abi sr3 vs harley rake

[strykerakamack]

anyone familiar with the sr3 from abi ? was thinking of going with a harley rake than came across the sr3 .
looks to me like you could do a bit more with the sr3 , plus I'm in a very rocky location with softball and larger all over the place .

 

[Tags]

Looks pretty good...How much is it? I've had a Harley Rake for the last 15 years or so and personally wouldn't trade it for another attachment. I think it is the most versatile thing you can use on a CTL or skid steer

 

[Steve Frazier]

I haven't used the SR3 but I watched the video. I own a Harley Rake and will tell you that SR3 isn't going to do the work of a Harley. If you look at their video all the soil is virtually rock free, hell a York rake could prepare a seed bed under those conditions!! If you do use the SR3 to pick rocks you're going to lose a lot of soil with them. They are correct that a Harley requires skill, but once you master it you can prepare a rock free lawn with almost no handwork.If you're going to choose one or the other I'd go with the Harley. The SR3 might be handy to have to do grubbing like they illustrated in addition but I wouldn't want it for lawn prep

 

[strykerakamack]

Yea seen the vid also , but haven't seen any that are non factory made . I did look at the one where it was used to clear out the area behind the house on the hill , that is what my main use would be for now .

 

[DIYDAVE]

I still like my Harley rake, but it is interesting... Wonder what a new one costs?

I have a box rake that i use after the tooth bucket, but they nest together raking up less space on the trailer. I do like the Hyd scarifiers, on the ABI, though, may have to steal that ideer...

 

[Willie B]

It looks good, but consider that they want it to look good. Notice the material they have there is processed, there isn't a golf ball sized stone in the field. I believe a piece of railroad tie would give flawless results in that material. I know a Harley rake works very well, I'd have to see this work first.

 

[Welder Dave]

It looks to be more based on an arena groomer but I agree the "processed" material shown in the video could have been levelled with just a bucket like millions of yards have been done. The gauge wheels are good but how do you insure you always tilt the same? A 3pt. hitch arena groomer which is similar will always keep the same angle after lifting and lowering.

http://www.abiattachments.com/arena-drag/tr3-rake-arena-groomer/

 

[strykerakamack]

Well pulled the trigger and it arrived today $5600 shipped
All I can say is WOW , only had an hour before the sun went down to try it out and was amazed at how
much I was able to do with it . It graded a 4 foot high berm into a slope in 2 passes , Rock removal ? check ,
I wish I just had golf ball sized rocks , but after using I can see myself getting it to golf ball size remains ,
had no problem ripping out 50 lb rocks in one pass then pushing them forward then re-grading the area on the
back drag . looks like their money back guarantee will go unfulfilled , As I'm keeping it

 

[JPSouth]

Have looked at this implement more than once; I use a Bobcat soil conditioner with my A300, and have a Bradco land plane hooked to a Tilt-tach for rough grading. About 70%-80% of my topsoil/lot prep is on ground that is thick with embedded river cobble, some with sand/clay binder and some with pure clay - that stuff tends to be tighter than bark on a sapling. Basically what a guy tries to do is get the worst of the rock pushed aside, and then grade with whatever half-decent material happens to be left over. Often that's little better than smaller rocks as topsoil is spotty here and the screened stuff is high $$. Then the next problem is harley raking the trucked-in soil, as it too is often high in clay. Depending on moisture content, finishing consists of one pass with the grading bucket, one with the rake, and occasionally I have to make do with a single rake pass to grade and level. Any more and the soil is compacted more than you want for starting sod or seeds. It is for this dressing pass I'd been looking at the SR3 option.

The other thing I noticed in the vid is the implement's need to be working the grading pass backwards. On town/subdivision lot jobs, 90+% of the time I'm working behind the sprinkler guys, so I've already got all the heads, junction and electrical boxes installed in the yard. In some areas, well flow rates are not that high so they install quite a few smaller zones instead of bigger ones. With a small forest of those things, especially on small lots, working backwards is certainly possible but slow. Working my rake forward and using the hydraulic angle function is fairly effective windrowing and pushing soil into place while avoiding all those obstacles.

I'll be interested in hearing further how the SR3 is working out for you.

 

[strykerakamack]

So far I have no complaints , It's exceeded all expectations so far .
One thing that I added was set of round mirrors on the top of square tubing where the hydraulics go so I can see the back drag of materials for grading .
Only added yesterday so haven't given em a try yet but looks like it will work .
I haven't used the hydraulic scarfers yet as I haven't needed to dig deep on loosening soil .
I've been just digging out a berm and smoothing with the sr3 which works great , leveling and grading off a 40 x 60' to right of berm made up of hard packed clay and rocks
which the sr3 makes short work of ,so far I've been pushing the stuff loose which piles up the rocks then I back drag to smooth out the loose .
I used it to spread out gravel for a parking pad and while a bucket will do the job the sr3 made it easier as you can see the front edge to be able to control what your spreading
out and just cuts down on time it takes to do the job .
I've never used a harley rake before but for what I've been doing I can't see where it would have been a better choice and for
what I need to do I can't see adding one as so far seems I can get it done with the sr3
Going backwards is a little awkward but that's probably just me as I've only had around 100 hrs on a skid steer and still learning .
With their being no side hydraulics you can't windrow with it .

 

[JPSouth]

When pushing rocks forward to pile, does the SR3 do a pretty good job of separating them and leaving looser soil behind? Also, I see some vids that show the thing being used like a combination root rake and brush bucket - curious if the implement is built heavy enough to withstand much of that. I wouldn't be using it as such, but even my land plane wouldn't stand up to extended duty uprooting saplings and pushing heavy brush around.

 

[strykerakamack]

The front teeth, They're built tough 3/4" thick 1 1/4 wide with teeth being little over 5 inch usable with another 4" backing that up at least . Plus its split into three
replaceable sections . I've knocked loose some big boulders that were embedded in the clay no problem .
The weight of the unit helps a lot for sure. 1300 lbs and then the added weight of skidsteer makes for some impressive ripping and dragging .
You can basically adjust the tilt and height for how much or how little you want pushed forward , you can skim the surface {love the wheels for that}
or tilt it down to penetrate the soil and rake it forward .
So yea it does a good job of separating and leaving soil behind .

 

[XSKIER]

Now that some time has passed, has anyone else tried an SR3? I'd like to use one on a CTL to level out and seed reclaimed sapling forest. Additionally, it looks like it may work alright for grooming out my gravel lot on a CWL.