Ratchet Rake or Bucket Tooth Bar

[truckinfouble]

Like the title says, I am looking at both options and was curious what people had to say about each. Main use would be cleaning up after root raking, but the tooth bar could be useful for digging in the rough clay I have on my property.

 

[rekees4300]

Ratchet Rake is a very useful tool for a low price. It will increase the functionality of your FEL considerably. It excels at things like smoothing rough ground/gravel, ripping out briars, vines, small trees and such. I don't have a tooth bar so no opinion on that.

 

[trihounds]

Both! But for cleaning up after a root rake, the Ratchet rake is the way to go as it will drag, push, accumulate. The toothbar is amazing for digging. I have both and find they have different uses. Ratchet rake came first as I had similar applications to yours and the Piranha toothbar added great digging (and other) capability.

 

[bigtiller]

A tooth bar can act like a rake, but sometimes you need a shovel and a rake. So, maybe you need both?

 

[teg]

...Main use would be cleaning up after root raking...

By root raking, do you mean the grapple and digging kind for the FEL? I assume you don't mean a Landscape Rake that goes on the 3 point hitch, right?

I have all 3, a tooth bar, Ratchet Rake and a landscape rake. I mainly use the Ratchet Rake for "finishing" work. A tooth bar can be used like a poor man's rake, it's not the greatest but between the tooth bar and the heel of the bucket... you can smooth things out pretty good. The Landscape rake does an excellent job picking up sticks and leveling (somewhat).

If you are looking to get every little root twig and branch... a tooth bar will fall short. One thing I don't like about the Ratchet Rake, is that you can not use the bucket for much else. You might want to look into Piranha toothbar... that might be a better option.

 

[truckinfouble]

View attachment IMG_20160824_180848404.jpg
By root rake I mean the 72" Wallace Attachments stacking rake

 

[jeff9366]

You cannot dig AT ALL with a Ratchet Rake attached to your bucket. Ratchet Rake is great for collecting and piling debris.

I do not know the object of digging in the clay on your property, but consider a Bucket Spade as well as a tooth bar. Bucket Spade will be the berries on a Mahindra 5570.

After considering your photo in Post #4, consider a Field Cultivar for removing subsurface vines, roots and corms.

BUCKET SPADE LINK: http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/328798-bucket-spade-today-fel-bucket.html?highlight=

DIRT DOG APP LINK: http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/339095-dirt-dog-all-purpose-plow.html?highlight=

 

[FTG-05]

I have both:

- I used the RR once and now it lives on my BB as an additional weight for my BB weight block (RR +110 lbs to 410 lbs = 520 lb weight block).

- My BXxpanded Piranha tooth bar lives on my FEL.

Do the math.

 

[mdgilbreath]

I use my tooth bar often clear brush, dead tree branches, vines, etc quite useful to my around my property.
It stays on my fel 99% of the time

 

[truckinfouble]

The tooth bar would​ stay on once installed and I see where it would be great for light brush clearing......But the part on the bottom of the RR would​ be nice to site prep before grass seeding. For most initial clearing I bush hog to get it low. Small trees and palmetto get the root rake. I have a Box Blade for grading. Still torn lol. If I could figure out how to get the same clean and prepped surface for seeding this wouldn't be so hard

 

[teg]

....and prepped surface for seeding this wouldn't be so hard

Can you rent a Landscape rake or better option would be Soil Pulverizer / "Yard Tool"

Soil Pulverizer | Yard Pulverizer

I got the first generation of this and a landscape rake, the "Yard Tool" does a much better job.

View attachment 513544

 

[N2DFire]

Disclaimer - I do not, have not, and probably will not - previously, currently, nor in the future - own, operate, or otherwise use a Ratchet Rake.

Now that that's is out of the way . . .

For landscaping, clearing, clean-up work
If you plan to keep on doing a lot of land clearing into the foreseeable future (vs this one place one time) or you need to be able to work "piece mill" over a long period of time then a Ratchet Rake will probably be a good investment. If this is a one shot deal and you can take a day (or days) and do it all at once then I would go along with teg's suggestion and just rent the Landscape rake, yard tool, or even a powered harley rake.


For digging
I vote for the BXpanded piranha tooth bar all the way. Love mine and will never be without one ever again. As was also mentioned - the Piranha and/or the heel of the bucket can get you a pretty "fair" surface if all the junk is out of it but it is NOT nor will it ever be a raking device.

Unfortunately there is no single do-all solution, that's why there are so many implements, attachments, and tools out there. You have to decide which combination will get you to the state/quality of finished work you need for the price you're willing to put out. As has also been said before, sometimes there's just no substitute for a good old fashion shovel and a pitchfork.

Best of luck with what you choose.

 

[truckinfouble]

After a lot of thought I went with the 72" forestry service Ratchet Rake. I have a very heavy duty bucket and 70 HP tractor. I have more jobs that can use the smaller grading teeth on the bottom than I have need for a tooth bar so I will use this for now.

 

[dennis5150]

Hi, I am new to this ratchet rake implement. I can figure out the raking action of the tines that are facing down, but what do the tines that face forward (90 degrees) do? It doesn't seem the would be much good for digging.