[Padraigcr]

Hi, I am wondering if anyone has experience of using the Harley rakes. Under what conditions are they good and how good are they at grading & levelling. When I say conditions I mean moisture levels as I am in Ireland and where we have higher rainfall and conditions I think would not be as good as parts of the US. Anybody any ideas where an ex demo or good secondhand one could be got. They are not readily available in Ireland especially secondhand.

[waterfall larry]

A company I used to work for used a harley rake but I never saw it in use so I can't say much about it. We used it in wet muddy conditions so I guess it worked fine.
The questions I would ask is what it does with rocks? Does it remove them - none, some or a lot?

Also have you considered a rock hound?

There is a bobcat or bobcat compatible attachment called an eliminator that I have used It basically looks like a giant hair comb . Unlike a harley rake with it's hydraulics and moving parts, an eliminator has no moving parts to break down. And with no moving parts or hydraulics it is bound to be a whole lot cheaper. It is as easy as a bucket to attach. It tears up hard Georgia clay no problem. It doesn' do much to remove rocks. To find out more about it go to google and type in bobcat attachments eliminator. The official bobcat web site had a photo.

As for harley rales, I went to Google and typed in bobcat attachments harley rake. At the top of the list was a ground trades list of a thread. Contact Pelican seemed to have a lot of experience with them. Some people in the thread seemed to talk about the rototiller attachment.

oh yeah if you are going to deal with a lot of wet muddy conditions, you want something that will shred the dirt. Big clods of mud and clay are a pain.

Have you tried ebay for used ones?

Larry

[Padraigcr]

Thanks Larry,

I have looked on ebay but found nothing.. What I am looking for the rake to do is to row stone and debris so I can come along with either a backhoe and collect the row or else run down the row with a stoneburier and bury the stone. I will look up the eliminator and see what it does. It sounds like an attachment I have for my 3 tonne mini digger which is a 5ft rake for grading and leveling and pulls big stone and debris with it...

I have a pedestrian machine called a Blec stone rake which is hydraulic and is 3ft wide and rows stone and debris. The only disadvantage I find is on big gardens it is too slow...

Thanks again for your help..

Padraig

[Padraigcr]

Also I meant to ask. What is a rock hound? I am not aware of them.....

[waterfall larry]

A rock hound is a hydraulic attachment. It has little flails that grade the ground and pick up the rocks and kick them into a bin in the attachment. When the bin is full you drive over to whatever or wherever and without getting out of the bobcat, dump out the rocks. An expensive but very slick attachment. It will pick up rocks up to a certain size, chew or shred up mud and no raking will be necessary.

If you go to the official bobcat web site which is probably something like bobcat.com. You can click on attachments or photographs and see a photo of the eliminator or rock hound.

I believe the official name for a rock hound is what they call a landscape rake.

Check on the cost of a rock hound verses a harley rake. The rock hound certainly has a lot more moving parts to break down than a harley rake. Check on the width, just a couple of inches can make a lot of time difference.

I believe with the harley rake you can angle it and just keep on raking the rocks into a windrow, and come back with a bobcat bucket and scoop them up. So I would be inclined to say that there isn't a lot of difference in time between a harley rake and a rock hound.

[Padraigcr]

I looked up the Rockhound. It looks good. I have sent an email enquirying about sales to Europe.. I still think the Harley would be an excellent machine for conditions here.

[waterfall larry]

try google then harley rakes. One of the listings was the following link,

www.absoluteinnovations.net/ landscape/toolcompareTR3 it had a comparison chart for other rock removing pieces of equipment. I have never heard of it.

If you can't buy harley rakes in europe or find one close enough to you, could you buy in the us or wherever and have it shipped?

And don't give up on the eliminator. Mayby a local bobcat dealer has one you can demo.

[AZTLANLC]

I have a harley rake and have used a landscape rake many times, for my are and needs a harley rake is a must, since most builders around my area do a rough grade way too slopy.
Harley rake will till the ground couple inches down and smooth the surface quite nicely if properly used.
It will push rocks to the side or front, I would buy the one that angles from inside the cab a little bit more money but worth it.

Landscape rake will only go about an inch down and pick up rocks also but it will not help at filling up any low spots or pick up big rocks.

For me a harley rake is of much better use around my area, since is rocky and lots of low spots to fill after the builder has left.

A landscape rake would be nice if the property would be within 2" from final grade and rocks 4" and down.

Also make sure your skedsteer unit can handle the landscape rake cause the unit itself is heavy and after it gets full it will tip a smaller unit.

[Pelican]

I've got a post around here somewhere that I gave a full description of my Harley Rake. I once did a job that was muddy, and by fluffing the soil several times I was able to final grade it by the end of the day. I prefer the Harley Rake over other types due to it's grading capability, with the box ends in place it does a real nice job. I've found that the Harley rake also leaves more topsoil behind than other types, I'd estimate 50% more easily.

I've also used the rake to grade a driveway I had top dressed with item 4. The end result looked like a paver had been used to lay the gravel.

[Padraigcr]

Interesting. I have found a dealer in Northern Ireland who has a Harley T6 with Hydraulic angling that has done 2 hrs work who will sell it for the equivalent of $9000 usd..... I priced with Harley in the US and they gave me a price of $7200. I suppose with freight and duty & vat it would work out something simillar to import one so I may just go and buy this one....Thanks for all the help and info...Does anybody know how they are on reliability?

Padraig

[Pelican]

I've had mine for about 4 seasons, it's seen moderate use and all I've done is grease it.

[start2finish]

a rockhound is a good tool, but doesn't do well in harder ground or in mud. a harley rake will work in anything you can pull it through. If the bobcat or tractor will drag it across then you can work it with some practice. we swear by our harley rake for seed bed prep.