Contemplating Buying a Landscape (York) Rake. Pros/Cons?

I am wondering if a landscape rake is right for me? I have sandy clay type soil (mostly sandy) and it was dozed along with a trackhoe removing stumps last year. I built a large, heavy, rigid "harrow" that was 7' across and 6' long with 3 staggered rows of 1"x3"x10" teeth, 51 to be exact. It has purposes like breaking open burnt windrows and pushing light stuff around, but that is why I have a FEL on my Farmall 504 D.

My "root rake" (I had posted pics in the past) is good in its own right, but cannot be angled. I am clearing up the remains from logging 50 acres. I had two dozers (no rakes) and a trackhoe clean up the logging mess. Overall I am impressed at what they did, but I still have small limbs, roots, and slash that needs to be cleaned.

I have done about 4 acres this summer (102 deg days :twisted: ) and my rake was not quite right out of the box so to speak. I have some design flaws for cleaning land, but makes one hellva dirt spreading tool!

My question is would a 7 or 8 foot landscape rake work better set on angle to windrow the trash for me to pick up with the FEL? I would be pulling with a 50 hp Farmall 504. I have a hydraulic top link that I think would make the rake much more versitile. I could go 6 or 7 foot and use on my father-in-laws NH TC30 4x4 but w/o the HTL. Landpride and Howse are my local choices... I am going Landpride if I buy.

Thanks guys,
Charles

We used to use a field digger, some call it a field cultivator. It would bring shallow stuff to the top, rocks too.. A rock rake will just gather what is on top, sometime partially buried. Your plan seems do able. I would get the heaviest one I could find. It might be better to leave it set straight and make your dumps in line for a windrow to pick up with you loader. Have you thought of putting teeth on your loader like the old manure buckets?

i remember the pics of your root rake...i bought a landscape rake hoping to pick up loose trash...all it did was plug with roots and turn into a grader blade...i took out 2 teeth all the way across and it helped a little...i finally got tired of fooling around and borrowed a 7 foot HEAVY disc and chopped up the trash...most of it got buried during the discing and took about 3 years to rot.

I have a york rake and have tried it many times for the same thing your talking about -- I was either getting off every 10 feet and pulling the trash out of it or hooking a long root and spreading the tines apart -- they are spring steel and ain't going back where they started at. Lately I have been using my grader blade, the front blade is notched and does a good job of ripping up crap and the back blade levels and fills stump holes as I go Some trash gets graded into holes but the majority is collected in the front bay and easy to get with FEL and grapple.

I assumed the opinions would be split. I searched the archives and some love, some hate a landscape rake. My rake catches some dirt, but I sift it out then load the debris in the loader bucket and rake it again to turn it over. The design of the landscape rake looks like it would hold more trash, but mine has 3 rows of teeth. I also have a hydraulic top link to vary the angle-of-attack and to lift the rear high over piles.

I was hoping the commercial unit was better than my homebuilt design. I do not have rocks, period. I only have debris left after land clearing. I have a 10' MF pull disk and ran it over what I already raked, surprise it brought up more. My father has a "new ground" disk/plow. It has two 26-30" blades on a hard offset and a guide wheel about 12". I have been told it will chop up alot. I also have a 9' JD offset pull disk at my disposal 60 miles to my south, but do not think 50 hp is enough to sink it.

I am trying to find a less laborious way of doing this... HELP!

Charles

If you are just trying to windrow small branches and stuff on the surface couldnt you use a hay rake to rake the stuff into rows

negative. too much, too big. i'd dystroy a hay rake in hours. i'm dealing with surface roots and shards of trees/limbs. when my wife gets back from new orleans with my camera, i'll post pics. this is true new ground that was forested last year or two. it is barley bush hog ready with a 50 hp tractor and 6' cutter.

charles

I put in a new home on a one acre lot and used mine quite a bit. It's a 6' Kingkutter I pull it with a 35 hp Jinma tractor. What happens when I'm tryin' to rake tumble weeds and grass trash is that I get quite a bit of dirt mixed in with it and I wind up with big balls of dirt and weeds and trash that are hard to get knock back down and won't burn well and just a mess to deal with. But, after it's clean and for just fine gradeing sandy soil for planting the yard it worked great. bjr

If you get a york rake, get one with the gauge wheels in the back. They make a world of difference, as they control the depth of the dig. Just like your rake (I remember the photos), it can jam up. Still easier to clean, imho, just slide the crap off with a hand rake, while the rake is in the air.

So this is a glorified hollow scraper blade for gravel drives and requires gauge wheels... I thought this was a land cleaning machine! Anyone have good experiences with a landscape rake cleaning up behind dozers and trackhoes?

Charles