I live in a rocky area and am frequently battling rocks on jobs. I have a rock bucket that picks up the 3” and larger stuff but am looking to get the smaller rocks. landscape rake? Harley rake? I have a flail mower and was thinking of replacing the flails with short lengths of chain and rigging up an expanded metal cage to catch the rocks... thoughts on that?
https://hayesproducts.com.au/product-category/tractor-rotary-hoe/ One of this type of thing for soft stone would work or a PTO driven stone crusher if the stones are hard. Stone crushers have morfed from these whilst forestry mulchers morfed from fail mowers and run at higher RPMs.
You'd probably need a screener or potato picker to get rocks that small.
I would say Harley rake. If you remove the big stuff first while rough grading with the rock bucket AND there’s enough soil, otherwise the Harley rake will just leave a lot of small stones behind even if you close down the stone guard on the rake. The Harley rake won’t pick them up but you can make piles to pick up afterwards.
Will require more than want to deal with to remove smaller stones. Will need to Shovel out with a loader and screen it to adequately remove ALL.
What about a sweeper broom attachment and I cut out the bottom of the collection bucket and replace with expanded metal so the dirt falls through but stones get caught?
When i was young they did a major on the local golf course. Thier solution for picking rocks was to sprinkle some change on the fresh tilled ground,then put out the word to us kids and follow us with a loader as we tossed rocks in the bucket and picked up nickels ,dimes, quarters and the odd 50 cent piece. Costs might have been 5.00 /Acre back then in the 60s but it got all the ambitious kids in town out racing around grabbing cash.
I was going to recommend the Harley Rake as I've had one for 20 years but after seeing that Valentini L1800 video it seems tough to beat. You'd have to make 4 passes or more to prepare a site as rocky as they're doing with the Harley and then switch to a bucket to move the accumulated stones. There's another attachment called a Preparator that is similar to a Harley Rake but it collects the stones as it sifts them. Requires frequent emptying of the hopper. https://www.paladinattachments.com/products/preparator
were could I find something like this in a skid steer mount?
Stone crushers come as skidsteer mounted, FAE and Mericrusher have dealers in the US. The rotaryhoe as far as I know are only PTO driven but wouldn't be difficult to convert to hydraulic drive made to mount on a skidsteer.
What's the cost on one of those for a CTL?
I've no idea, you'd have talk to the dealers. The stone crushers can also be used on pavement stabilising jobs as well with a bit of planing.
Very interesting attachment that could be used in all sorts of situations.
Sush, I can hear your brain ticking over from here.
I use an attachment from FFC called a Preparator. I have been running them since the late 90's. That attachment is very cool. I looked it up and it doesn't look like they make it for a CTL, but their website looks old maybe that is no longer the case. The only downside is if your cleaning up on something already established, you would wreck irrigation systems and so forth. But dam it looks like it does a very nice job. Preparator The FFC Preparator® is a more professional series of the FFC Auto Rake, having bidirectional capabilities. Operating this unit in reverse will perform the same tasks as the Auto Rake, site cleanup and soil preparation, collecting material of 3/4 - 6". A spinning brush located inside the unit... www.paladinattachments.com
I have a similar rock bucket like yours for my skid steer and I have different sized crusher screen that I put in the bottom and back of my rock bucket to screen the rocks from the dirt. It works well when the material is dry, fill the bucket about 1/3 full and shake the bucket by curling it up and down. I hold the screen in place with stainless steel hose clamps through the screen and around the bucket bars. This works well but it is dusty for the operator.
Ended up with a Chinese landscape rake... lost/broke a half dozen bolts on the first day using it but was able to finish the job and it did rather well. Worth the hassle considering it was dirt cheap! Does anyone else think this chain should have a tensioner/roller? Looks a little suspect to me...
And yes... after the first bolts fell out I sprayed them red to more easily find them once they fell off!
Yes on the tensioner.
slow enough speed on that chain, and working in the dirt it's not going to last many operating hours anyway, so I wouldn't worry about a tensioner. A block of wood works fine for tension, but it needs to be stout if that chain runs both ways.
Definitely do not lube the chain. i don’t think that spins excessively fast, not sure a tensioner is necessary. Harley rakes have em in the chain case but they run both directions and a little faster than the rockhounds do.
It doesn't look like there tension adjustment for the chain? It will continue to stretch with use and become worse. Being exposed to the elements will accelerate wear too. Couldn't hurt to put a tensioner on. My Harley Rake has a tensioner and the chain is within a sealed oil bath.
We have a Bobcat brand rock hound from 25 years ago: There’s not enough hours in the day for that thing. 10’ Rock rake behind a PTO tractor & the rock picker behind another PTO tractor. I’ll share pictures. Neither are for sale.
There is a cover, I removed for the pic. Will figure out how to get some tension it before I use it next... just not sure what that’s gonna be yet.
It does spin slowly... but not that slow . I’m concerned it will eat up those sprockets or start jumping off
Just bolt a chunk of hardwood to the side? Maybe some plastic instead?
I'd leave it dry and the way it is. Until it has enough slack to take another link out. Manure spreaders and some other farm equipment runs a hardwood block for a tensioner. I assume that rake reverses, and that would be harder on the tensioner than a one way rotation. Farm chains are usually oiled in with wood tensioners. I wouldn't want to oil that chain, it would hold grit and wear faster. If you want to try a wood block tensioner, yes, just bolt a wood block to the side, the slot is already there, might have to make a custom carriage bolt to fit the slot, then you have an adjustable tensioner.
I’ve attached a parts breakdown of a Harley rake chain drive and it shows how they tension the chain. Fairly simple, two arms that hold a “roller skate” wheel on each arm and a spring between each arm to keep the wheels pulling towards each other on the chain. Wouldn’t be too hard to make something similar. https://store.germanbliss.com/land-pride-sr2672-power-rake-skid-steer-attachment-chain-case-parts . I believe you want to look at part #39, 30, & 6
I like that setup! Off to McMaster to shop around
It’s all pretty generic stuff, just grade 8 bolts holding it all together and the spring could be had from a good hardware store. Could probably order the “wheels” from Paladin/Harley rake or literally use some harder composition skate board wheels.
Use LOCTITE® 290 Wicking Grade on the bolts. The center to center is too short for a tensioner. Just run it. It’ll be fine