Ratchet rake or Piranha bar or both

[shooterdon]

Looking to remove hundreds of saplings up to 2". Wondering which one would do a better job. I am leaning towards the RR after seeing a few videos. But I like the increased digging action of the Piranha bar for FEL work.

Any opinions?

Also, has anyone put both a PB and a RR on a FEL? Is that possible?

 

[jeff9366]

The teeth on a Ratchet Rake will grip those 2" saplings, when an unadorned bucket will slip.

You cannot dig at all with a Ratchet Rake attached to your bucket.


Consider a Bucket Spade for digging, rather than a Piranha Toothbar, unless you have a need for 48"> holes.

Bucket Spade requires a fairly rigid bucket.

 

[Diggin It]

Do you necessarily want to dig them out right away? What's your goal for that area?

A field and brush mower will cut them off and mulch the stalks to nothing, but will leave small stumps to rot off or be dealt with later.

 

[FTG-05]

I use my RR every time I use my Box Blade.

My Piranha bar has never left my bucket.

I used my RR exactly once for it's intended purpose. I was not impressed to say the least. It found new life after +1 year as an additional weight for BB weight block.

RR = 5 years ago
PB = 4 years ago.

FWIW.

 

[shooterdon]

I use my RR every time I use my Box Blade.

My Piranha bar has never left my bucket.

I used my RR exactly once for it's intended purpose. I was not impressed to say the least. It found new life after +1 year as an additional weight for BB weight block.

RR = 5 years ago
PB = 4 years ago.

FWIW.

Now that is funny.

Not funny is that the RR is expensive ballast.

 

[hks003]

I love my ratchet rake, but I've been using it to, well, rake. It's making short work of pine straw, leaves, and limbs that storms blow out. Pushing or pulling, it doesn't tear the yard up to bad. I have ripped a few small saplings out with it, but the really small stuff just bends and slides through the teeth. It works better on 2"+ size stuff, not the little 1/4" 3' tall stuff I was trying to get out. The bush hog still works best for that. I'll try to get some pictures of what I've done with it this evening when I get home.

 

[crashz]

I just installed and used my Piranha tooth bar and its probably the best addition to the tractor so far. It really does make the bucket a digger. The benefits so far:
- Will penetrate into hard ground rather than slide off
- Cuts roots
- Rips small stumps and growth out when digging (flat edge just stops)
- Slightly increases bucket volume and ability to hold sticks, leaves and grass.

It will make the loader do what you expect it to do, without beating it or the tractor to death. If I find that I need to take it off often, I will buy another flat bucket for the loader. Its that good. With some finesse it could act as a rudimentary rake, but probably a lot better options out there. I have a landscape rake, a pine needle rake and now a power rake, so those do what I'm looking for.

I dug a drainage relief this weekend with it and I was about 3/4 of the way finished when I realized that some of the soil was still frozen. I was going slow and pretty easy so that I was digging with some force, but avoided spinning the tires and slamming into the ground. It did a great job. I tried this before, in the summer and the bucket would slide right over the top, not digging in at all.

 

[RSKY]

I got my Piranha bar about two weeks ago and used it to clean out a fencerow and blackberry vines last week. This was at my father in law's place. There were some trees up to 6" in diameter in the vines and the Piranha cut the smaller ones off below ground and enabled me to dig and cut the roots on the larger ones. Then I dug in a thicket and used the dirt to fill in holes left in the fencerow and other places in the yard. I am very pleased with the Piranha. The only gripe I have, and this is really nitpicking, is that you have to be careful trying to scoop something up with the bucket or you will dig into the ground where you didn't intend to.

RSKY