MTB Trails: Rakes or Blowers?

MTB Newbie Maintenance Question: Going to do a work weekend on our trails in the next month.  I see that some rake and some use a blower.  Wondering about pros and cons of each. Is it as simple as rakes are cheaper and blowers are faster or is there more to it?

I use both for maintenance of the trails around my house.  In my opinion, had tools offer more precision and reliability.  

The blower requires good maintenance habits.  I'm pretty meticulous about maintenance with all of my power tools, but last year I had some issues with getting both the blower and chainsaw started.  There's nothing worse that making the effort to hike a power tool out to the zone you are working on, and then having it crap out on you.

You're a mountain biker too? that's awesome. What kind of bike to you have? We have a lot of mountain biking around Oneonta also. We actually have a club at the college. I'm currently working on trails as well. My preference is rake for breaking in new trails, because you can scrape everything off more effectively. For an already existing trail, a leaf blower will be quicker, but you may experience fatigue on your shoulders after long periods of time. If you have a back pack blower that would be best. Our club has two back pack blowers and they rule! Its really personal preference. I mostly use a rake, because for some reason the older kids get to use the blowers. Check out the Oneonta MTB video.https://youtu.be/51rAGj62AX4

blower-- so much faster

Ethan, I do some MTB but not as much as many on the board.  I've got some great technical riding right near my house in the flatlands but kind of got away from it when a dislocated finger made work very tough for a few months. (I'm a computer jockey).

I don't really have a bike. Our trails in the Adk were built as dual use nordic/mtb so I am looking for a bike, I've been borrowing one. Trying to figure out what to buy.

This is the first season so was trying to figure out spring maintenance. Shaman has a backpack mounted blower that he said I could use. Also will require a chainsaw after that heavy December snow gave us that great base, it brought some big stuff down.  Maybe rakes too.

I was noticing that the Scotty had a rake day for BETA and I think they use blowers too. Got me curious.

Nepa, in years of keeping our Stihl (saw) at the cabin and barely using it it always started, fresh gas be damned.

Harvey wrote

Nepa, in years of keeping our Stihl (saw) at the cabin and barely using it it always started, fresh gas be damned.

That's because they are the best saw you can buy

campgottagopee wrote

Harvey wrote

Nepa, in years of keeping our Stihl (saw) at the cabin and barely using it it always started, fresh gas be damned.

That's because they are the best saw you can buy

 Needless to say, I don't buy Husquevarna any more.

nepa wrote

campgottagopee wrote

Harvey wrote

Nepa, in years of keeping our Stihl (saw) at the cabin and barely using it it always started, fresh gas be damned.

That's because they are the best saw you can buy

 Needless to say, I don't buy Husquevarna any more.

Haha

Echo makes a good little trim saw too, but for the beastly stuff Stihl is the way to go.

That Stihl was a 1991, but it had only a few hundred hours on it.  This past spring I dropped it off to be serviced and it came back with a leaky gas tank.  I took it back to have it repaired and the shop told me the saw had been dropped (like off the back of a pickup) and the saw was toast. Apparently in the older models the saw was an integral part of the motor and couldn't be replaced separately.

So we need a new saw.  Reality is that while 95% of time a small saw is way more practical — especially for maintaining  the MTB trail which is two miles long — We need something bigger for the rare occasions when something big comes down in the driveway or whatever.  Looks like we're going with a Stihl 251, just slightly smaller than what we had.

http://www.stihlusa.com/products/chain-saws/homeowner-saws/ms251/

FWIW, Echos have a 5 year warranty.

Harv, blow your trails once at the start do the season (Apr-May) and once at the end after the leaves are mostly down.  Keep a rake or two stashed out on the trail for occasional touch-up work.  The blower will make quick work of your trail maintenance - I just did about 2.5 miles of trail with the blower yesterday afternoon in less than an hour and a half.

Wish I had done it last fall, just didn't happen.  Will be getting after it in the next month.  Has to be dry I assume. Any other tips?

If the trails are well maintained the blower will work pretty slick.  Not doing it in the fall I think you are going to have to much gunk down there.  A rake will be more effective.  If you wait until it drys the blower will work fine..but you will be waiting another month.

In a rather useful more than normal blog, MMM advised to always use muscle power over power tools.  his example was raking your yard.....  

So there's that plus the noise thing.  Plus a good raking moves a lot more loose stones and stuff....

^ To a point. If you have a better tool available, sometimes it's good to use that. Like, he could choose to walk, but the mechanical advantage of a bike makes that the superior choice. He could use a pair of scissors to cut his lawn, but if a lawn mower is available...

Harvey wrote

That Stihl was a 1991, but it had only a few hundred hours on it.  This past spring I dropped it off to be serviced and it came back with a leaky gas tank.  I took it back to have it repaired and the shop told me the saw had been dropped (like off the back of a pickup) and the saw was toast. Apparently in the older models the saw was an integral part of the motor and couldn't be replaced separately.

So we need a new saw.  Reality is that while 95% of time a small saw is way more practical — especially for maintaining  the MTB trail which is two miles long — We need something bigger for the rare occasions when something big comes down in the driveway or whatever.  Looks like we're going with a Stihl 251, just slightly smaller than what we had.

http://www.stihlusa.com/products/chain-saws/homeowner-saws/ms251/

Get a Stihl, don't waist your money on anything else. I have a Farmboss that is 25 years old and just keeps running. My Stihl blower is 22 years old and still runs like a champ. I have a crappy home despot weed whacker that is on life support, I can get it running but it requires fiddling - I can't bring myself to toss it but I should, and go out and buy a Stihl.

There was never a thought of anything other than a Stihl.  When you use a saw like I do, infrequently, but in mission critical situations, there is no other choice. The only uncertainty in my quote above was with regard to size. (Smaller makes much more sense 90% of the time, but sometimes you need that 18" bar).

We now have a heated space to keep it, but before that I have started my Stihl on three pulls at 20 below zero. With all we have invested in skiing, I can't let a downed tree ruin my weekend.

Got the new Stihl today for Father's Day very pumped!

Thursday is our first work day of the season, coming armed with rakes and a blower. Assuming it is dry, blower first, rake second?

Pumped about riding too. Harvey Woods Friday and Ski Bowl Sat?

So what size/model? I have been cutting a lot of trees that fell during the storm last weekend, my 20" bar really came in handy. I have the start of a nice winter wood supply

I got the 251 with 18 inch bar. It's a bit smaller than my last saw, but I want to hike/walk with it.