Rake Rockhound vs. Bobcat Landscape Rake

Charlesaf3 · Jul 21, 2009

I have too many rocks. The current rock picking attachment is me, and I'd like to upgrade. The main available varieties seem to be the Bobcat Landscape Rake, and the Rock Hound. Anyone have any idea which is better, or are they indistinguishable?

Bobcats version seems a bit easier to find used around me, for what its worth.

Thanks!

Ductape · Jul 21, 2009

When my father decided to upgrade is rock picker, he had kids.

Something to think about.............

Charlesaf3 · Jul 22, 2009

Have you been talking to my fiancee?

I think the rockhound would be cheaper in the long run. And short run. Not that the kid thing has been presented to me as a optional thing...

I did find that having fiancee help me pick up rocks made her in favor of the rockhound purchase, no argument required.

skidsteer.ca · Jul 22, 2009

A landscape rake windrows debris and smooths soil surfaces. It can also be used to push soil around to contour the surface. Pulling rocks over 6" out of virgin soil is quite hard on the carbide teeth.

A rockhound is made to pick up the debris. Again not really for pulling it loose from the ground or for braking virgin ground.
I like to roto till or if the ground is really stony rake it with the teeth on my bucket just to loosen it up and find the big rocks. (or pallet fork if the rocks are real big, backhoe if they are over 24")

I then use the landscape rake to gather them up and I bury them in a low spot buy scooping them with the bucket or having a helper rake them in the bucket as I drive along.
While the rockhound would be nice if you did a ton of this I find the rake to be more useful.
Ken

Brahmus · Jul 22, 2009

I did a search on this a while back and it seems both have their intended use and both overlap some. Down here we don't have a rock problem, but I have on an older piece of property that I'm cleaning up. I still haven't decided which one is best for me. My problem is gravel more than anything.

Charlesaf3 · Jul 22, 2009

I have a harley rake, which is awesome. The Bobcat landscape rake is a rock picker-upper, like the rock hound. Just wondering which of the 2 rock picking designs is better, or if it makes a difference.

My approach with virgin woods is - dig stumps with backhoe, rototill, boxblade (scarifiers pop big rocks) harley rake. Problem is, I have very thin topsoil - an inch or 2 over sand. So using the harley rake to clear rocks, which works fine, also removes all the topsoil. Hence the need for a rockhound.

I think most people would be better off with a harley rake than a rock hound or bobcat landscape rake, but I seem to be stuck with a special circumstance.

amigauser · Jul 22, 2009

I have never seen the Bobcat version of a rock picker so I can't comment on it. All the lawn contractors around me use a skid steer mounted Rock Hound and they work very well at picking up rocks and smoothing out an area for lawn preparation. They place the rocks in a carrier so they can be dumped were you want. A harley rake like you currently own basically just smooths an area and windrows debris, it does not pick up anything.

Charlesaf3 · Jul 23, 2009

So I bought the bobcat version used from Neil Messick - he thinks Rockhound makes it for bobcat. It is really hard to tell the difference between the 2 from what I've seen.

Harley rake smooths, bulldozes, seed preps. Its really great, and would be all I need, except for the fact that you lose an inch or 2 of topsoil when you do it, and that's pretty much all I have. The rest is beach sand.

I'm running this on the QA on the m59 - it runs skidsteer stuff (non high flow) pretty well - so I'm talking the skidsteer versions, not the 3 point hitch versions, in case it matters to anyone

Brahmus · Jul 23, 2009

Let me know how they compare as I'm still in the air as to which one I need to buy/rent to get the job done.

Do you "loose" the topsoil or does it get pushed around/down? It was my understanding that it only windrows the larger debris and the dirt breaks up...

Charlesaf3 · Jul 23, 2009

What are you running it off? Remember you need pretty decent flow to the FEL remote.

The dirt does breakup, but you do throw some in front with the harley, especially if you have a lot of junk to get out. I'd guess for most from what I've read the harley would be more useful - the rockhound seems to be primarily for picking up rocks. Which is what I need it for.

But I'll know more soon.