I am looking at getting a soil conditioner and I was wondering if anyone has purchased one from Jenkins Iron & Steel? It is a fair amount cheaper than the competition but it is a heavier attachment (7' Weighs 1,550lbs), and they use an Eaton Char-Lynn drive motor.
I looked into one last year, a friend of mine has the Quick Attach version of that style rake, he let me use it for a couple of weeks and I was not impressed with it. The larger drum diameter meant that you had to carry that much more material in front/behind it to get the soil to flow over the top of the roller. I also could not stand the floating frame feature. The Jenkins unit appealed to me for the price as well. To be fair, I have run a Harley MX7 rake behind a CTL for the last 15 years so I'm very used to that and what it will do. I looking to purchase a new rake and wanted to see if there was something better for me out there, but I just ended up with another MX7, paid about 2 grand more than the Jenkins unit, but I am much happier running the Harley rake.
I had a dealer quote me $5700 so it is hard not to consider it. Everyone brags about the larger drum but it sounds like it is more hurtful than helpful.
i’m with you on the price 100%, I had gotten a price of $5800 delivered to my yard from them, it was hard to not just pull the trigger but I think I would’ve been really disappointed if I hadn’t gotten to try one first. I’m definitely not saying the Harley rake is the best rake out there and the Jenkins one is not, I’m just saying the Harley rake works best for me…
One of my main reasons for buying is my wife and I are going to be building on a 15 acre abandon farm site so I am going to have to make a lot of lawn area as last fall it was all waist high grass and serval tillable acres. We are going to continue to rent the tillable out but that still leaves a lot of lawn to create. Doing the math I am going to have a fortune into rental of a rake. There is also 1200' of driveway that will need to be maintained. I think a soil conditioner would be much better to get that driveway back into shape and maintained than my grade bar. In a few years I will be moving the business to this location and will have a gravel yard to maintain around the shop/shed. I also see some uses in the business as well. We don't do many lawns but I can see using it for repairing the track through the lawn we sometimes make when doing hardscaping and other landscaping. The MX7 around here is going for $9500-$10000. I could pick up a Virnig for $8500. The $5700 price point has me wondering if it is too good to be true or if it is a good value. From what I have read they make nice attachments but that has been on buckets, forks, and grapples. I haven't really run one much so I wonder if the larger drum would be an issue for me or not... I really appreciate your opinion. Thank You!
I would scour Craig's List for a used power rake, Harley or any other brand, if you've never had one you may not know what you are or are not missing. If you're turning a bunch of old meadow into finished lawn, you will definitely need to till it first, probably two different ways to break up the clumps of Meadow grass, if you don't till it first the grass will just wrap up around the rake after a few feet and won't work well at all. If you kill it, just don't go too deep, just the top few inches to break up all the grass, then hit it with a power rake, I think you'll be happy to be with the results. I use mine for all sorts of things, grading compact process driveways, renovating lawns, grading the infield of baseball fields, it is an amazing tool to have and I have never regretted the money I spent to get one, the time it saves fine grading and the amount of hand labor it eliminates is well worth it...
I have been scouring craigslist and facebook marketplace. Slim to no pickings on used right now. I asked my Cat rep if they had a long term demo on their soil conditioners and he didn't find it as funny as I did. haha My plan was to mow it first and scrape it off with my landplane. I don't have a tiller so I could drop the scarifier on my grade bar to rip it up a little. Then run a soil conditioner over it. I see a lot of uses for one.
A scarifier would work fine, you just may need to hit it in more than one direction to break up the clumps so the rake doesn’t choke on them.
Did you end getting a tiller? I have been looking for one for my ASV RC60. Not sure what brand is the best quality / price point?
I wasn't I looking for a tiller but I did end up buying a Jenkins Iron & Steel soil conditioner. I haven't used it a lot yet but I really like it so far. It is built really well and I am impressed with it. I bought from a local dealer and they had a few other attachments around. I was impressed with everything I saw. I see a pair of their hydraulic forks in my future. I have a pair from another manufacturer and the Jenkins forks look like they are really built well and they are priced very competitively.
Oh ok. Thanks for the response. There attachments do look like good value for the money.
I have been using an FFC Preparator since the late 90's. They work best for me.