Potential purchase. Blec power box rake pedestrian.

[EnglishSheep]

Good morning all.

 

Posted on other forums.

 

As the title suggests we are looking at purchasing a pedestrian Blec power box rake.

 

Power Box Rake with BCS | Blec Global Ltd

 

As our company trades outside of the UK it is extremely difficult for us to demo one of these units.

 

95% of our business consists of new lawn construction, lawn restorations and with the blec power box rake perhaps lean towards "recycling an old weedy/mossy lawn" and then re-seeding.

 

My questions are...

 

1. Has any body used one? Pro's/Con's

2. Has anybody experience of two wheeled tractors. Diesel or petrol as one of these are required to power the unit.

3. Will simply rotorvating give us the same results for lawn site preparation.

4. I read somewhere else that it is better to use a stone burrier to burry the old lawn underneath itself and to then skim over with the Blec? ( for the time being we would only have have the Blec with possibly a rotorvator attachment).

5. How does or would the Blec deal with an old lawn, would it be a pain in the bum removing all of the dead grass, weeds and moss with the Blec?

6. For the initial outlay of approx £5000-£6000 will the Blec provide a good return on investment or are there other machines out there that we have over looked (for example we have had a kanga kid mini skid steer on hire with rotorvator attachment)?

 

Thank you in advance for taking the time to read and positively answer.

 

Regards

 

Gregory.

[dig-dug-dan]

They are very good in the right conditions. Must not be too wet.

personally I would suggest that if it is an old lawn, removing the turf first would be better.

if I had the money, I would buy one. I used one for a job and the results were first class. You do end up with a pile of stones and trash to get rid of.

you could consider a camon stoneburier, which will also give good results, without the need to rake up the stones, and then use the blec. That would be the rolls royce of jobs. Once you have the two wheeled tractor, the attachments will all interchange.

go for a diesel if you can. More torque

[EnglishSheep]

They are very good in the right conditions. Must not be too wet.

personally I would suggest that if it is an old lawn, removing the turf first would be better.

if I had the money, I would buy one. I used one for a job and the results were first class. You do end up with a pile of stones and trash to get rid of.

you could consider a camon stoneburier, which will also give good results, without the need to rake up the stones, and then use the blec. That would be the rolls royce of jobs. Once you have the two wheeled tractor, the attachments will all interchange.

go for a diesel if you can. More torque

 

Hi there Dan.

 

Yes it is the money that is keeping this potential investment pending and the huge dilemma over petrol or diesel. Diesel is a good thousand pounds dearer.

 

The purchase would be ready for 2015 as hiring a two wheeled tractor and a stone burier type of attachment is approx. 150 pounds per day and just is not worth it on the smaller lawns.

 

We are currently working on financial projections meaning;

1. Divide the purchase price over 3 or 5 years including servicing to work out our own costings per job.

2. In the long run it would allow us to lower our prices quite considerably.

3. Able to offer tiered pricing structure so the client can decide on what specification of lawn they want hence securing more jobs rather than pricing to cheap or blowing our selves out of the water.

4. As you already stated it may prove useful for other work. What we do not know yet!

 

If any body has any more further details for how the hire company work their hire costs out then please let me know.

 

Kind regards

[Jay]

I have used a similar attachment on our avant powered directly off the avant. I personally think a power harrow with stone burier does a better job. They are awkward in smaller areas and you end up with a lot of stones etc to find a home for. A power horrow leaves most of it underneath.

 

 

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[Jay]

this is the avant and power harrow. Does a great job.

 

 

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[EnglishSheep]

Hi jay.

 

Yes we have contemplated a power harrow for some time. With the advantages that it can work deeper and bury the stones.

The only reason I am not looking at a stone berries is that I actually want to rid the tilled area of stones for domestic jobs that is.

 

On larger scaled jobs then your method is 100% the way forward.

 

Your comment about manoeuvrability. Another reason for the blec as I suspect it would manoeuvre better than a power harrow due to the fact that the combined working length of blec and two wheeled tractor would be shorter in length than the power harrow?

 

Is that avant approx 15k?

 

Very nice, very quick!

 

Regards

 

Greg

[dig-dug-dan]

Jay, where is your roll bar?

[hedgesparrow]

i have seen the blec in action at saltex good machine drawback the amount of stones it leaves to be collected. as other posts BCS with a cultivator stone burier. with a seed hopper on it if grass is removed first one pass maybe two jobs done will be flat no stones as buried which will help with drainage take the stones away no drainage you then have moss problems.

i need to do my lawn and thats the way i will go cultivate and bury and seed much quicker.

tried stone picking my bit and got two dumper loads out. gave up as a bad job hate to think how many a blec would drag up

[SAM66S]

Im really pleased with mine saves no end of time!

[EnglishSheep]

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