Rake Leveling soil with a landscape rake

[Mosey]

You're all probably tired of my landscape rake questions, but I have another one. Without the fold down grader blade option, is a landscape rake with guide wheels useful for leveling soil that is tilled up, but has high spots and low spots, etc? My guess is no, since the gaps in the tines would just let the soil pass through and there would still be high spots in the same places there was to begin with. I've always thought that a box blade or even a plain grader blade (back blade) would work better for leveling. But, it turns out that box blades and grader blades are not available with guide (gauge) wheels, and most landscape rakes are, so that kind of implies that a landscape rake with guide wheels would work better for leveling if it had the fold down grader blade. But, I don't know if it would be any good for leveling without the fold down grader blade.

 

[gerard]

If your soil is loose it will level just fine the way you described. The tines are close enough together that it will gather the dirt in front of the tines and leave you a smooth finish perfect for seeding. Then to cover the seed and give yourself a perfect flat surface just pull a chainlink fence section over or go over again with the rake. Even if small furrows are left, as you seem to fear, the first rain will level everything out and pack things to a smooth finish. Just don't expect to level large contours flat as the rake will just follow the land unless you make repeated passes over the same area. (The weight isn't enough to do more than remove the surface layer)

 

[Mosey]

gerard -

"small furrows are left, as you seem to fear"
Actually, the small grooves left by the tines are not my concern.

"don't expect to level large contours flat"
What I'm wondering is if I have a "hump" of loose soil about 6" high and about 3' wide, will the landscape rake smooth it out?

Thanks.

 

[gerard]

oh, ok, the short answer is yes assuming you don't have a real light weight rake. I use a 6 foot woods which probably weighs in around 250 lbs. I would have no problem with a 6 inch high "hump" of loose dirt. It would take a lot more than that before the rake will ride up over it and even then, you would still remove most of the dirt and the rest would be left as a smaller rounder hump. If you want it flatter you just back up and take another bite and/or hit the same spot in a direction perpendicular to your original direction. The more you keep dragging it around the flatter you'll get for a finish. A decent rake will keep removing the top few inches of soil, especially if it's loose. What it won't do well is dig up hard packed soil as well as a balde or box. (Of course really hardpacked earth doesn't grade easily even with a blade unless you have a really heavy one.)

 

[TimSullivan]

The landscape rake will work better than the back blade if the ground is loose and the dips not too deep. If you really need to grade the area, the back blade will do that better then follow with the rake. It will smooth out the ground and remove the stones for planting seed.

 

[JFarms]

Mosey, one of my projects today involved using the rake (Landpride, 200+ lbs.) to level out soft, damp and very uneven soil (with various mounds and dips). I used the loader to take the top off larger mounds, then agled the rake and drove in circles until everything was level. It worked great. If I ever have a similar job again, I'll probably do it the same way. Best of luck.

 

[Turfman]

We do a lot of yard leveling for sod. The landscape rake will level, but it's a slow process. I use a box blade for moving the dirt and a 7 foot landscape rake for the final grade and smoothing, followed by a bit of hand raking to blend things together.

 

[earthwerks]

I'm a contractor and have tried many ways and things and this is what I have found works and doesn't for me:

If you are using ONLY a rake I would agree that running at 45 degree angles and then in overlapping circles is the way to go. Angling the rake fully one way and driving in one direction (say, to the right) will have a totally different "cutting" action (versus just dragging) than going to the left--depends on soil, soil conditions, forward speed, etc. For instance, going slow allows the rake to follow the contours too easily. On the other hand, high gear will cause the rake to stay relatively at a certain level and literally blast through the high spot. Using a piece of fence is the final touch too. I use a an 8x10 piece with a sheet of plywood loaded with 300lbs of steel placed and strapped down mid way. The effect is that of a "cheese grater"--any high spots will grated off with a few passes. I have a lot of this fence. It is basically trashed after one use--get it hung up on a underground object and it's toast. Keeping in mind the fencing is "disposable", I hook up the 6' box scraper and drop the center ripper tooth all the way. All I do then is back up to the fence, lower the box and catch a few fence wires with the tooth and the way I go. Now I can change the angle-of-attack of the "grater" by using the 3pt.

Another trick I use is tilting the box scraper (via the top link--see notation below about my custom hydraulic top link) so that the backside blade is about an inch higher than the front one. Then I drive in reverse (the TC33D's got cruuuuuuuise control so it makes it easy) and the weight of the box scraper does the work. If a spot is too high simply drive forward scalping the spot then back over it. Then, again, use the fencing for final.

What's even better than those is a power box rake. I bought one and can't believe what a difference it makes. It's about 10 times quicker and better than a rake or a scraper. (Before buying the power rake I bought a Gill Super Pulverizer (twin roller). It's nice but is only 3 times as quick. It's for sale for $800 in Monroe, MI

Hydraulic top link: Is an infinitely adjustable top link. Basically it is a 8" stroke hydraulic cylinder that has 3-pt ball sockets welded to each end cut from a new threaded top link. A ball-style valve is plumbed between the top and bottom ports and filled with hydraulic oil (has to be bled of all air otherwise it will act like a shock absorber). All you do is open the valve "circuit", pull the piston rod (if not connected to an implement yet) and turn the ball valve handle. Now the fluid cannot flow from one end to the other and is effectively locked. Be sure to keep the piston rod and cylinder COOOOOL during welding or it will melt the seals (Doh!!!!!)

 

[Molerj]

That top link sounds pretty neat. Any chance you can take a picture of it?

 

[Mosey]

molerj - There are some pictures of mine at the end of this thread: <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.tractorbynet.com/cgi-bin/compact/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=implement&Number=161782&page=1&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=0&fpart=>Spence, hydraulic top link questions</A>