Cleaning lawn of branches

   / Cleaning lawn of branches #41  
Must be talking about a giant chubby pencil from kindergarten. Still waiting to see someone pick up a standard No. 2 pencil with a grapple.
 
   / Cleaning lawn of branches #44  
Over some 40+ years of attempting to learn how to farm, I scoffed at 6', 3 pt mounted rakes that can be multi positioned and 360 degree rotated to pull or push debris, as I felt they were essentially useless (dumbass thought). This neighbor that cleaned up his Locust trees had tree parts everywhere as he had a tree stripper come out .....skid steer mounted device that just ripped the branches off the tree and made a big mess.

I thought about it and decided I'd try such implement so I bought one. Ha! Now one of my favorite implements. I use it for many things, including fall leaf raking and find that it's better at doing jobs (like putting rock back on and leveling driveways with loose rock, which were done with my blade or box scraper in the past. Give it some thought.
 
   / Cleaning lawn of branches
  • Thread Starter
#45  
Over some 40+ years of attempting to learn how to farm, I scoffed at 6', 3 pt mounted rakes that can be multi positioned and 360 degree rotated to pull or push debris, as I felt they were essentially useless (dumbass thought). This neighbor that cleaned up his Locust trees had tree parts everywhere as he had a tree stripper come out .....skid steer mounted device that just ripped the branches off the tree and made a big mess.

I thought about it and decided I'd try such implement so I bought one. Ha! Now one of my favorite implements. I use it for many things, including fall leaf raking and find that it's better at doing jobs (like putting rock back on and leveling driveways with loose rock, which were done with my blade or box scraper in the past. Give it some thought.
Excellent. Do you have float wheels on this, so you can just drop it and let it follow a lumpy lawn, or do you float it with adjusting your 3-point height? Also, are you using a hydraulic angle, or just manually setting it?

My 3033R with loaded tires is an awful heavy machine for the constant back-and-forth required to move leaves or branches on soft and damp November or April soil, even if I go to the trouble to remove the FEL. So I'm thinking a very light rake with float wheels, which I can mount of my JRCO blower buggy mounts on my zero turn might be a good option, as HayDude had recommended. I could rig a lever or pedal to lift it a few inches for transport, although I'm not even sure that would be needed.
 
   / Cleaning lawn of branches #46  
This may be a bit of overkill but who cares. Rowse makes rakes for haying that are essentially a modern version of the dump rake. One of their markets is picking up pecan tree prunings and bunching them to wither burn, mulch, or haul away. Since I have a few acres that surround a pond with willows and cottonwoods that like to trim themselves continuously I went out to our farm in SD and got an old dump rake and brought it back. It is definitely used every spring and a couple of other times during the year. It isn't perfect but it gets about 90% if you go over it a couple of times and cross your directions. I went from a couple of picking to a couple of hours as once they are in a bunch my loader with grapple picks up the lions share.
All I am saying is that dry hay is not a lot different than small sticks up to 10' long or so and that is what these rakes were made for. Obviously if there are too many large branches those are grappled away before I turn the rake loose.
Here is an old style rake picking up hay. I will have to see if I can get one of my kids to shoot a video of stick pickup which I will be doign in a couple of weeks.
 
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   / Cleaning lawn of branches #47  
Maybe I'm lazy but if the branches weren't too thick that would be a mulching job for my flail mower during a mowing pass. Any big chunks that were left after being pummeled with the flail hammers I'd pick up
 
   / Cleaning lawn of branches #48  
Excellent. Do you have float wheels on this, so you can just drop it and let it follow a lumpy lawn, or do you float it with adjusting your 3-point height? Also, are you using a hydraulic angle, or just manually setting it?
I use a chain in place of the top link. Allows me to raise when needed, but when I let it down, it follows (floats) the terrain.
 
   / Cleaning lawn of branches
  • Thread Starter
#49  
Rowse makes rakes for haying that are essentially a modern version of the dump rake.
Looks like an excellent way to de-thatch a lawn, if it doesn't dig in too much.

Maybe I'm lazy but if the branches weren't too thick that would be a mulching job for my flail mower during a mowing pass. Any big chunks that were left after being pummeled with the flail hammers I'd pick up
Sounds like the easiest way to go for fields bordering woods, but this is a finished lawn space around the house, so this is not an area for flail mower.
 
   / Cleaning lawn of branches #50  
I do
Maybe I'm lazy but if the branches weren't too thick that would be a mulching job for my flail mower during a mowing pass. Any big chunks that were left after being pummeled with the flail hammers I'd pick up
On my front and back lawn I do not like the little wood chunks to walk on barefoot - and I enjoy my barefoot time in the summer as I go in and out of the lake.
 
 
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