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.