for what you're trying to do but I'm a bad operator with terrible three-point skills and bumpy ground. If you flipped it around and had a hyd top link, it might not be so bad. Mine is great for ripping out creeping charlie when it takes over in the dormant garden beds.

As @bdhsfz6 said, gauge wheels make it WAY more useful.

 

[Chuckanut]

Very useful! In western Washington we have a abundance of trees which in November we get storms from the Pacific. With 6 acres of Cedar, Hemlock, and Big Leaf Maple, the branches are all over the place. Clean up with a rake makes it much easier. Drop the rake and drive all the debris to the fire.

I have used it to blend gravel but I have a box blade or land plane that does a a better job.

We also have lots of Potato (and up) sized rocks whenever we dig in the dirt. The rake rolls those rocks into a nice straight line to be picked up by the bucket.

 

[Runner]

I guess I'll soon have 40 attachments!
I recently got a stump grinder which does a great job but leaves a foot deep pile of chips and dirt. I have 40 pines all in a row to do.
I was thinking about a rake like this TSC or similar.
1) if I use it for small limbs, sticks or leaves does it work for that?
2) does it damage the lawn. I have hydraulic top link so I can change angle
3) It won't get a lot of use. What's the best bang for the buck?
4) 6ft.? (50hp Deere)
5) We have a horse paddock that's compacted with sand on it. It's about 50x60, level & hard as concrete. Horse piles I clean area every 2 weeks or so. Would it work for that?
I have a 7ft rear blade or sometimes just the FEL bucket...but I then have to put a little more sand down.
6) Is it useful for anything else?

Thanks so much...View attachment 4265190

I've had mine for 17 years and have not yet found a good use for it.

I guess I thought it would be good for grooming the gravel drive, but I've found it's better to leave the gravel alone as much as possible, because whenever I loosen it up by "grooming" it wants to wash and move around. Also, when trying to "groom" the drive with a rake (or blade for that matter) it always winds up pushing my gravel out into the grass and I wind up having to rake it back onto the drive by hand, so, not worth the effort. On the rare occasion I need to fix a spot on the drive, I use the rear blade with gauge wheels.

I can't imagine how you could use one to rake up sticks without gouging the crap out of your lawn.

I will say, of the possible uses, grooming a horse arena sounds like about the best one I could imagine for a rake. Spreading out piles of dirt/wood chips in a pasture type setting sounds feasible.

Whatever you do with it, I recommend also getting a pair of gauge wheels for it because, just like a rear blade, it's really hard to keep it from digging in on uneven surfaces.

If nothing else, now you will have 41 attachments, and, maybe like me, 5 or 6 that never get used, but you have them just in case...

 

[bmaverick]

In the 40+ acre corn and straw fields near me, the farmers now come thru with rakes with rear wheels.

The intent is to gather up all the stalks. Take to a paper processor making TP or paper bags. Its no more an issue cutting down the forest making paper when other organic fibers are now collected as renewable resources.

 

[Hay Dude]

I had an 8’ Woods hydraulic angle rake, but didn’t get the use out of it I thought I would.

 

[Hay Dude]

In the 40+ acre corn and straw fields near me, the farmers now come thru with rakes with rear wheels.

The intent is to gather up all the stalks. Take to a paper processor making TP or paper bags. Its no more an issue cutting down the forest making paper when other organic fibers are now collected as renewable resources.

View attachment 4279152

Farmers in my area bale cornstalks.
I get asked to bale them for guys who grow corn, but always say “no”. Cornstalks are a dirty mess that will trash a baler.
But some guys will do it!

 

[Hay Dude]

I have been considering one as well but figure I would spend way too much time constantly removing buildup from it. My intended use would be to drag brush into piles to be picked up by the grapple.

Better to push debris with a loader than dragging it between rake and rear tires.

 

[HawkinsHollow]

I bought one to clean up an area I had cleared the trees and brush from to make a food plot. Tried it with every tine in and it just clogged up with dirt. Removed every other tine and it did a decent job raking up the roots and sticks, but still took a lot of dirt with it. I haven't used it since, that was 7 years ago. I always thought it would be cool to get one of those plates for the FEL that allows you to use 3 point implements on it and use it to reach into brush to help clear it after it has been mowed. But I have not pulled the trigger on that yet.

 

[KS KIOTI]

Best used on fresh gravel, flipped backwards, makes it

Really shines after tilling for a seed bed for fescue, then raking over the top, again with it flipped backwards, spreads the seed around just right.

Poor man’s brillion seeder hack. Done lotsa yards that way.