How to clean a landscape rake?

[IslandTractor]

After clearing brush and digging out stumps, I usually run over the land with a landscape rake to even things out and to collect debris and small roots. I find that the rake quickly loads up with roots and twigs and I am wondering what techniques the rest of you have figured out to clean the tines. I started just trying to kick the stuff out but graduated to using a five foot copper pipe that I use to push the material down. It takes about 5 minutes to clean the thing and obviously requires getting off the tractor. Photo shows the state of the loaded rake and the cleaning tool propped against it.

Does anyone have a better system/method for keeping the rake clean while doing this sort of work?

 

[kennyd]

You need to make a hydraulically operated comb to clean it, Just raise the rake-operate the remote lever to push the comb down through the rake tines an BadaBing...all clear!

Sounds like a good job for Rob (3RRL)

 

[rayh76]

Islandtractor,

WHAT THE HECK DO YOU HAVE THERE?!?! I wish I had an answer for your mess. I have only had my rake for a little over a week now and I don't like what I see with your mess. I hope mine doesn't do that! Wow! Have you tried empting the rake out sooner just by raising the 3pt rake or are you doing that? Very interesting photos and I hope someone has some answers for you as I am sure I will end up with the same type of mess as you.

Ray

 

[SFish]

Island:

Make a comb that you can back the rake up to and then raise the 3pt to clean it.

Steve

 

[rayh76]

Island:

Make a comb that you can back the rake up to and then raise the 3pt to clean it.

Steve

Steve,

That is a good idea. Island, take some pics when you get it done!

 

[GIJOE]

Island,

When mine looks like that I will get real close to the brush pile and then back up into it. The brush pile will usually comb most if not all of it from the rake. When you are raking roots, limbs, and twigs try removing your wheels. I don't have wheels on mine, so that works for me.

 

[Ridgewalker]

Island,

When mine looks like that I will get real close to the brush pile and then back up into it. The brush pile will usually comb most if not all of it from the rake. When you are raking roots, limbs, and twigs try removing your wheels. I don't have wheels on mine, so that works for me.

u

You beat me to it! I also clean my rake by backing up. I will say that I have never come close to loading it up that bad though.

 

[john_bud]

I think you can help yourself by setting up the equipment better.

Take the wheels off until you have done the clean up and roughing it in. Then put on the wheels and that will help final passes.

My thought is that the wheels are not letting the rake press down hard enough so the debris is not staying in front.

jb

 

[rayh76]

u

You beat me to it! I also clean my rake by backing up. I will say that I have never come close to loading it up that bad though.

Do you have wheels on your Ridge? One could back up to a pile but lift the wheels over the pile before lowering and pushing the stuff off the tines. The pile would need to be small I guess. I don't know about Island, but I wouldn't want to take the wheels off unless I had to.

 

[IslandTractor]

Thanks guys,

To answer some of the questions and proposed solutions:

Yes, the rake loads up like this regularly when I use it after first bush hogging (or flail cutting) in areas that have a lot of bull briar. The material is mostly roots/canes that are fairly close to the surface and are ripped up when I try to smooth out ground following stump digging or simply ripping out saplings.

I find it is more time efficient to simply let the rake load up than to stop every few minutes to kick out a few roots/canes. As I noted, I'd guess it takes about 5 minutes to clean after doing an area about 1/8 to 1/4 acre. I still have at least another 10 acres to go so would love a more efficient method of cleaning.

Believe me I've wondered about why no one has developed a mechanical or hydraulic comb! Where's 3RRL when you need him? I have rear remotes so I just need drawings and instructions! I imagine that most people don't use their rakes primarily for this sort of clearing and that it is not a big enough issue for anyone to have gotten mechanically creative yet.

John Bud's suggestion to remove the wheels is something I could try. I don't know that it will prevent the rake from loading up though as I have the wheels and 3pt toplink set up so the rake does allow the tines at least an inch of penetration and the front is tipped down so the rake doesn't "scoop" too much. Should I try the opposite and put the rake in a more aggressive posture by lengthening the toplink? I did not take a before photo of the area I raked but you don't see this debris on the surface. It is 90% subsurface roots/canes. If the tines dug in further I'd be moving more dirt than I really want to and I believe that the roots/canes would simply migrate up the rake anyway. It looks like a basket weave when fully loaded and when the roots get all stacked up it really takes some force to get them out.

If I do remove the wheels then I can try the suggestion several of you made regarding backing into a brush pile and scraping it off. I'll give that a try. I am not doing fine finish grading so the wheels are not really critical for me. I got the rake used and it came with wheels.

Thanks again.

 

[Eagleview]

Just thinking out loud......If you were to weave a piece of 5/16" wire rope with eyes on each end through the tynes a couple of times and secure the ends to the rake . When you need to clean the rake , lay the rope ends on the ground and back the tyres onto the ends while lifting the linkage . In theory as you reversed , it would pull the debris out .

 

[IslandTractor]

Just thinking out loud......If you were to weave a piece of 5/16" wire rope with eyes on each end through the tynes a couple of times and secure the ends to the rake . When you need to clean the rake , lay the rope ends on the ground and back the tyres onto the ends while lifting the linkage . In theory as you reversed , it would pull the debris out .

I'll have to see if I can find some wire rope and give it a try. I'd score the idea A+ for creativity but note that it does require dismounting so there will be a deduction for style points which lowers the final score to a solid B.

Now, if we can figure out a way to use the wire rope idea but have it run by a hydraulic ram.......

 

[Rara Avis]

Just thinking out loud......If you were to weave a piece of 5/16" wire rope with eyes on each end through the tynes a couple of times and secure the ends to the rake . When you need to clean the rake , lay the rope ends on the ground and back the tyres onto the ends while lifting the linkage . In theory as you reversed , it would pull the debris out .

Geez...you beat me to the punch...

IslandTractor, IronHorse gave you a real nice solution...

The only reason I was going to suggest a similar solution was that my son made me watch Ax Men and the use of chokers...

 

[Redbug]

That's a pretty good mess you got there, Paul. I don't let my rake load up with that much debris before cleaning it. Usually I use my shovel handle and start on one end to pull the stuff down and off the tines.

Just thinking out loud, I would imagine the debris would be easier to pull out if the tines were angled...by getting narrower at the ends.

 

[john_bud]

Have you thought about getting a bottom plow or tandem disc and turning the soil over (plow) or cutting up the debris so it rots down (disc)? If you can wait a year, the nutrition from that junk may help the soil quite a bit.

 

[Redbug]

One other idea, (which I have not tried), would be to remove every other tine? That would make the gaps wider between the remaining tines, and possibly not collect as much junk between them. Wonder if that would work?

 

[IslandTractor]

IslandTractor, IronHorse gave you a real nice solution...

Well guys, I just went out and looked at the rake. The problem with the wire rope solution is that you'd need to figure out how to keep the wire rope from riding up past the vertical part of the rake tines as otherwise the rope would just be pulled forward tight onto the rake tine attachment points rather than down and off. It also occurs to me that once you'd successfully "dethatched" the rake that you'd need to reweave the wire rope again. Perhaps there are ways around this problem but it doesn't seem quite as good a solution as it did at 4AM.

I suppose I could just not use the rake for this application as suggested by John Bud but that would leave me trying to mow weeds in an area that still had a fair amount of wood debris and would also have stump holes that would require filling and leveling by some other method. I have thought of getting a disc to deal with the roots/canes but that won't solve all the issues. I guess I could use a box blade for leveling but I'd prefer not to leave larger chunks of wood or rock to hit with my mower.

 

[rayh76]

Well, sounds like a hydraulic comb should be designed! I bet it would only require a few "teeth" to clean the rake since your material is so long. Come on, build it so the rest of us can copy your design. Good luck with your problem.

 

[Arkaybee]

How about trying this: temporarily clamp a flat bar across the width of the rake with several clamps to keep it snug. Position it at the apex of the curvature of the tines or maybe just below the apex. You will still have the "pick-up" ability of the points of the tines and the material can still roll up on the inner surface of the tines but the bar should prevent the material from being driven up the entire length of the tine interspaces, thereby making it much easier to back up and reverse-rake the materials out.

Now, if you had TnT on the tractor so you could tilt the leading part of the rake up (the leading tine points would go forward) and then reverse the tractor with the rake engaged on the ground or brush pile, etc. this theoretically make it possible to "clean" the tines without leaving the tractor seat (high priority):

Then. if this works you could permanently weld the bar at the optimum level or develop a slip-on and off attachment method; e.g. with a few eyelets to slip over selected tines and having set screws or set-bolts to hold the bar in place on the back side of the tines.

I wonder if these alterations would work

 

[jbrumberg]

IslandTractor: I just use a crowbar . Jay