Ratchet Rake - better than a box blade for me

[Bdavis]

A tornado hit my property when all the trees were cleared, I was left with huge ruts from all the electrical trucks. I don’t have a box blade anymore, but decided to try grading with the ratchet rake. It worked terrifically well, at least for smoothing out those ruts. I am sure box blade would be better at certain things but in this case ratchet rake was definitely easier. Back dragging the rake in float mode enables you to see what you’re doing. Also, I installed a large rearview mirror so I wouldn’t have to worry about backing over something. Just wanted to pass it along really wasn’t sure it would work.

 

[Mtsoxfan]

Did you cover up all the ruts by just back dragging? Looks nice, however you did it...

 

[Bdavis]

Yes, I did it all by backdragging the ratchet rake with the small times pretty much at 90° angle to the ground. You have to put the bucket in float mode for it to work well. I had to make several passes, but it’s so easy because you can see what you’re doing. Sometimes I would go across the rut sometimes I would go with the rut . It just depending on how deep some of the holes were also, I found out weed eating some of the grass out of the hole before I started made it easier to see exactly what I was doing. I pretty much have taken care of the ruts however I’m not 50% finished with the grading work that I have to do that tornado really messed up my drainage. I’ve gotta make some swells. I think the ratchet rake will do a great job on that too

 

[ruffdog]

This guy attached it to his rear grader blade.

 

[Bdavis]

I wanted to add that I did it by back dragging. However, I did not focus on just the ruts . I had so much damage. I just picked an area and marked the perimeter with my string trimmer . Then just dragged everything to form a line that was the quickest and easiest way. So if you have a nice Lawn, you may want to consider a more gentle approach. I then just went down the line and either by back dragging or pushing forward, made a pile of the grass and dirt . I then removed the ratchet rake picked up the piles and dumped them into many of the large holes. I have from all the uprooted trees.

 

[Bdavis]

I have a 1 acre pond with a levy around it. Needless to say the levy got pretty messed up on the sides. Also, I had a lot of brush and trees cleared out by an excavator at the base of the levy for drainage. I am just now starting on the Levy. It looks like pushing forward is best for really bad big areas and back Dragging is best for small areas or if you really don’t wanna tear up your yard too bad. Either way the ratchet rake is working great I’ll post a couple of pics when I’m finished.