where do I get parts for a Parker Power rake?

[dklawnservice]

I aquired a 1977 Parker power rake from a rental company for 100 bucks. The thing works awesome and the old Briggs is still going strong. I need to replace the spring tines soon and am wondering where to get them from. Any ideas? My local shop only has Bluebird stuff and quite frankly, never heard of Parker before.

[Jason Rose]

They are still around. I'm sure you could get the numbers off of yours and contact them directly and they could point you in the direction to replacement parts, or sell them direct to you.

http://www.parkersweeper.com/index.php

[viper00085]

parker tines are available thru many aftermarket parts sources. Try another dealer if your dealer has never heard of parker ;-) They have been around a long time, they have dropped in popularity lately but it was the thatcher to have back 8-12years ago.

If you want, search some of the online parts guys, im sure they have them. Stens, Rotary, Greenmeadow sales, oregon all at one time used to sell sets of parker tines.

I know greenmeadowsales.com still has em. Part#66238A, that is also parkers oem number 66-238A (100per unit). I think they list them under there commercial part section in there catalog.

Good luck, should not be hard to get em

[dklawnservice]

Found them on Precor for 54.99 plus 18.00 for shipping. I think I'm gonna stagger them and make them last a bit longer. Now I have to get it re-powered over the winter and I'll be all set. Currently getting about 15.00 per 1000 sqft: De-thatching and clean up (36" WB with bagger) IN this neck of the woods, thats about 70 bucks for and hour and a half worth of work. Not too bad for just getting started. I'm about 25 jobs behind thanks to mother nature dumping 6" of snow on Monday.

thanks

[Jason Rose]

Not a bad idea cutting the number of flail blades in half (staggering them). I did about the same thing with my bluebird, as the number of blades from the factory will strip most turf almost bare to the dirt, green grass and all. WAY too aggressive. Had better luck with removing about 1/3 of the flails and making new spacers out of some old garden hose.

Personally, with the Parker, I'd try their spring tine rake reel. I think that would be much kinder to the lawn and still pull out all the dead thatch you are after.

I bought a parker some years ago, it was a solid reel, not a swinging flail type. It was sold to me as a slicer, but I found out when I tried to use it that it was actually a power rake. I ended up taking it back and bought a bluebird slicer from a different dealer.

[dklawnservice]

Well, I did the "every other one" and it seemed to work out fine (old tines that were'nt broken). I see no need to have a 101 spring tines spinning at who knows how many RPM's to do the job. I'm very happy with my 100 dollar find. So far it has net'd me almost 2k in work and the season just begun. How long can you thatch for? I assume that you cannot thatch durring the summer heat, but I read somewhere that you can thatch KY bluegrass in the fall. Is that true? Anyone have an aerator? Everyone keeps asking so I'm thinking a two for one deal.