harley rake on plowed ground

This is a comparison of a harley rake vs a comparably sized rototiller. The ground is sod on a clay base, a little wet. You can see water in the furrows to the left of the tractor. On the right side you'll see what the tiller puts out after a single pass. This pass I'll make with the harley rake to provide a comparison.


Click on the pictures for a bigger version, and use the bushes in the background to orient yourself. So the row immediately to the left of the tractor is a pass with the harley rake, and further left is the tiller. The harley rake didn't do a very good job. The big clumps of sod and clay got caught up in it, and it ended up dragging a lot of material; enough material that it stopped forward progress of the tractor, so I had to lift the implement and back up. The tiller just chewed up the sod and laid down a bed that was ready to go in a single pass.

Ok. So lets see how the harley rake does filling in a furrow. The water filled furrow in the center of the picture is about 18" deep. Here goes.

Ok -- it did fill in the furrow a little bit, but the finish is uneven, and as last time, I had to stop, fiddle with the implement, and go forward a bit. To get a finished seed bed I'd be happy with would take another complete pass.

Summary: Harley rake is not the implement I'd choose to level plowed ground. I'd rather use a disc or a tiller. In this particular job I had to use a tiller because of the close quarters work. If I had a wide open field, a disc would do as good a job and be much faster than tilling. The harley would take 2 passes to get a consistent surface that the tiller achieved in 1 pass.