Rake Rakes

[Charlie175]

So how well do they work?

I acquired a wooded lot that has a lot of old broken branches and weeds. I thought about getting a rake to round up all the loose stuff so that I can mow it easier.

Do I need one with wheels?

 

[amigauser]

Wheels make it much easier to just scrape the surface (which is what you would want to do for sticks and such). That way you can just float the 3pt hitch and the rake with wheels will just follow the ground contour behind the tractor.

I used my rake to clean up debris before seeding my lawn last year and it worked extremely well. I have the Woods LR72 rake with the gauge wheels. I replaced the factory gauge wheels with flat proof ones though as the factory wheels sucked.

These are the wheels I used -
Marathon Tires Flat-Free Wheel 9 x 3.50-4in., Smooth | Lawn Mower Style | Northern Tool + Equipment

 

[Charlie175]

Cool, thanks

 

[ragkar]

My York rake with wheels doesn't work well gathering up light to medium leaves over lawn. It's probably because I don't want to graze the lawn underneath.
However when the leaves stack four to six inches, I can drag the pile to my compost heap.

 

[dirt clod]

I borrowed one to use. The wife saw what it would do and SHE said I needed to get one. I can't think of very many tools the wife asked me to get
Not only will these things clean up, I was really suprised at how well they smooth and level. It does a much better job of smoothing the drive way than my boxblade.
Yeah there that good.

 

[Captinjack]

I just bought a Land Pride LR 3584 7 ft landscape rake and it works as well as I had hoped. The best feature of this rake is that it can be swung off to the side of the tractor to allow the road ditches to be cleared with the tractor wheels still on the road.

This is a HD model and be prepared to spend twice the $ as a TSC rake. The swing to the side feature is only available on the Land Pride rake and I had to have this feature for my intended uses.

I raked out mudholes in the forest road down to hard clay with ease. I have a HD scraper blade, but it often digs down too deeply making a mess of things. The rake simply does a great job without the gouging problem.

I raked the mile of forest roads and cleared the surface of all rocks, sticks, and leaves with an out and back pass. I know time will make this even better.

Yes, I love this rake. It's great for spreading and smoothing the bigger stones for the base of my driveway.

 

[Charlie175]

I just stopped by TSC and they only had the Force rakes...I'll pass.
I went by the tractor dealer and they had a BEFCO 5' for $590. It pretty much looks like the King Cutter setup.
They had a RHINO 5' for $890 that was a little beefier.

 

[coobie]

So how well do they work?

I acquired a wooded lot that has a lot of old broken branches and weeds. I thought about getting a rake to round up all the loose stuff so that I can mow it easier.

Do I need one with wheels?

I bought a 84 inch king kutter with gauge wheels for $540 bucks nice rake,but I wanted something a little more heavy duty,I ended up buying a befco BLR-084(84inch) with gauge wheels,IMHO very heavy duty rake verses the king kutter BUT,the price was $948 for the befco,I believe you get what you pay for.I would look at befco,woods,or landpride for a heavy duty rake.coobie

 

[jbrumberg]

You get what you pay for. The heavier and sturdier the better. Jay

 

[RedDirt]

You get what you pay for. The heavier and sturdier the better. Jay

I agree bigger, sturdier is better MOST OF THE TIME, but sometimes bigger is too big.

I built a lightweight rake for my garden tractor that works wonderfully for leaves, twigs, small branches, etc. The design could be upgraded for a larger tractor. In the "push" mode it will move a huge amount of surface material without particles slipping below. And it does not tear up the ground nearly as much a a big rake (although it still leaves tine tracks on a groomed lawn). It is a simple design, easy and reasonable to build.

Here's a link:
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/build-yourself/112451-good-landscape-rake-cheap.html

 

[ancientlake]

Landscape rake is a great tool. I think it only has to be as big and beefy as you need it. I recently picked up a used 6' King Kutter and added wheels. Rake is a little wider than my rear wheels and I'm amazed at what a great job it does at cleaning up/reclaiming areas of rocks, roots, etc. It can easily rip up turf and growth if I set the wheels lower. In my case I don't need the extra weight. Nothing really to break, and you can get new tines. Having said this, I paid my neighbor $175 for the rake. Not sure how I'd feel about paying the new price for the KK.

 

[Regal]

Will a landscape rake help with dragging off mulch?

My 3 acre lawn is heavy in some areas and light in others so when I mow, I end up with a lot of mulch, cutting after cutting after cutting. We have been getting a lot of rain and the grass is lovin it. Today I ended up spending a little over 5 hours mowing and windrowing with mower. Then I let the mower all the way to the ground and pushed the windrows to one end in piles. Still a lot of mulch out there.

 

[Charlie175]

Just happened upon a used Bush Hog 72" rake today at a dealer for $350. Looked barely used so I got it. They had the same model new for double the money.

Now to try it out.

 

[pitt_md]

How wide of a rake should a guy get? Is this related to tractor HP, tractor width, or none of the above? I see LEINBACH has a new 7' rake on ebay for $548 and free shipping. Is that a good rake/price?

 

[IslandTractor]

How wide of a rake should a guy get? Is this related to tractor HP, tractor width, or none of the above? I see LEINBACH has a new 7' rake on ebay for $548 and free shipping. Is that a good rake/price?

Rakes can be wider than the tractor. I don't know of a rule of thumb but a 20hp tractor can handle a 5ft rake easily and my 40hp is way more than needed for the six foot rake I now have. I'd guess that a 8ft rake on 40hp would not be too much for the power requirements but big rakes are kind of unwieldy.

I've not seen a Leinbach myself but believe they have a good reputation. That price with free shipping is suspiciously low. Shipping almost anywhere is $150 or more these days so $400 for a seven foot rake of decent quality is downright cheap.

 

[Charlie175]

I had just priced LEINBACH rakes, a 5' was $525 (MSRP $595 they said). So if yours is 7' then it would be up near $700 or more.

The 6' is bigger than I wanted but for the price I couldn't pass it up.

 

[jbrumberg]

I would not use the 5HP/foot "rule" for landscape rakes. My tractor handles my 8' Woods Landscape Rake pretty well. I can not argue about the price- it was "free". All I really had to do was pull it out from under a junk/scrap pile . Jay

 

[Charlie175]

WOW! I must say I am impressed, I can't believe me and the kids spent all that time picking up sticks when this tool does such a easy job of it.
I never went 1" or more into the ground so my 2015 pulled it real easy, even when I got a large gathering up.

Now to do even more work with it.