Rake Anyone ever used their rake to push?

[RobJ]

I flipped my little homemade rake around this past weekend. It'll straight pull or push. Pushing was very useful as I was moving leaves and pine needles back into the brush clearing a playground/park area left over from Ike. I skidded several big trees out after I chopped them up a bit. But pushing it really wants to take a bite out of the ground. I adjusted the angle a bit but really it seemed I had to be moving then ease it down and let the speed flex the tines. It really picked up the stuff and moved very little dirt(sorry no pics of the cleanup). It pushed some tree tops and trunks out of the way to. It was also nice to push stuff into a ditch. No FEL on mine.

Couple pics..

Rob

 

[hunterridgefarm]

Rob,

I push with mine more than I pull. It works great to move brush and small limbs. It also keeps me from driving the tractor over limbs and such. Only problem is my rake is a KK 6' and I think I have bent the ends some. The middle tines touch when the rake is down but be the time you get out to the end I have a gap about 2 inches. Looks like the angle iron is bent some from pushing into piles. Your rake looks a lot stronger then my KK.

David

 

[kthompson]

Did you try extending the 3rd arm? That would straighten up the tines and not give them as much angle to dig in with.

I have used my rake as you are talking about and my guess is you are running slower in reverse and it is allowing the rake time to settle into the dirt that forward it would not have. Are you not able to just raise the lift a little?

 

[RobJ]

Did you try extending the 3rd arm? That would straighten up the tines and not give them as much angle to dig in with.

I have used my rake as you are talking about and my guess is you are running slower in reverse and it is allowing the rake time to settle into the dirt that forward it would not have. Are you not able to just raise the lift a little?

I did play with it bit, not as much as I wanted because I was running late. It dug in less with the rake rolled over toward the back. IE angling away from the direction of travel. Even like this it still moved stuff pretty well. Some of the pine needle piles were 3 feet high so it took a couple passes. My 3pt floats so the rake would ride up the pile. Still was workable.

 

[Rowdius]

Used to do it all the time, before I got the kioti with the fel. If I was cleaning up small stuff I'd pull it around, dragging everything closer together. Then I would flip the rake around to make a burn pile. My land is very sandy, so I would make the toplink short, making the tines attack the ground better, then as the rake loaded up with the brush I was pushing I'd bump the rake up and down a little bit. The spring action of the tines would push the light brush forward, and the sand would fall out. Worked pretty good.

I also removed every other tine so that the smaller stuff would not clog up the rake.

Of course pushing with a 3ph is not as strong as pulling, or rather I mean it is easier to bend stuff that you do not want bent.