I have been clearing land for fields. I have been getting them clear cut, then using my 314 excavator with thumb to pull stumps. Mostly cherry, oak and popler. I was looking at root rakes on line and they seem to be all over the place with price, style and quality. I was looking at making my own since I have a full fab shop but if i can buy one ready to go reasonable I will just go that route. I got about 4 days into a 6 acre field so far and not quite done. I have about 20 acres more to do so I was thinking a root rake that I could attach to blade would be a nice addition to my process. Any advice on the rakes guys? As allways thank you for the advice
I made one for our D6C a few years back & it works well. The changes I would make doing it over again would be I would put more curve on the bottom teeth & make them a bit lighter, maybe out of 1 1/2" plate in lieu of 2" plate. Perhaps reduce the space between by adding one more tooth as well. Overall it works good, just a bit heavy.
was 18" tine good length? Thank you. Ill make one similar to yours. No need to reinvent the wheel.
I think the length was good, but a bit more curve in the tooth would have been better to make things "roll up" a bit more. If you want the cad file I could email it to you if you draw in cad?
That would be great. [email protected] . I’ll make those changes and show you the finished product when done. Thanks again.
Ok, I will look for the file & try to send it. Here is the finished product.
Got it welded up, ready for paint. Thank you Metalman for your input
Well I got the rake installed last night while the weather was good
Looks great! Let us know how it works on your machine.
Some hardfacing on the tips would be a good idea.
I use UTP 711B for rake tips, wears forever but doesn't like impact too well.
I made this 3 years ago and I used T1 steel since I had allot of it laying around. It shows some wear on the tips but nothing bad for as much as I used it. I used it for clearing rocks out of my food plots. The dozer rake is made out of AR-400. Do you think it needs the hard facing?
I think it would depend on how much you intend to use it and what type of soil you are running it over. We don’t bother with hard facing...just let it wear down 1 1/2 to 2 inches and weld new pads on. Depends on soil type, but a set of pads will cover 500 to 1000 acres.
It was barely dry enough to work but I just had to try it. All I can say is WOW. It has made the clearing of the debris so much faster and the teeth ripping through the area that has been cleaned really smooths out the high and low spots, I wont have to chisel plow now after using this.
Looks great...……..keep the pictures coming as things progress. I have maybe 150-200 hrs on our root rake & hardly any wear on the tines so far.
Finally got the new field done. D6 with rake on it was the ticket...
Nice lineup of equipment you have there OGC!! Looking good!