Adjusting the Landrake

[Mike058]

I want to use the landrake to remove rocks from the surface, but it likes to dig in and pull up soil too. Is it possible to just skim the surface? Or am I asking too much? Any advice on what to try to make it less aggressive?

 

[EarPlug]

Guide Wheels

 

[Mike058]

Thanks. I do have guide wheels, but must not be using them correctly, or there's something else I need to adjust.

 

[Grouse09]

If your landrake has two or more holes for your top link, use the lowest hole to the ground. That angle will give you the best angle to glide over the ground.

Don’t get me wrong, it will still dig in.

You will have to get good on the up/down lever and be active on it. When your tractor goes uphill, raise the rake. When it goes down hill lower the rake. It is very busy as a tractor driver using a rake, but it is better than doing it by hand.

 

[Mike058]

I'm lucky I have 150' of path I can practice on that nobody can see

 

[Vigo327]

I suspect some combination of gauge wheel and top link setting is going to get you what you need. I would probably shorten your top link drastically and see what effect it has. But id probably only do that AFTER determining if gauge wheel settings alone wouldn't accomplish it.

 

[jeff9366]

Is it possible to just skim the surface?

Take the gauge wheels off, then turn the Landscape Rake around backwards. It won't dig in with the tine tips oriented to the rear.

 

[jeff9366]

Wingfield Framed/Lift Chain Harrow Adjustment
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CREDIT: - pmbutter - March 18, 2019

"There is a lot of contradictory information about which hole to use for the inboard end of the top link.

The top hole gives the least elevation change of the tail wheel, but better maintains parallelism with the ground.

An earth turning plow ought to be in one of the upper holes, so it remains at a proper working angle, regardless of its depth.


The bottom hole provides the greatest elevation change of the "tail wheel" of my "implement", but it also the greatest angular change relative to the plane of the ground.

The bottom hole is best for something like a landscape rake where you might want to lift it up and out of the way, perhaps with a little more angle so trash drops off the tines."

The bottom hole is the position of choice for a Subsoiler, an implement which often has issues with penetrating sufficiently deep and, when raised, having enough clearance to clear the dirt completely.

RELEVENT VIDEO:

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From continued reading I speculate that a Landscape Rake might provide a similar usefulness and take up less space. Have never used either so have no idea which would be better for my use. I have the land decently level with the box blade, but don't know which of these two tools are optimal for final leveling before the grass seed is put down.

You will probably prefer the Chain Harrow, which is flexible and the mat suspended, therefore mat follows the contour of the land closely, even as the TPH moves up and down. Due to mat design Chain Harrows do not dig in nor hang up on stumps or roots in the soil.

A rigid Landscape Rake moves up and down with the oscillation of the Three Point Hitch as the tractor wheels encounter uneven ground individually. Even with gauge wheels this is a problem. The Landscape Rake is more for grading when you want to move dirt or gravel to fill low spots, though move less dirt than a Box Blade. ( A heavy Landscape Rake is functionally 1/3 of the way to a rear/angle blade.)

If your dirt contains a lot of 2" to 4" surface rocks, which a Landscape Rake will windrow for removal, it would influence my recommendation an increment toward the rake over the harrow.

I owned an excellent ETA Landscape Rake with gauge wheels but sold it because I used it infrequently in my woodlands trail maintenance. I use the Chain Harrow regularly.

I have not priced ETA Landscape Rakes with gauge wheels in the last two years but I speculate they are twice as expensive as a framed/lift Chain Harrow. Light, cheap Landscape Rakes are practically useless.

You have not revealed how much space you want to smooth. Have you considered hiring four High Schoolers to power four bow rakes under close supervision?

 

[jigs_n_fixtures]

The Forest I work on maintains a couple of thousand miles of dirt roads. We have two rock rakes which are towed behind the service truck, and follow the Road Graders (Cat 16s) on the roads as they reshape them.

They are trailers and the rake portion adjusts directly up and down. They set the tines to go about 1/2-inch.

In practice the Grader re-fluffs the top 4-6 inches, and reshapes the prism. The rock rake comes after the blade and rolls the larger (rock 2-inch plus), off into the ditch. Then depending on the depth and condition of the topping gravels, we may add more topping gravel to the wear surface, and reshape again. Finally the roller comes behind and recompacts the surface.

The key is to get deep enough to get the rocks loose in the early passes, then decrease the depth the tines penetrate, skew the angle to about 30-degrees, and move the rocks to the side. The tines will bounce them across the road. But, they don’t do a good job of carrying them forward.

Basically, you want to fluff, then use progressively shallower passes to get the rock to the surface, and then skew the rake, and roll them off the side. To get the 4-inch plus rocks out of the top 2-inches you’ll have to penetrate 6-inches. Then make progressively shallower passes to bring them to the surface, before shewing the rake to roll them off

My place is a prehistoric gravel bar from when the river was historically, about two hundred feet higher than it is now, extremely rocky, with a lot of 4-inch plus material. I bought A rock bucket for the FEL to get down into it about a foot, and dig out the 2.5-inch plus material, as that, or building a top surface using a couple of hundred yard of in haul, is the only way to ever get a smooth surface without protruding rock in roadway and parking areas.

 

[old and tired]

Shorten the top link = Less aggressive bite into the ground

 

[Mike058]

Is it possible to just skim the surface?

Take the gauge wheels off, then turn the Landscape Rake around backwards. It won't dig in with the tine tips oriented to the rear.

Thanks, I'll try that.

 

[Chilliwack Murray]

I’ve had very good success using a chain instead of a solid top link. It helps prevents digging in when the tractor goes through depressions.

With a solid top link I’ve found every little dip gets amplified with every pass.

 

[BackRoad]

Might just be me...running my heavy duty 8' Land Pride rake (built before Kubota bought them) backwards seems to stress the tines and it starts doing some cringe-worthy jumping around.

The curved tine design works perfectly when pulling it forward.

Above, Mr. Vigo and Mr. Old and Tired both mentioned shortening the top link angle to make it work less aggressive.

The top link length is an important adjustment to focus on.

Make it long to aggressively angle the rake tines to dig and pull up rocks and roots.

For finish work, try making it short (and angle the rake about 30 degrees) while maintaining a small amount of soil or gravel in front of the tines to fill low spots as you move forward and see if it works out for you.

You may also find maintaining a slight wind-row as you rake helps when doing final smooth finish work.

One last point is to be aware of the benefit of adjusting the 3PH sidelink to maintain your desired slope from right to left across the horizontal axis, such as when adding crown to a driveway. Adjust the right side lower than the left and you move soil from right to the left, creating slope.

The left to right slope angle can also change as you raise and lower the 3PH depending on how the rake is set up, so watch for this.

And most of all, enjoy the challenge!

It's a hugely rewarding activity once you figure it out, and you are looking back across a smooth patch of ground that you crafted.

...//TJ

 

[Mike058]

Thanks to everybody for all the good suggestions. I'm going to try skimming the surface for practice. If I dig it up a little it'll be ok. I'm thinking of just redoing the whole thing in the spring any way. I'll try digging deeper, pull out some big rocks, then go shallower and so on to get most of the rocks out. Then reseed and straw the whole thing. I'm going to need a swale cut anyway. The contractor left a low spot in the middle of the yard that collects water. I'm going to try and cut a swale in to give that water somewhere to go. I'm sure I'll need more help in the spring

 

[nyone]

If you try the suggestions above and still dont get the results you want try removing every other tooth.

Mine tended to be more like a dirt plow with every tine in. I removed every other one and man this thing takes a whole lot better. It actualy allows the fines to filter through the teeth now. I re did part of my lawn last spring useing this method and am very happy. I dont think il put the tines back in ever.