I’ve been trying to find a metal pitchfork for mucking. Bought a Truper pitchfork and the tines are completely at the wrong angle, making the pitchfork just about useless for mucking unless you want to dig a hole. Or you can muck, if you bend down and drop the pitchfork low, but talk about uncomfortable!
Useless!
Obviously I can use the plastic forks, but i would prefer to have a metal one.
I am assuming you are talking about these shavings or pellet type, not the five tines straw pitchforks.
I think this is what we have, is a good 20 years old and in excellent shape:
We use it mostly on dirt pens, as it is easier with it than the plastic ones.
We tried one of the ones referenced by Bluey … and gave it up after a few uses. While, as Bluey says, it is good in the stone dust paddock, it was a major annoyance in the matted stalls. Because the ends of the metal tines are flat, rather than rounded the way the plastic ones are, they caught on the mats.
star
I also did not do well with the fork Bluey linked, when there was bedding in the stall. Straw or sawdust. It has since been used as a mulch fork in the garden. Does a great job moving woody mulch.
My question is what kind of bedding are you using?
I found that with straw, the 10 tine metal fork from TSC worked well. Not terribly heavy, close tines held onto the load. It would get under very wet spots and lift the whole spot without losing any. Also good pulling sawdust from the tractor bucket directly into a stall. No bendy tines or snapping them off like plastic pulling against weight of the sawdust. I can avoid wheelbarrow use that way. One less step.
For cleaning any woody bedding products, the plastic wins. I like the lighter weight, stall after stall. Easier on me. I have gone to the Wave fork with replaceable tines. They are guaranteed and will replace tines. I called them and got 2 new tines sent because I disliked the basket edges on the outside. I had to completely turn the fork over to completely empty it. Too much work for me, every scoop, so I changed out the basket tines (2) for plain tines. Easy to change tines and I really like it now. Easy to just tip fork head a little to totally empty into the spreader. I think mine is about 4? years old now. No broken tines, though they are a bit shorter from wear on the cement floors. I figure the slightly higher cost but no breaking, is less than yearly replacement of broken, cheaper fork heads. Now if only I could get husband to use this fork! He has broken 4 plastic fork heads so far this year. Being retired now, he is doing more stalls these days. At $9 a replacement head, that adds up.
A tip on the Wave fork, is to zip-tie/ cable-tie the two outside tines to the next tine. Tines are bendy sideways if not secured to the next one, come out of the socket, which quickly fills with dirty bedding so it can’t get locked together again. I find the cable tie keeps them in place, no bending. Might be how I use the fork, scraping and sliding along the wall to get dirty bedding into the aisle.
The handles are nice too, light, with a mushroom shape cap that is comfortable to push on.
I love my 10 tine bedding fork.
It has a heavy metal head that’s tough enough to do some serious digging and lifting, tines set close to contain errant “apples”, and a good long pitchfork handle for leverage.
I’m not personally a fan of the plastic forks except to pick poo out of my arena or similar tasks. I muck fast and hard and always feel like I’ll break them. Plus, I can’t get a good hefty fork load on them, they’re just too light.
I get mine from the local feed store and once actually found one at Lowes. I’ll see if I can find it online and post a link
ok Lowes has it, search craftsman bedding pitchfork, I could get a link for some reason.
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