I'm building a detachable root/rock rake for the bucket of my 955L. The tines will be 1.5" or 2" thick AR400. I thought I should use replaceable teeth tips on the tines but I'm now wondering if it's necessary or even advisable. It's going to get used in a demo/clean fill site, to rake medium sized chunks of concrete and rocks out of loads of otherwise spreadable fill that are being wasted now. I also want to rake out the top 10" or so once it's at grade to remove whatever is left there. It will also be used to stack burn piles from tree removal. It's going to get steady use for 10 years or more, this is a large site, and I want it to hold up for the duration. I don't have experience with a rake like this, I'm afraid the concrete and rock will wear out the ends of the AR400 tines before I'm ready to finish the site. On the other hand, I've been told the small teeth with the rubber bushed split pins won't stay on the ends of the tines if I catch one on a root or rock while backing up. What do you guys think that have experience with this? Do I need the teeth or is straight AR400 enough? Perhaps no teeth and some hard facing weld on the tines? How sturdy are the small replaceable teeth? Like these - I'd rather not use a bolt to hold them on, to reduce snags. It's been suggested that I could weld them on, possibly just a plug weld through the side hole. I need some advice, this is going to be my first rake. Here's a photo of what I'm designing so far.
Yair . . . PhilDirt. Our thirty/forty foot stick rakes were a completely different configuration but we had no success with the various replaceable teeth we tried. They were PITA to change, fell off, caused hangups between teeth and so on. I found old track pins or strips of cutting edge welded to the bottom of the teeth were a far better option. . . just wear them right out and weld on a fresh lot. Every now and again at a service or breakdown I would blow off all the crap and start all over again. . . it doesn't look pretty but it's cost effective. Bear in mind these were D8's aiming to run all daylight hours in highly abrasive dirt. Cheers.
Thanks Scrub Puller. Anyone else? How long does an AR400 bucket rake usually last w/o repair?
Hi Iv'e been there with a D6 had weld on tips.I bit the bullet used weld on adaptors and tips used on a 950 size loader laid them fairly flat made the work alot easier easy to change tips etc I was doing alot of stick raking at the time wish I could find a photo for you. Cheers
To get more life out of the adapters on our older rock grapples, I switch from side pins to 5/8 grade 9 bolts. It's been a good fix but you have to cut them off to change the teeth.
I think you'll find the teeth would be a great thing, but I think the dirt would be more abrasive than the occasional chunk of concrete or rock in a load of fill. If you are thinking of running the small backhoe/skid steer sixe teeth I think you are spitting in the wind, if you step up to standard size 955 teeth I think you will find they hold up much better. I wish the rake on my skid steer had replaceable teeth. John
Ive got them on mine,,, no problems http://i864.photobucket.com/albums/ab208/parkrapids/0609111627a.jpg