Very disappointed with my landscape rake

[AlbertC]

I know I am probably the first to say this but I am disappointed with my landscape rake. I am not disappointed with the quality of the rake, I bought it from Everything Attachments and the workmanship and materials are top quality.

Problem is it doesn't seem to do a very good job for what I bought it for. I have lots of trees and lots of limbs. Previously, I hooked up my 12 ft utility trailer to my tractor and drove around and picked up limbs by hand. It is a lot of work and takes a lot of time. I thought the rake would make the job much easier but it hasn't.

The problems I have encountered are that I am frequently jumping off the tractor to turn the rake around for pulling and pushing limbs. Also, every time I rake limbs to a location I have to jump off the tractor and kick the limbs off that are tangled in the times. Also, my land is not perfectly flat and it seems that I rake more leaves sometimes than I do limbs.

Anyone have any suggestions as to what I can do to improve my use of the rake? At this point, I kind of regret that I bought it.

 

[otlski]

Gage wheels might help but makes it so switching from pull to push becomes a unbolt/rebolt task.

 

[Gordon Gould]

You might try removing every other or two out of three tines on the rake to let the leaves pass thru and let the branches shake out easier. Just a thought and not guaranteed to work.

gg

 

[jeff9366]

I have an ETA Landscape Rake and a Ratchet Rake bucket attachment.

The Ratchet Rake is superior to the Landscape Rake for every task involving tree debris.

 

[AlbertC]

I have an ETA Landscape Rake and a Ratchet Rake bucket attachment.

The Ratchet Rake is superior to the Landscape Rake for every task involving tree debris.

Unfortunately, I don't have a loader.

 

[Captain Dirty]

I know I am probably the first to say this but I am disappointed with my landscape rake. I am not disappointed with the quality of the rake, I bought it from Everything Attachments and the workmanship and materials are top quality.

Problem is it doesn't seem to do a very good job for what I bought it for. . . . At this point, I kind of regret that I bought it.

The chorus from those of us who have, use, and like various tooth bars on our FELs has already begun.
Those who have, use, and like grapples will soon join in.
You may get a comment from some who use pallet forks and some who use a chipper in tandem with a trailer.

Otiski and Gordon have made some operational suggestions. You might try driving over the offending limbs in an attempt to break them into more manageable pieces. With sufficient time and experience you may become so adept at using the rake that you could comb a baby's hair with it.

 

[bambam31]

I’ve experience the same problem you describe. Someday I will remove every other tine to hopefully prevent the limbs from getting jammed. Fortunately, I don’t have to use it very often. I’m glad I only paid $250 for it off Craigslist.

 

[PHPaul]

When I saw the title to this thread, my immediate response (before reading) was "Probably because he's using it for something it wasn't designed to do."

I was right.

It's intended purpose is to work dirt, not limbs and twigs. If you're raking freshly spread loam, it will pull out clods, rocks and the odd twig or root. Even then, you have to get off and clear the tines occasionally if the loam hasn't been screened.

Just the nature of the beast. Still beats a leaf rake.

 

[Thomas]

"Probably because he's using it for something it wasn't designed to do."
Agree. just have to keep trying.

 

[Oldoak]

When I saw the title to this thread, my immediate response (before reading) was "Probably because he's using it for something it wasn't designed to do."

I was right.

It's intended purpose is to work dirt, not limbs and twigs. If you're raking freshly spread loam, it will pull out clods, rocks and the odd twig or root. Even then, you have to get off and clear the tines occasionally if the loam hasn't been screened.

Just the nature of the beast. Still beats a leaf rake.

That was my thoughts too.

But then again, what ever works for other people, go to it, even if it means modifying it to suit other purposes.

 

[Jchonline]

I know I am probably the first to say this but I am disappointed with my landscape rake. I am not disappointed with the quality of the rake, I bought it from Everything Attachments and the workmanship and materials are top quality.

Problem is it doesn't seem to do a very good job for what I bought it for. I have lots of trees and lots of limbs. Previously, I hooked up my 12 ft utility trailer to my tractor and drove around and picked up limbs by hand. It is a lot of work and takes a lot of time. I thought the rake would make the job much easier but it hasn't.

The problems I have encountered are that I am frequently jumping off the tractor to turn the rake around for pulling and pushing limbs. Also, every time I rake limbs to a location I have to jump off the tractor and kick the limbs off that are tangled in the times. Also, my land is not perfectly flat and it seems that I rake more leaves sometimes than I do limbs.

Anyone have any suggestions as to what I can do to improve my use of the rake? At this point, I kind of regret that I bought it.

I wish I did Albert. The time to ask about using an implement for a particular task is before you buy it. A hard lesson most of us have paid for as well. Every other tine might help a bit, but you are also running over the limbs before you rake them. This may lead to a larger one getting caught in your machine, and the smaller ones breaking into such small pieces they cant be raked.

Perhaps listing it on CL to see if you can recover the cost would be an option as well.

 

[shooterdon]

I have over an acre of lawn with two dozen large trees. Still walk around picking up branches every spring and after storms. Wish there was an easier way but have not found it.

 

[s219]

I have over an acre of lawn with two dozen large trees. Still walk around picking up branches every spring and after storms. Wish there was an easier way but have not found it.

Same here, although I only pick up the big stuff (more than 1/2"). Anything smaller I just mow over and it gets a chipping while the grass gets a clipping. I have a lot of beech trees around my lawn area, and those branches are mostly long thin guys that are easy for the mower to deal with.

 

[tradosaurus]

Actually I'm wondering if this implement might work good for me to rake leaves? My second spring season on my new property and we rake a lot of leaves around the house using hand rakes and tarps to bring the leaves to the burn barrel.

 

[Steppenwolfe]

I know I am probably the first to say this but I am disappointed with my landscape rake. I am not disappointed with the quality of the rake, I bought it from Everything Attachments and the workmanship and materials are top quality.

Problem is it doesn't seem to do a very good job for what I bought it for. I have lots of trees and lots of limbs. Previously, I hooked up my 12 ft utility trailer to my tractor and drove around and picked up limbs by hand. It is a lot of work and takes a lot of time. I thought the rake would make the job much easier but it hasn't.

The problems I have encountered are that I am frequently jumping off the tractor to turn the rake around for pulling and pushing limbs. Also, every time I rake limbs to a location I have to jump off the tractor and kick the limbs off that are tangled in the times. Also, my land is not perfectly flat and it seems that I rake more leaves sometimes than I do limbs.

Anyone have any suggestions as to what I can do to improve my use of the rake? At this point, I kind of regret that I bought it.

No offense meant here, but what you are doing isn't what a landscape rake is for. They are mostly for new lawn work to gather small stones and wind row them. I have an EA landscape rake that I use to keep my paths clean of limbs and debris and guess what, at the end of a few trips I have to stop and remove the limbs that get stuck. I recently bought the wheels to help with the gouging myself, but have yet to try them out. Maybe try a grapple to collect the limbs, my EA grapple works great for that. Here's both on my MX.

View attachment 597179

 

[TractorGuy]

I know I am probably the first to say this but I am disappointed with my landscape rake. I am not disappointed with the quality of the rake, I bought it from Everything Attachments and the workmanship and materials are top quality.

Problem is it doesn't seem to do a very good job for what I bought it for. I have lots of trees and lots of limbs. Previously, I hooked up my 12 ft utility trailer to my tractor and drove around and picked up limbs by hand. It is a lot of work and takes a lot of time. I thought the rake would make the job much easier but it hasn't.

The problems I have encountered are that I am frequently jumping off the tractor to turn the rake around for pulling and pushing limbs. Also, every time I rake limbs to a location I have to jump off the tractor and kick the limbs off that are tangled in the times. Also, my land is not perfectly flat and it seems that I rake more leaves sometimes than I do limbs.

Anyone have any suggestions as to what I can do to improve my use of the rake? At this point, I kind of regret that I bought it.

I have a cheap landscape rake I recently rebuilt. I added the titan gauge wheels to it and it was still less than optimal. Mainly because they were too close to the rake and would hit the tines if I backed up. I never really used it as you intend but I noticed it would work to actually rake on the surface after I extended the wheels back and had the height set with the rake just above the surface.

If you have the ability to fabricate you might try adding gauge wheels and extending them to make them function better. The way mine are mounted you loose the ability to reverse the rake with them on. With a little more design work at the pivot you might could make it so the rake is still reversable.

 

[TractorGuy]

Actually I'm wondering if this implement might work good for me to rake leaves? My second spring season on my new property and we rake a lot of leaves around the house using hand rakes and tarps to bring the leaves to the burn barrel.

You need a lawn sweeper.

 

[airbiscuit]

Actually I'm wondering if this implement might work good for me to rake leaves? My second spring season on my new property and we rake a lot of leaves around the house using hand rakes and tarps to bring the leaves to the burn barrel.

I think a pine straw rake would work better for leaves.

 

[Professor Marvel]

Albert i am afraid the comments so far are right. You have the wrong implement. Have you considered getting a loader.

 

[Industrial Toys]

I built this for my Steiner specifically for cleaning up debris if dropping a tree on a turf area.

What makes it different is that each tine is on a bushing, on a rod so it follows the contour and doesn't dig in. It works great. The tines can also be arrested to work like a normal rake and it can really dig in.

As far as picking up small piles of branches. Really, there is no way except by hand, but at least they are in a pile.