Front Tine Dethatcher

[doc724 924]

A few weeks back, a RS member had a front tine dethatcher for sale in the classifieds.  It really was a JD dethatcher, but painted WH red.  I thought about buying it, but all of the front tine dethatchers I had seen had a manual lift that was somewhat difficult to use.  Now, if you could attach the dethatcher to the lift already on the tractor, that would be worth having.  Given that I probably would have to invest $100 or so in materials and fab cost, I decided to prowl CL and I came upon a FREE dethatcher. It was a bit smaller than the JD attachment, but the price was right.  I had to add a rod to the front mount bracket so it would engage the front tach-a matic and get a pivot bracket built to accept a snowblower lift rod.  To keeps costs down during welding (since I cannot do it myself), I decided to use the lift rod from my single stage xi blower (which has a horizontal fitting at the end and is shorter than a classic blower lift rod) and the lift flag from a classic blower.  The only error I made was that I designed the pivot bracket directly on the center of the tractor (like it is on the xi),not remembering that on classic tractors, the rockshaft for the blower is offset from center.  The 1/2 inch clevis pin would not go thru so I substituted a 3/8 bolt.  The pix below show it mounted on my 314.  It works like a dream, just don't try to make a turn with it in the down position-it behaves like a blower does when turning.  Total cost when I was done?  $100; $55 for the steel cut to size, $40 for welding, and $5 for the shaft collars.

[elcamino/wheelhorse 9,021]

That's a great idea.  It looks like it was made for the WH.

[Ed Kennell 35,576]

Nice design and fab work.

[Wishin4a416 2,185]

Nice job!!

[js5020 111]

Looks like a real nice design, and simple.

[Tankman 3,515]

Thanks doc724. Ready now to start this great project!