Which Landscape Rake?

blucoondawg · Jan 4, 2014

I am going to be in the market for a Landscape Rake this spring, I have a Kioti DK50SE tractor. My first job will be to level and black dirt and seed my mom's yard as we had a new septic installed last fall and I chose to let everything settle over winter before repairing the yard. Other chores for it will be driveway grading, leveling gravel, and possibly dragging logging roads and seeding them for deer plots. What are good rakes to look at, I'd rather not spend a fortune on it but I'd rather pay for a good one than buy a piece of garbage. The most common implements around here are the King Kutter brand that Fleet Farm sells but some of these look to be welded by a 7th grader in tech ed class. I want something that will take some medium to heavy duty use not tear off my hitch the first time it encounters a rock or other such debris.

sixdogs · Jan 4, 2014

On landscape rakes, weight and width are big factors. Wider is better and heavier is better.
I have an 8 ft HD Woods rake (LR 108) and love it. I have used lighter ones and they kept bouncing around and didn't do the job. Wider helps when you turn the rake at an angle so it will still cover your tire tracks.

Taken together, if a guy wanted a serious rake I would skip the short line equipment and look for a Woods 8 ft or similar heavy and rugged rake. If you stumble on to one with rear wheels that would be a plus to stop "digging" when fine grading soft materials. 7 ft would be a maybe but I would still be on the lookout for an 8 footer.

Luxury items would be a hydraulic cylinder for side swing on the rake and a hydraulic lift arm on the tractor for changing the pitch of the blade from side to side. Doing these jobs manually is frustrating and time consuming but the price for the hydraulic solution is pretty expensive.

Now, I use a rake frequently for grading and you may not. In that case most any rake will work sort-of OK if it is wide enough and you hook some weights to the back of it. It's not as good because the weight is not evenly distributed along the width of the rake but it will do 75% of the job correctly.

dragoneggs · Jan 4, 2014

I went with a Landpride 5 footer. Nice build quality and several models to choose from. You are probably looking for a bigger one but in my limited use, it does the job for me. I do wonder how much the optional gauge wheels would make the job better but they seem overpriced. Just a rookie here commenting though.

blucoondawg · Jan 4, 2014

I don't think I would pay the price for gauge wheels when some could be so easily made out of wheel barrow tires or other such wheels. Sixdogs, you are happy with the 108? I see on the online brochure Woods considers that model a Medium Duty the 700 and 800 are they heavy duty models in 7 and 8 foot. I would have to see them side by side to how much heavier they are and if I think it would be worth it for my use

longshot47 · Jan 4, 2014

The older/used, York brand rakes offer a good value, if you can find one at a reasonable price. Plenty of metal [weight] and sound engineering.
I have been using a light, generic [make unknown] rake which left much to be desired, as it bounced around and had very little 'bite'. Took a while, but once I broadened my search I found an original York, with gauge wheels and scarifier teeth, which is a decidedly different experience in use.
They're out there!

Piston · Jan 4, 2014

blucoondawg said:
I don't think I would pay the price for gauge wheels when some could be so easily made out of wheel barrow tires or other such wheels. Sixdogs, you are happy with the 108? I see on the online brochure Woods considers that model a Medium Duty the 700 and 800 are they heavy duty models in 7 and 8 foot. I would have to see them side by side to how much heavier they are and if I think it would be worth it for my use

The weight isn't all that much different, at about 45lbs or so more for the 800, but it's rated for up to 60hp whereas the LR108 is only rated to 40hp. I'm not sure how much of a difference this would be, but since your planning to use it more for quite a bit of jobs, I think it would be worth it to go with the heavier duty model.

Also, the Landpride LR3596 (I think it's called the 3696 now) would be another option. It's just over 500 lbs without the gauge wheels, this is the one I want to get when I upgrade my 6' light duty rake.

Gem99ultra · Jan 4, 2014

Another thing you'll want to consider is the quality of the tines. On my 7' Leinbach rake with gage wheels the tines seem a bit fragile. I've broken several in a short time of use and, while that might indicate that they are too brittle, they tend to bend and not return to the proper shape as I think they should. On my previous Modern rake I think the tines were Italian steel and were simply indestructible. Not to just bad mouth Leinbach though - the problem may well be the inexperienced operator.

Gage wheels certainly have their place but with the 3' extension back there, working in tight quarters is difficult. I believe that I paid something like $300 for mine and rarely use them. Perhaps for a large open area they are ideal, but not for a small area. I'm thinking about welding some brackets for them on my box blade and/or my rear scrape blade, and get more use out of gage wheels. Again, I'm not at all blaming a particular brand - most likely the problems that I have are of my own ignorance.

Deerherd · Jan 4, 2014

I have the Land Pride and like it a lot. I needed a cat II quick hitch (it has both I & II) and wanted offset. At the time it was the only one I could find that had those options.

I think Everything Attachments now has a rake with those features and I would check that rake out also.

MtnViewRanch · Jan 4, 2014

I would consider this EA rake. Probably the BEST rake for the money.

My favorite rake is the Land Pride unit, but at over $2000 with hydraulic angle is very expensive.

Just need to remember that you normally get what you pay for when it comes to NEW implements.

sixdogs · Jan 4, 2014

Yes, blucoondawk, I really like my Woods #108, 8 ft rake. I mostly use it behind a 45 or 50 HP Kubota for final finishing of graded landscaping. I also use it behind my 80 HP Deere to plow snow in the winter. It's been thoroughly used and somewhat abused and never bent anything or broke any tines and really I should have.

Little known secret here is that a landscape rake is a great way to plow snow that isn't too deep. It does a great job and actually better than a blade in many situations.

I have used lighter rakes only a little since they seemed poorly made and too fragile. The constant wobbling back and forth on the rake portion seems to damage things right away. Seems I would bend it on the first use so I steered clear.

Gauge wheels are stupidly expensive and they have a limited use. They aren't needed on dirt and their use, in my view is limited to spreading crushed rock on driveways. If your drive is hard packed bank run sandy gravel you don't need gauge wheels. The ground is hard enough to support the rake without it gouging out the gravel.
Not so on crushed rock where gouging is easy. The wheels keep the back of the rake flat to the ground and it prevents the "washboard" effect so common on some drives.

One other point. Draft control is very important IF you are grading to a smooth as glass finish on dirt. The draft control causes the top link to adjust itself to variations of ground changes and the rake then scrapes the high spots and fills the low spots. I had it added to my 45 and 50 HP Kubotas because I need that ultra smooth finish. For most people doing farm work it doesn't matter.

Oh, I also have seen York rakes and they are very good as well.