Boom and rake. When I was very little (5-10) my father would rent a cottage on rock pond in NH every summer. One of the "chores" he would help with was raking the swimming area and spreading sand. He, and the owner, used a tractor with a boom and rake mounted on the rear. It was home made, but the equal to the extending boom you're looking at with a 6' York rake welded to it. We had the best cottage beach in New England.

 

That looks like a solid plan, make sure you have PLENTY of rear ballast!

 

Rear tires on both 4Rs are weighted with ballast plus a heavy hitch loaded front and back with suitcases weights. Should be somewhere close to 3k in ballast weight .

Fully extended horizontally the boom maxes out around 300 pounds . Its rated at 1100 pounds fully extended Vertically when setting roof trusses which is what most of these booms are really made for.

not sure really what a 4R is rated at lift capacity at 22 ft out. Lol hopefully at least a few hundred pounds .

 

Telescopic boom finally arrived this morning.
The rake I ordered for it arrived last Friday.
Now just have to get them tied together somehow and give a try.

Here is a picture of the rake were going to be attempting to attach to the end of this thing.
Agri-Fab 45-0366 Ground-Engaging Attachment Sleeve Hitch GT Rock Rake,Black,Large

 

We got it all put together tonight, it works great.
Still need some minor fine tunning, but for the most part it’s done and working great.

 

Awesome.

My problem is I don't have 22' to back up.

Trying to come up with something that I can mount on the backhoe......

 

That boom is very heavy, the bol showed 572lbs , take off maybe 50 lbs for the wood pallet Weight. extend out it’s a bit of a handful . But It’s all workable. You would not want to use this boom method with anything smaller then a 4 series .

The 4044 was just the most handy to slap it on to try it tonight .

Going to move it over to one of the 4066/4720 cab tractors for the next go around.
both those are heavier and should have a little better control .
All in all really happy it worked and much easier faster then the rope and homemade pipe rake we made. That took 2-3 people waders a John boat and several hours to do what I did tonight in less then an hour .

 

This is exactly how my father did it 60 years ago. Nice attachment, and best of luck with the rake.

PS - I've had one of those Agrifab rakes for more than 30 years and it's still working fine, but modified for my 1023E. Good little rake.

 

That's pretty cool!

As KennyD mentioned above... Ballast! Curious what you're using on the rear of the tractor.

 

Heavy hitch is all that is on it at the moment. It had filled tires on it before I moved them to the new to me 4720.
The heavy hitch is the one with the 70lb weight on the back side row and the 40lb weights on the inside rows.

I thought I would get a bit more stability with my cab 4s which both have filled tires and if I put my 72" land plain on the back it might be a bit heavier then the heavy hitch. The 4720 has a different loader 400CX MSL, where the 4066R has the same 440R loader the 4044R has.

I am really thinking I might want to bust out the old TTWT discount code again and get one of those new larger heavier heavy hitches with that new extra heavy duty stand that Tim was showing in the heavy hitch plant tour last week. I think with the reach of this boom and it was not all the way stretched out yesterday that I need all the counter weight I can get.

 

Great idea and neat device. I’ve got about a 1 acre pond on my place and we have had issues with moss,growth. I tried some things but I also added a couple of grass carp to the pond. I think it’s actually working. We didn’t get the growth this year like in the past?

 

We had it stocked with grass carp in 2019. didn't help much on our pond. This year was worse then ever with this water weed stuff. From what I have researched it has something to do with all the year around geese we now have. Last fall there were at least 200 of them out there. Year around I have maybe 20-30 of them hanging around. Our pond is 8-10 acres depending on water levels at the time. Its only 10-12 foot deep at its deeps points, that is when it is really full, right now it down and only about 8ft at its deepest point.

 

Looks like your rake is doing a fine job. Like texomankid, I too went with grass carp in my 2+ acre pond. Started with 10 but after several years down to maybe 3 left. They have done a wonderful job keeping it clear. They started at about12" and now are over 3' long. I had tried everything but they have earned their keep. They eat 24-7-365!

 

Had to make a Fastenal run yesterday.
We had pin that rake on with some 1/2" pins the first test.
Ended up bending one and got it in a bind, making it bear to get it back out, had to cut it out of there.
We now have grade 8 bolts with washers and nylon lock nut holding it on there now.
It worked great last night. No signs of any further issues, even pulled a small tree out of the pond with it last night.

Fixed with grade 8 bolt and washers and lock nut.

 

c1999,
The bracket you're showing in the pictures above is upside down. You should turn it 180 degrees. With the bracket down you have additional support/strength which eliminates the bending you're experiencing at the hitch point.

 

We had it that way to start, once we had it all together, it was putting the boom a little to low compared to the rake, so we simply flipped to the boom over.
We had already trimmed that bracket to slid in there like it is. To flip it now I would have to trim the other side down.
Which I was not sure if that would weaken it more .
So far the rake is holding together and working well, but it is taking a beating, its already bent up a bit more then I had expected it to be at this point.
So I have had some thought's to getting an extra rake to have there as a spare.
I was thinking if I bought another rake, I would set it up just like you were saying, now that I know we are going to run the boom end upside down.

 

Looking at how the rake attaches to the arm, the rake "should" slide in-to the arm, like a hitch to a receiver, then pinned.
I would maybe look at the end of the arm. Can it be cut, and a solid "slug" of steel be slid inside the end?
Also, on the end where the slug slides inside, beef it up with another piece (and weld it) over the end for strength.

I think the problem revolves around the saying........Don't bite off more than you can chew.
Easy there big fella!!

 

I would like to find a stouter rake of similar design/size if anyone knows of any other options on the market.
So far the rake is the weak link in the setup. The rake is really getting bent up quite a bit.
I keep bending up the ends then I bend them back down. The metal at this point has been bent up and back down so many times, its getting really weak one pass and there bent back up on the ends. Makes it in to more of a V shape rake. Still works but the pass through is only cutting really well for maybe 1-2ft in the middle of the rake the rest isn't touching the ground out on the ends.

 

Update , we built a new rake for the tele boom. This time using some heavy hitch products and some amazon sourced rake items . This one is much heavier built then the first attempt.

Pic’s of what is left of the first rake after several houra of use, was totally ripping it apart in this application.

All new setup using 2” Hitch receivers, heavy hitch items and new rakes.
Hope to test it out tomorrow.

 

Here ya go! Pond weed and cattail remover equipment machine - farm & garden - by...

 

Looks like that setup would work. Very interesting.
I suppose it depends on the type of shore line or banks you have. I think it would work most places on my pond.
Everywhere except on the Dam. Pretty much the same area's I can't reach with my setup, because there is no where to line up to drive out or back up.

 

That makes sense.

 

Tried the setup both the new rake and the heavier tine setup . Both are much stronger then the original setup. Still wishing could be stronger rake tines , the heavy hitch bracket is doing great.

 

@cc1999 - Followed this project back when you were doing it a few years ago. Wanted to follow up and see how the rake was holding up and what the final set up ended up being, we are looking at building something similar soon.

It looks like a Skid Pro manual boom, the heavy tine rake from Impact Attachments and maybe a generic bolt on 2" receiver for the boom?

Thanks again for any info you can provide, should be a fun project.

 

Your list sound about right, I tried multiple different rakes, at some point digging into murky water you will likely hook something that will bend your rake.

So far that last setup was the best.

After that first season of cleaning out everything I could reach, seems to have killed off the problem all together.

The pond weeds have not come back since.
So all 2021&2022 so far, I have yet to have to use it again.

The boom has held up really well throughout all the usage, have not bent it yet, I have lost a key and pin.
Might recommend a bolt and nut in the future.

 

@TXCompact & @cc1999

Good to know!