Rake Attachment

[CaveCreekRay]

My neighbor needed a way to rake his long driveway with his new Kubota. After some thought, I figured out how to minimize the structure and still get the strength we needed. Here it is finished but not painted...

Its held on by two wingnuts. Weighs about six lbs.

You can lift it when backing or crossing pavement or concrete and then put it back down and vary the pressure on it using the 3pt position lever. Beats doing it by hand.

 

[CaveCreekRay]

After Bob painted it...

 

[D2Cat]

Ray, you guys better start meeting at different coffee shops. Your conversations could lead to "dangerous tools".

You better file some papers, or you won't get any reward when someone else declares it their idea!

It's got to be rewarding when you can fabricate something so simple, and it works!

 

[CaveCreekRay]

Thanks Len...

It works like gangbusters on his driveway and he seems really happy. I know I am with my drag-behind model for my ute. How often can you come up with a useful implement for under $100?

The box-scraper model is actually better because you can vary the pressure on it and pick it up when you need to. The rakes last a long time and are cheap to swap out. For a gravel drive like we have out here, these things just work awesome.

 

[Ramos]

Great idea, and nice execution. I only wish my driveway were 'improved' enough to borrow the idea.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

Only in AZ do people rake their driveways, everywhere else we don't care about tire tracks showing!

 

[bearbait]

Great idea but you guys have way too much time on your hands.

 

[skeets]

Thats what I was thinking too

 

[CaveCreekRay]

That comes from not having to plow our driveways in winter.

Dirt driveways are constantly in need of grooming but, as opposed to the 4.5 hours it took to rake the driveway (990' total) by hand and do a pretty crappy job at it, I can hit it good, doing the rough spots two or three times in about 15 minutes. I do the whole bit right before a rain. After the rain, it looks perfect. Its so easy and quick, you kind of get addicted to it. Hey, I don't have to mow my yard either.

My drive on the left and my neighbors on the upper right with his shiny new L3901 in his front yard... Way too big for old farts to be hand rakin'.

 

[bearbait]

Forgive my ignorance, I didn't realize what you were up against. I keep forgetting we need to put ourselves in other people's shoes in order to understand. You have some spread there, my little two bedroom cottage would fit inside your shed.

 

[D2Cat]

Bearbait, Ray being a retired pilot purchased enough land around his home so when he's pulling up his driveway he gets the same feeling as landing at LAX or DIA!

 

[bearbait]

Bearbait, Ray being a retired pilot purchased enough land around his home so when he's pulling up his driveway he gets the same feeling as landing at LAX or DIA!

Lol, too funny!

 

[CaveCreekRay]

Riiight.

This place was a total dump when we bought it. It came with the property and that was the selling point. The house was pretty nasty. It had been unoccupied for 18 months. That is horrible for a house. In the years leading up to that, the elderly folks couldn't take care of routine maintenance. Everything went downhill fast. And we didn't even know about the mold and rot and termite damage. There were four brand new galvanized garbage cans that sat full of trash without lids for those 18 months and the bottoms rusted out of the cans.

When I tell people I have been remodeling a place for over five years, they look at me like I am nuts, They are right. I am. Within a year of retiring, I was a full-time general contractor working on my own place.

My brother from L.A. laughs at how much material I have ordered. I left 26 tons of granite on the driveway for him to play with when he came out once to visit. He had a blast trying to get his "race car hands" to operate a Kubota and loader. LOL... He picked it up faster than I did.

Projects like the rakes and other ideas I have not yet built only make the routine maintenance easier and faster. A couple more loads of granite should take care of the driveway and I need another out behind the barn to spruce it up. The Kubota will get the heavy lifting done but the finish work will take slightly smaller tools,

 

[Lil Foot]

Very nice, Ray. If I had anything that smooth, I'd probably build one for myself.

I have to admit, after my first glance at your first pic, I wondered "Why is he spraying green stuff on his driveway?"

 

[skeets]

Well yeah, I guess it is his little slice of heaven so what ever he does is all good

 

[hope to float]

I'm confused too. I don't see any fences delineating the properties. Maybe they are there and I just can't see them or is it all kinda open range.
Looks beautiful by the way

 

[CaveCreekRay]

Bill,

That is hilarious! Now that I look at it, it looks like a nice little spray rig! LOL... AWESOME PATTERN!!!

Skeets,

Very few people out here have paved or concrete driveways, largely because they are so big. My neighbor who doesn't worry about pesky cost issues had his driveway done with pavers. You could buy a nice large Grand Kubota and a half-dozen implements for it for what it cost him. Outta my price range. I'll have to stick with dirt.

HTF,

Very few fences out here, except for horses. I have some small green fence stakes on the property line but its all open range. That explains the deer, Javelina, bobcats, cougars, you-name-it wandering all over.

 

[Chucktin]

I don't aim to hijack your post but - I've been puzzled for some time (over 19 years now) why there doesn't appear to be anyone building and marketing a true _Rake_ for SCUTs. There's Gravel Rakes, Tedders and De-Thathers, but true rakes? Yours is the best solution I've encountered, congrats.

 

[CaveCreekRay]

Chucktin,

Thanks! I have another rake idea that will be heavier steel and more like a landscape rake. When I get to it, I'll put some pics up. I collected a bunch of 1/4" plasma scraps that should do a really nice job.

Ray

 

[D2Cat]

Ray, here's a rake I made many years ago. Just put new teeth on it last year.

I originally made it to dethatch a lawn, but discovered it worked excellent for working up a rock driveway also. After going over the drive a couple times it looks like you had tons of rock hauled it.

Made from the pickup teeth from an old baler. The baler pickup is 6' wide, so that's the way I left them.