New Lawn Install

I'm needing to put in about 1.5 acres of new lawn. I had a dozer do the rough grading and now need to fine grade. I did a light tilling to break up some of the dirt "clumping" that took place after the dozer guy left. Now I need to pick-up the small rocks/stones and finish the grading. I used my landscape rake (without gauge wheels) with disappointing results. Will gauge wheels make a big difference? I was thinking of renting a rockhound but I'm very unfamiliar with them. Is a rockhound easy to use? Will they give very good results? I can rent one with or without the skidsteer. I have access to a Newholland TC40 with a 3rd valve on the loader. Will this operate a rockhound?

Thanks,
Doug

BTW - I have no access to a Harley Rake.

dfeck, Wheelbase, is the word. Short wheelbase on small tractors makes box blading or rear grader blading or FEL scraping for a smooth gently coutoured finish very difficult. Likewise, just about every implement that you put on a short wheelbase tractor has problems giving a smoothly contoured finish. It just isn't easy. A Land Plane (like a box blade but with hydraulic raise and lower rubber tires on rims like a trailer) is a pull behind rather than a 3PH implement. It gives the equivalent of a LOOOOONG wheelbase and can do really good smooth contouring.

A downside of the Land Plane type implement is that it doesn't let you turn on a dime and back up in close quarters like I can with my small Kubota with 3PH implements. I prepped a yard and building site with the help of a friend with a Land Pride brand Land Plane. He used that and I used my box blade and FEL. I couldn't begin to do as good a job as he did but could get into tight places where he couldn't.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

Keep tilling at different angles as deep as you can and pick rocks as you go.

Then get a wide drag as large as you can pull at an angle and work it back and forth across the lawn. Do this from a minimum of two directions.

The object here being to get the drag to carry some material in front of it and to also make a windrow on the one end. This will trim high spots and fill low spots.

Next repeat the procedure and finish off with the rake.

To find out if it is leveled to your satisfication shine a light over the area at night and look for shadows. The shadows are the low spots.

Lawn leveling is not easy and takes time involving seemingly repiticious movements.

Egon [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

You'll need to take Egon's advice with a grain of salt. Heck, with all the snow up where he lives, he won't even see his lawn for another few weeks. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Hopefully not bird contaminated sea salt!

Egon can already see the tops of the high spots in his yard (leveled with his advice) but the low spots can still hide a VW bug.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

You ever tried leveling those snow drifts and then paintin them green. It does take skill, a lot of work and then the frustration of seeing a dog with lifted turnig it all yellow. Us Northerners do suffer! [img]/forums/images/icons/frown.gif[/img]

Egon [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]