That is a very nice rake with those wheels. Lately I've been trying to set mine up with similar wheels so I could use it on our 3/4 gravel drive. I should have just bought the wheel set but I chocked on the $600 price tag. In hindsight. It may have been worth it.
lol
More pics please - what is the bar that hangs below the main bar by 2 black brackets where the tines attach?
Ah-ha! Glad you asked!
That flat bar tucked up under the front of the spring times is Wood's secret flip down grader blade! You can kind of see it in the photo below. Normally it sits up out of the way for raking. For grading, just pull two pins and it pivots down on two pivoting legs to lay against the front of the tines. You can sort of see the rt. hand pivot leg in the photo. In the down position the grader blade cutting edge sits about an inch lower than the rake tine tips.
This grader blade also has the optional end caps. My end caps are not there in the photo - although you can see the holes where they mount. End caps are another well-kept secret that double the usefulness of a grader blade. By using one or both end caps the grader blade becomes a sort of versatile angling box blade. That combo of blade and caps works particularly well when combined with gauge wheels.
Yeah, I know.... those gauge wheels cost too much. No way was I going to pay that roughly $600 for the gauge wheels, guage arms, and the yokes with spacers. Then I looked at one & it changed my mind. Very impressive design and quality. I'm cheap sometimes, but willing to pay if the quality is there. It was and I did and here's why: Like a ot of tractor guys, I finally figured out that good adjustable gauge wheels are the key to making blades, boxes scrapers, and rakes work well.
And these are designed so that they can be unbolted and swapped onto any other implement - maybe even including the FEL bucket or a front blade - by simply drilling 4 half inch holes and bolting them on. Height is controlled by the washer stack on the pivot of the yoke. If you do that, remember that gauge wheels are not rigid. They are supposed to be a bit floppy.
So it's not $600 to add gauge wheels to the landscape rake. It's $600 to get a set of gauge wheels that can be fitted onto most implements that I have. I love and live to experiment with mechanical anything. So for me the gauge wheels became a no-brainer. Sure I could make up my own set. But honestly it would cost me 2/3 as much even though I weld and have machine tools.
The gauge wheel tires are solid rubber industrial, wheels are ball-bearing, arms are 1/2" steel, solidly built yokes have grease zerks. Height adj is genius. Woods carries complete rebuild kits. So does Messicks.
HOWEVER, they are not perfect. The gauge wheel horizontal arm should be longer. As they are, they interfere with the rake tines when reversed. I will be making a telescoping arm extension to add a foot to mine.
rScotty
