Rake using a yard rake

[Freds]

Well, I bought a yard rake yesterday. A 72" Land Pride with gauge wheels, I had a lot of levelling and sod clump breaking up to do around my new bldg. and it worked great. It surprised me that the wheels aren't more readily available, only two places in a 25 mile radius even had them.
The place where I bought it said to lengthen the top link to give the tines more curl so it doesn't dig in as much (the wheels are as low as they'll go), but I still seem to drag around a lot of the top soil. Is this where the angle comes into play? I tried to angle it once and it still seemed to pick up a lot of dirt. Also, the ground slopes down away from the bldg. and I wasn't really sure which way to angle the rake since I am travelling back and forth along the grade. It didn't seem to make a difference as far as trying to lose the dirt out the side of the rake.
Tomorrow I'll have 43 tons of 1B pea gravel to play with /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif. I'm hoping my technique is better by then.

Fred

 

[hazmat]

Fred,

Kind of like spreading peanut butter on a sandwich. You want to pick up the dirt in the high spots and drop it in the low ones. What works for me using my rear blade is to angle it and work the dirt from one side to the other & then back again.

Maybe I can explain better. Lets say you have a low spot that is East of a high spot. I would travel N-S and angle the blade so it is widrowing the dirt to the east. I would start at the high spot (West) and work my rows towards the East using an agressive bite on the blade

Then I would angle the blade the other way & take a mild bite so that I was just smoothing out the dirt & work my way back towards the high spot (West). Soem times I simply drive backwards with the blade still angled the same way.

Sounds like a word problem from Math class. What time do the trains get to Penn Station?/w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif

If you don't angle the blade, you end up pulling the dirt from one spot to another. This is why when using a box blade, people often drive in circles, you got to keep the dirt moving around or you will end up piling it up in one area.

 

[Freds]

HUH?

I don't really have any high or low spots. The bulldozer did a good job of giving me a decent grade to work with. I just can't seem to get the top soil to work it's way out of the clumps of weeds and large rocks that I am raking. It just pulls along with the rest of the undesirable stuff. To tell the truth, I only angled the blade one notch, maybe if I angle it more the dirt might sift through better. Thanks for all the input, though. I'll keep it in mind when I get a blade to work on my driveway.

Fred

 

[hazmat]

<font color=blue>HUH?</font color=blue>

Clear as mud eh?/w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif

I don't have experience with a rake, but I would try angling it as much as you can.

 

[beenthere]

Practice, practice, practice. This will give you experience and knowledge. The dirt wont shake out of the clods of grass roots until they are pretty dry. Then angling the rake and making MANY back and forth passes will eventually shake the dirt loose. You just want that clod to be at the right spot on your lawn when the dirt eventually breaks loose. As far as angling, you may want to keep in mind that when going along the sidehill, moving dirt uphill is harder than moving it down. But you probably want the dirt to remain up the hill, and not down. I would say angle such that the dirt moves uphill most of the time. Get those clods to rolling around in front of the rake teeth, so they work out the dirt.
Have fun. Usually it takes a long time, and many passes, to get what you want.

 

[Trev]

Is a yard rake the same thing as a "York rake"?

I need to rent one soon, to clear out an area that was bulldozed down and needs to be cleared of all rocks and little trees and sticks that got pushed down.

We may be talking about two different things..

 

[gerard]

1. angle to max adjustment which will windrow the heavy clumpy stuff. each sucessive time you go over it more of the loose stuff wtill get knocked off,leaving the bigger stuff which eventually you pull forward on until the rake fills up, lift the three point leaving a pile and continue on. You WILL wind up with a lot of small piles that have to be removed by hand.

2. Since you have guage wheels you should be able to adjust them so the tines are BARELY touching the surface. The less down pressure the less it will dig in and pick up the fines. You should be able to adjust the wheels so the tines will leave a several inch gap between the bottom of the tine and the ground, if you can't the wheels aren't doing you much good. Depending on the type of wheel height adjustment you have you should be able to modify it to give you more clearence (ie add more spacers etc). Also by lengthening the top link it rocks the rake back onto the wheels and also increases the clearance. Keep playing and you'll get it but you'll stil need some hand work unless you can windrow everything to a side where you plan on leaving it.

 

[shade2u2]

<font color=blue>lengthen the top link to give the tines more curl so it doesn't dig in as much<font color=black> -> This seems backwards from my experience with my rake. Shortening the toplink seems to lessen the curl & minimize the "digging". I don't have gauge wheels... not sure if that makes a difference or not. /w3tcompact/icons/eyes.gif

 

[gerard]

I think they got it backwards - I agree with shade2 - lengthening the toplink makes the cut more aggressive, not less.

 

[Casimir]

It does make a difference whether you have guage wheels or not. With the wheels on, lengthening the top link lets the wheels hit the ground before the tines do, so you can adjust it so the tines just touch or even float slightly above the ground level to pick up trash without digging.

Without the wheels, lengthening the top link does cause the tines to dig deeper (more aggressively) if you drop the 3-pt hitch to full float position. Otherwise, you adjust the amount of "dig" by raising or lowering the hitch. Shortening the top link lets the tines drag without digging. Clear as mud?? /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Freds: your project sounds like a flex harrow is more suited to the job. These are pieces of cyclone fence on "roids", and have tines that angle forward or backward. You simply drag them behind (could even hook them up in tandem with a blade ?!)
They are effective at breaking up clumps etc on ground that is basically filled already. And smoothing the dirt.
Although most brands appear similar, some postings claim certain brands are capable of losing the debris that builds up by themselves.
In fact, you could even use one of the old rigid harrows ("drags") that have 5-6 cross bars with spikes that are angle-adjustable. I have and they do a good job behind a CUT or ATV. Put away the rake for another time when you need to move and flatten uneven ground.
jim

 

[Freds]

Now that I have a little time under my belt using the rake, I have found that dragging it in what I would call the normal or forward position does do a great job at filling low spots, but if I want to just smooth things out I travel in reverse (I just wish I could travel as fast in reverse). I tried spinning the rake 180 and the 72" doesn't quite clear the lower lift arms. Maybe if I change where the center link attaches I can lift it high enough not to hit. I got to move a lot of gravel today and am close to getting the hang of it, but then gravel isn't topsoil and doesn't need breaking up.

Fred

 

[WVBill]

Fred: Spin it around before you hook it up if you're going to be doing a lot of "back dragging".

 

[Freds]

Bill, is there an easy way to do this? Seems like it would hit the stand on the "yoke" I guess you would call it. I suppose it could be done, I was just hoping I could reverse it while it was hooked up because at this point, it helps me to be able to change the angle and direction quite a bit. Probably more often than someone who has more experience using the rake.

 

[Freds]

I thought I would show a picture. It seems like the toplink is not long enough. The rake is in the down position and the wheels only have 1/2" of adjustment left. The tines are hitting the gravel. If the toplink was longer (it's already adjusted out as far as it will go) the rake would rock back on the wheels and lift the tines. At least that's how I see it in theory. Does anyone have a pic of how their rake looks hooked up? Mine looks like it has too much lean into the tractor.

 

[WVBill]

I see what you mean now. The rake hits the ground when you try to swing it around - not the rear tractor tires, right? My 6' Lineback rake on my Kubota B6100 lifts plenty high enough to swing all the way around.

I also see why you can't rotate it while it's un-hooked. I don't have that stand that holds up the front - I just use blocks. If you could prop up the rake with some blocking under the rake frame and don't put down the stand, maybe you could swing it around.

But that's not the real solution. I can't figure why my B6100 can lift my rake higher than you can with your 7500. I'll take a picture this weekend and post it so you can compare set-ups.

 

[Freds]

That pic would be great, Bill.
Actually the top of the wheel adjustments on the rake hit the lift arms when I try to spin it. You can see the angle the rake has to it. If I can get the rake frame to ride more level, which would also lower the ends of the square tubing where the wheels are attached so they would be level also, I think I would have enough clearance to spin it attached. The only way I can see doing this is to get a longer toplink. Something isn't right for the wheels to be set for max lift and the tines are still only barely above groung level. Someone once mentioned here about having a toplink for each implement so you have it already adjusted when you switch attachments. The more toys I buy the more I like that idea.

 

[WVBill]

Freds:

Here's my picture. My top link is extended to about 22" which is about the middle of it's adjustment range. As you can see the frame of the rake is just about level front to back. I can see where guage wheels might make things more difficult to spin it around.

By the way, what did you have to pay for your guage wheels? I'd like a set but as I recall the dealer wanted almost $200 and so I'm thinking about making my own.