Do I want a pine needle rake or a landscape rake? The answer is yes....but I can only get one

[PapaJ]

I have a bunch of pine trees in the back of the pasture, and my wife would like to gather up the pine needles for something, I wasn't paying much attention, all I heard was "Buy something for the tractor"

There are a lot of downed limbs back there, and I am thinking a landscape rake would do pretty good at dragging them out to be burned. I am also thinking it wouldn't work well for the pine needles, and if not careful, would dig into the ground pretty good.

The pine needle rake would do great on the needles, but probably not so much on the limbs. Also it wouldn't tear up the ground as much. Do I pick up the limbs by hand then use the pine needle rake? There are probably 5 or 6 dozen branches ranging from twigs to 4 inch limbs a few feet long. I get more every storm.

I can't get both, which would you suggest?

 

[Fordtech86]

Can’t help much, but using a landscape rake for sticks can be a PITA. They end up stuck in between the tines and you have to keep getting on and off tractor to dislodge them

 

[bcp]

Landscape rake is good at moving dirt, too. Even when you don't want to.

Bruce

 

[old and tired]

Buy a grapple... and then a hand rake!!!

 

[JimmyJazz]

It sounds like your wife wants to gather the pine needles for something. If this is correct I would use A backpack leaf blower. I bought the biggest one Stihl makes recently. Works great.

 

[Missouribound]

The pine needle rake is a clean up tool, the landscape rake is just that, a tool for landscaping.
If it's needles she wants then you already know what to buy.
But the pine needle rake is fairly cheap so you may be able to swing both.

 

[RBA50]

A pine needle rake will also handle the smaller branches (probably not the 4" ones, but up to 2", maybe more depending on length). It will have the same issues as a landscape rake as far as branches getting stuck, but may be a little easier to clear as the tines are more flexible.

 

[NCL4701]

I have a bunch of pine trees in the back of the pasture, and my wife would like to gather up the pine needles for something, I wasn't paying much attention, all I heard was "Buy something for the tractor"

There are a lot of downed limbs back there, and I am thinking a landscape rake would do pretty good at dragging them out to be burned. I am also thinking it wouldn't work well for the pine needles, and if not careful, would dig into the ground pretty good.

The pine needle rake would do great on the needles, but probably not so much on the limbs. Also it wouldn't tear up the ground as much. Do I pick up the limbs by hand then use the pine needle rake? There are probably 5 or 6 dozen branches ranging from twigs to 4 inch limbs a few feet long. I get more every storm.

I can't get both, which would you suggest?

I don’t have a landscape rake. I have a pine needle rake. This is the one I have: https://www.palletforks.com/3-point...raw-needle-rake-for-cat-1-3-point/191322.html

I use it about once a year to do some leaf raking (not pine needles).It’s light, relatively cheap, NOT a heavy duty implement. For what it’s doing, it doesn’t need to be. It will move dry leaves reasonably well without tearing up grass or regrading gravel road/path. So far as leaves, the pic with the tractor is a wood lot/shed area that had about 2” of dry leaves on top of about 3” of wet leaves. Leaving them there results in a layer of incredibly slick black mud after a few years. Just cleared 4” of that sloppy mud off last year so raked the leaves off this year. Took two passes to get the 5” combo wet/dry leaf cover off to the point it is in the pic. Not golf course perfect but not going to degrade to a mud layer either.

My brother has an identical one for pine needles. I tried his on pine needles in grass before buying mine. Worked very well on long leaf pine needles for the 10 minutes I played with it; better than it works on oak leaves. If you want to get pine needles out of grass, it’s a reasonable method. Might move some small sticks but not very reliably.

 

[i7win7]

video of needle rake in use

 

[Tim Horton]

Get the land scape rake... The pine needle rake is cheaper and will take less time to save up for.. Then you have both..

- - - - - -
I make a homemade 3pt thatch, leaf, needle rake that was 3 rows of tiness and could be configured as needed...

I also built a 3pt tool bar that would accept land scape rake tines, arms for chisel diggers, cultivator shovels, hiller disks, middle buster shovels, sub soil shanks.. Just about you name the ground engaging tool..

 

[orange crusher]

Put this on my BX2680. I have 26 LARGE mature white pines on my lot. Between this and my Stihl Backpack Blower I don't rake. That rake will do exactly what you want to do.

 

[In Utopia]

I use my landscape rake to pull up cedar tree trimmings and other brush. What I've done is remove every other tine. You'd be surprised what a difference it makes.
Also I use my hydraulic top link to "suck" the rake up when I get to the pile and by doing that material drops right off most of the time.
When working dirt (in my case caliche) having all the tines on is the way to go.

 

[PapaJ]

Thanks everyone. I will be ordering a pine needle rake. The landscape rake is on a future list, but I need the needle rake first. I am definitely not going to take tines on and off for different jobs. Not a matter of $$, I can't convince wifey that I need to buy 3 things at once, as I'm also picking up a quick hitch, probably the TSC one. I can't justify the cost for a LP, and I am not willing to take a chance on the horrible freight model, though I do shop there for some hand tools.

 

[D2Cat]

Are you sure what your wife means when she says, ".... my wife would like to gather up the pine needles..." She may mean pine cones. That's what I'd think of if she has projects. If it's pine cones I'd suggest a rock rake.

 

[PapaJ]

Are you sure what your wife means when she says, ".... my wife would like to gather up the pine needles..." She may mean pine cones. That's what I'd think of if she has projects. If it's pine cones I'd suggest a rock rake.

View attachment 53648

Definitely pine needles. She said we (me) needs to rake them up or buy a bale.

 

[old and tired]

...or buy a bale.

I'd go the extra mile and buy her 2 bales!!!!

 

[D2Cat]

Ive got a rake like I posted a picture of, and I have pine trees, and I can testify that rake cleans the ground of whatever you go over. It literally rakes the ground as if you were manually hand raking.... only you get to set on a tractor!

 

[PapaJ]

Update. I got the pine needle rake this week. Made it to the weekend, opened the box, no hardware. I have emailed Titan.

This is in addition to the PITA I went through with TSC, I ordered their quick hitch, and it only came with 1 bushing and no roll pins. Took 90 minutes in the store for them to get authorized to give me a bushing and 2 roll pins.

Last, just to complete my gripes for the morning, my trash was not picked up yesterday. This is like the 3rd time, and they are not open on weekends, so it will be Monday before I can even call and complain.

 

[B737]

papa, I got the pine needle rake from titan too. It took two full rake shipments to = one rake

They made it right, and shipped the replacement very quickly. I cant believe how they ship these things, by the time they arrive there isnt much left. The good news is, you end up with a lot of extra spare parts for free lol

 

[PapaJ]

papa, I got the pine needle rake from titan too. It took two full rake shipments to = one rake

They made it right, and shipped the replacement very quickly. I cant believe how they ship these things, by the time they arrive there isnt much left. The good news is, you end up with a lot of extra spare parts for free lol

I went back and looked again, It's missing what their parts diagram calls the "A Frame" Which is the upright steel piece that the top link connects to. So missing hardware and 1/4 of the rake itself. Guess I'll call Monday. I took the day off anyway since I'll be up past bedtime watching the superbowl commercials.