Yard Rake...anyone use this?

[NoCowboyhat]

After getting my tiller up and running, thanks to those who responded to my post about it (see link), I'm now dealing with another issue. My yard has about 3-4 inches of soft soil on top (it's awesome). However, there are a lot of small wood pieces from when I had a guy take out a couple dozen cedar trees with a skid steer. He ground them up but the pieces were larger than I thought they'd be so I had them removed. There are quite a few still remaining. So a diving catch in a football game could leave someone impaled on a 3-4 inch spike. I want to drag the yard to pick up as much of the wood pieces as possible. I was looking at this yard rake on Amazon. It should be good to drag through the soft soil and collect the wood chips/sticks. I saw another post on yard rakes from early 2025 and someone said they bought one from Amazon but hadn't used it. He never reported back after he put it together.

Anyone have experience with a rake like this? Again, it'll be dragged through the top few inches of soft soil to gather the wood hidden under the surface.


Tiller question:

https://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/threads/tiller-pto-shaft-cutting.646974/

 

[nyone]

Unless that dirt is like dust that rake is just going to act like a back blade.

A long time ago I removed every other tooth on my york rake and it did make it less like a back blade but will leave bigger stuff. However the amount it leaves is pretty small so I Judy pick the rest out by hand witch is what I suggest you do.

 

[ruffdog]

For doing cleanup after tree work we use the Groundskeeper II rake. They are light, very sturdy, and work great for getting the wood chunks out of the yard. Check around for best price.

The Groundskeeper II Rake

 

[bigtiller]

I think a pine straw rake would be better than a York rake.

This dethatcher might be even better.

 

[Thomas]

I think it worth try,if not successful maybe rake could be used for other projects.

 

[NoCowboyhat]

For doing cleanup after tree work we use the Groundskeeper II rake. They are light, very sturdy, and work great for getting the wood chunks out of the yard. Check around for best price.

The Groundskeeper II Rake

A rake like that would work but the yard is far too big to do it manually. I started doing it by hand, putting the pieces into a wheelbarrow but progress was far too slow.

 

[NoCowboyhat]

I think a pine straw rake would be better than a York rake.

This dethatcher might be even better.

How stiff are the tines on something like that?

 

[alexpops]

I've used an ignite 7 footer to deal with post hurricane yard cleanup (not sure how similar that is to your amazon model). As others have said, it will move dirt along with the chunks you want moved. I found that setting it at an angle to make windrows that I could come back on gave me a better "trash/dirt" ratio in the end than straight pulls from the get go. Your tilled dirt may stay behind, it may get caught up. I wouldn't use over nice lawn since it will tear up grass, but if you have everything tilled already may not be a big deal. At worst, you collect the wood in one spot, get the wood up & gone, then use a box blade or the rake to level the dirt back out again.

 

[alexpops]

Another option (if it is over lawn) would be to use mulching blades on your mower. Might need to block the chute if stuff nearby can be hit by wood, but a few mows, & it should all be small enough to not be a danger & will feed the lawn as it decomposes. I regularly do that with small branches/twigs. the yard rake was to handle 2 -15 foot branches up to 3-4 inches in diameter. Too small to burn as fire/smoker wood & too spread out to run my chipper to each location.

 

[ruffdog]

How stiff are the tines on something like that?

The dethatcher might not work if you have soft soil and the debris has been driven on and packed in.

 

[alexpops]

How stiff are the tines on something like that?

I think you can see replacement tines at TSC or any other farm store (if you have one near). You can see if they would work for you. most are a piece of round spring steel with a loop or three thrown in.