Old rake.......really really old

[ronscat 2]

Broke my new Vanguard in today by pulling an old rake - a mule/horse drawn type that got a clevis hitch welded on last week. I can't seem to get this picture thing to work for me today. I was proud of the tractor, motor, rake and my two grandsons for helping me get some more roots, limbs, whatever raked up and piled up in a 3 to 4 foot pile. My son in the Air Force will like the way his coupla acres looks back home here in Georgia.

[ronscat 2]

Guess I need to show what is pulling the rake. Here it is:

[rwilson 128]

That is a nice pice of equipment.

[jerrell 1]

:whistle: Yeah Ronscat that is a nice piece of equipment, you call it a rake, down here in AR we call it a spring tooth harrow, both are the same, just didn't know wh made one, looks great..

nice looking tractor driver you got there also, put'm to work keeps them out of trouble, :thumbs:

[Operator 7]

Middle of January, T-Shirts and real dirt that you can move! That is great. Nice Spring Tooth Harrow.

[ronscat 2]

I shoulda took a picture of the harrow/rake the first time I saw it. It shore looks a lot different with some candy apple red spray paint I had sitting around instead of the pretty rust color it was. The manual lift is begging for an electric actuator to lift this harrow/rake. Granddaddy ain't lifting this baby in the air! It was easier to put the tractor in neutral, dismount, and lift the harrow with grandson, and give it a shove to clear the litter. :thumbs:

[KyBlue 655]

Very nice!!

[Sarge 3,465]

Wicked set of rear tires, what are they ??

Like the spring tooth harrow, btw...too cool .

Sarge

[ronscat 2]

Tires - had them since 1998. Started out with them - Carlisles 23x10.50x12s on my Wheelhorse puller.

[TJ 184]

Nice. I like the tires, :thumbs:

[jerrell 1]

:whistle: ronscat the tires look like the set i got off of CL little rock, they was from a 4 wheeler, don't know the name of them but the thread look very much alike, couldn't beat the price for 4 new tires, 25 in, just what i was looking for.. 4 for 100.00 the guy busted his frame and lost interest when he heard the price to fix the 4 wheeler. :whistle:

[Nick 13]

Nice old rake. Always keep an eye out for older stuff that can be modified for the Wheel Horse.

If you don't mind rebuilding your rake the weight could be cut down. Might help to bolt them onto a single bar, closer together like a modern landscape rake. That and shortening up the mount so the weight is closer to the tractor should help make it light enough to lift. :whistle:

[ronscat 2]

Nick,

I had the same thought about the tines all on one bar - before i used this rascal and still might do that at some point. It would sure cut down on weight. I wonder if it would collect the roots, etc like it does now. The thing exceeded my expectations.

About the tires, Jerrell - I didn't look back at the size. I'm pretty sure they are 25 inch not 23 inches like I said earlier. I'll check them out tomorrow.

Thanks for the comments and recommendations.

Ron

[linen beige 15]

You might try adding a lift assist spring such as used with the tillers. That would help you lift it more easily and you wouldn't have to give up the multiple rows of teeth. :thumbs:

[jerrell 1]

:thumbs: Ron ,the advantage of using several rows of the spring teeth is, they won't clog up as a single row. the single row will clog up very fast with small limbs, rocks and then ride up out of the ground, also if you are cleaning debrie, the single row is best, they clean very good. they make something like a single row with the tines and they use it as a rock rake, will clean up rocks bigger than a big marble, really good in making driveways..

[ronscat 2]

Jerrrell,

I'm still undecided what to with the rake thingy . As can be seen in the first two pictures here the rascal does a pretty nice job on the roots and other debris. We don't have to worry about rocks where I live. I had already throwed out seed for a winter cover of ryegrass on the area before I harrowed it with my little Sears tractor. It had come a small shower of rain about 3 days before I ran the rake over it. We had more rain the last two days and the ryegrass is finally beginning to grow a little so I won't be running the rake again till maybe later this summer.

My plan now is to come back about the middle of April with my tag along mower and cut the ryegrass to about 4 inches tall, spread some common bermuda grass seed over the area, set the tag along to 2 inches to throw a mulch of ryegrass trimmings over the seed right before a rain and then hope for a good permanent cover. (Man, that sentence was too long!)

Thanks again for all the comments, folks. Keep your recommendations coming.

Ron

[Nick 13]

Ron, I nearly mentioned this before but you might try removing just the tines from the 3rd row for a test run. If it works well that way then you could cut off everything back of the 2nd row of tines. That weight reduction might allow you to lift the rake but still have 2 rows of tines. You could also then reinstall the extra tines on the 2nd row in between the existing tines.

Might also add that you need to balance the rakes weight against the results wanted. Taking to much weight off might make it less effective at what you want it to do. But making it easy to lift will add to its ease of use. :thumbs: