Harley Rake owners....inform me!!

[SouthernYankee]

I am about to get my bobcat (751) shipped down to Texas and I was thinking about the differences in running a bobcat on Cape Cod where I ran it before, as opposed to running it in Houston.

Cape Cod consited of natural loam about 1 ft to 2 ft followed by natural sand underneath the loam. Basically I would come on to new homes and spread fresh loam that was trucked onto the jobsite and grade it out, followed by hand raking. It was either sodded or seeded.

If it was an exisiting landscape, I would come in and scrape off the junky natural surface or rip out brush with my eliminator rake. Then I would spread loam or mulch over the ground.

Now that I am in Houston and they dont really use loam or topsoil, they just scratch up the natural clayish base soil and put st.augstine sod on top. This got me thinking that if I added a Harley Rake to my bobcat, I could come in and grade the natural soil, therefore preparing it for sod.

My questions are:

1.what can I do with a Harley Rake that I cant do with my eliminator rake

2. How much does one cost?

3. Would this be an ideal tool for me in Houston?

any other input , info about harley rakes would be appricated. thanks

[Scag48]

Alright, here goes.

1. From what I can see, the eliminator will not "chew up" hard, tough clay like a spinning drum with carbide teeth. The Harley will create a nice, fluffy layer of soil for seed/sod. Leveling perfectly is also much easier when traveling forward because the drum is creating a completely flat "pad" so that when the wheels go over where the drum has already churned there is no chance of gouging the ground, allowing the machine to travel on a smooth path and deliver a stunning finished product. Try leveling a large area with just a bucket and watch how inconsistent the "levelness" is. You'll notice alot of low spots, maybe 1"-2" low in a 5-6 foot square area due to the bucket's single means of leveling, the cutting edge. With the Harley, your front tires are off the ground and the cut depth is set once in a typical pass. That's what I love about the Harley, the "set it and forget it" attitude is very nice. All you have to do is set the teeth into the ground at the beginning of each pass to the desired depth by curling the tilt function and then drive forward, as fast as the machine will allow with not bogging. Incredible productivity and amazing results.

2. Our M-6 rake with hydraulic angle was $7500. I believe manual angle was about $6000 or so, but hydraulic angle is definately worth every penny.

3. With red clay being very common, the Harley sounds like the only solution. While clay does slow down the Harley a little, I can't see any other tool on the market that would even come close.