FOR THOSE WHOM ASKED: Homebuilt Harrow, Root Rake Pictures

This is my Root Rake or Ridgid Harrow I built recently. It has been too wet to use this past week. Here are some construction and finished pictures of my rake. Tell me what you think...

I appoligize for the size of this post. It may take a minute for the pictures to load on a slower connection.


[b:8b0c81b7d6]Construction Phase[/b:8b0c81b7d6]















[b:8b0c81b7d6]Finished and on trailer at home...[/b:8b0c81b7d6]















[b:8b0c81b7d6]What I have to work with...[/b:8b0c81b7d6]




My Photobucket site is:

http://s262.photobucket.com/albums/ii89/nsula_country/

I am always adding pictures to this site.

Thanks guys, Charles

Fine looking job ,excellent welding skills .I am curious about one thing
what would you guess the completed harrow weights?

Awesome pics!! I didn"t ask but it should do a great job in the sandy soil of Louisiana. I"m afraid I would lose some teeth in the rocks and stumps I have to deal with. Thanks for posting!!

Thank for looking. I hope that the soil I have will be friendly to my rake. North LA has rocky soil, Central LA has RED CLAY! I am fortunate in NW LA to share the East Texas SAND.

I estimate it weighs 700-1000 lbs. It has about 150 lbs in just Sch. 80 2" pipe. Add 51 1"x3" and 3/4"x3" teeth along with 2-4' pieces of 4" channel, 20' of 2"x2"x1/4" angle, and about 40 lbs of 7018 rods it gets heavy quick.

I honestly believe I can justify a hydraulic top link for this implement.

Thanks again,

Charles

Have you used it yet?

Looks to me like the teeth are a little to close together and to short. It may plug with dirt to easily.

But I may be wrong. Won't know till you try it.

Good luck

Gary

excellent job, thanks

Good job. I know there was a LOT of work went into that.
I think Gary is correct about it plugging tho... Try it first and see how it goes, but you may need to nip out every other tooth.
That's why you save the paint for last...

Good luck

Rod

I will agree with Gary I think you will have plugging issues. need more ground clearence and spacing clearence. You spent alot of time into it but I know It would be plugged up first few feet in my area. good luck

How many beers did it take to built that? I only saw one...........surely took more than that! Good job!

i really hate to add a negative comment because the welding and fitting on that implement are great.
problem is the tooth spacing and that pipe frame...first good root you snag is gonna rip a tooth out of pipe...weld prob wont break.
if you have any of that 1"x3" left build a rake to fit quik-tatch on your loader...make teeth about 3' long and a foot apart...use the 1 x 3 for frame work too and vee grind your welds to get thorough penetration...best rakes i've used on my dozer have about a 6" lead on tooth so trash rides up and stacks rather than bunching together and clogging with dirt...go slow and steady...when you get a big ball of debris move it to pile by rolling it...once you start pushing you'll understand what i mean by rolling it.

hope you take this as its given...friendly advice from somebody that does it nearly every day...in Tejas sand too BTW.

Couple cases of Coor's and about 3 weekends to pull this one off. I patterened this off of one with 6.5" spacing. Mine is 6" on rows 1 & 2, 7" on row 3. Also my teeth are about 1" longer. His is about 35-40 years old and still in one piece. Mine is braced heavier and made of sch 80. His is sch 40...

I tried it a couple days ago and it was WET. It pulled trash up nicely but the mud was balling up and the tires a sinking. Once it dries up I will hit the high ground. I'll post some pics of the "tumbleweeds" if it does what I hope it will.

If trash turns to be an issue, I'll cut off every other tooth and weld it to the adjacent tooth. This will improve my spacing to about 11"-12" and almost double the length.

Thanks and continue to give some ideas. Once it dries, I am going to hit it hard! By the way I bought a CCM Cat 1 hydraulic top link (HTL) today. Hope to have it by the end of the week.

Thanks again,

Charles

Back to the bucket idea, I am planning to make a brush fork of sorts to clamp on the bucket. I think I will use the same design I used on my pallet forks to attach and have 4-5 "fingers" about 24"-30" long.







Enjoy, I have pics of these on the bucket and painted if interested...

Charles

Charles: I have to agree with BCnT, that thin wall pipe is going to break. The shank you have designed will rip a 4" section of pipe wall right out.

For the job you are trying to acomplish modern day S-tines will work much better. During my farming years I did a lot of custom work and most of it was clean up behind bulldozers that rooted the stumps, leaving behind many small roots. I don't have any photos of what I used back then, however I can tell you rigid shanks don't work.

I'm going to try and attach a photo of a S-tine I built in 1992, for cleanig up a new house lot. This area had been over grown with small bush plants. I had a Farmall 130 with 1 point fast hitch. All devices for cleaning small roots are going to plug. With S-tines, one just lifts them enough so he can drag load to a burn pile area. The shape of the S-tines are such that they drag the load without loosing any until you back up. Lift the hitch and back up, usually with two gang S-tines, the rear tires will pull roots from teeth, then you push it on the burn pile with loader or blade. Two gangs or tool bars are plenty, and clean out much easier the 3-4 gang models.

Photo is in community album.

Hugh, glad you made it here. I know you are one of the most respected members on the YT board. I am anxious to see how this works out with our sandy soil and the debris left behind. The most negative points have been the "thin wall" pipe. The pipe is 2" schecule 80, which is 2 3/8" OD and .218" wall thickness (1/4"). I think the pipe will hold, but may twist some. Pipe is stronger than comparable sized solid.

Thanks again guys,

Charles