Railroad Iron Drag

threeman · Mar 11, 2009

I will let you know how it goes. Made it yesterday afternoon out of 16' piece of rail. I need to smooth out my pasture for sprigging.

JB4310 · Mar 11, 2009

Which side will you have facing forward, I was thinking with the top facing forward it may tend to ride up over bumps, but with the bottom facing forward it may cut better?

Just a thought, never tried it my self, was thinking of cutting a pc off a 20 footer I have but was going to make it maybe 6-8 feet long for grooming trails. At 16 ft if it works it'll leave a nice finish in a short time.

Good luck

Lunk · Mar 11, 2009

You "Railroad Barons" make me jealous. I'd love to find a measley 6' piece of rail, but all you get around here when you inquire is a long blank stare
...Lucky dogs!

Ford850 · Mar 11, 2009

I wonder if you could weld stubs of rebar or 1" square stock, 4 inches long, extending an inch or 2 off one bottom edge. Maybe 2" apart. Then you could drag it with the teeth down to scarify a pasture or break up rough ground, or turn the rail over and drag the smooth side.

threeman · Mar 11, 2009

I think that would work good for ripping ground. I can tell you that a 16' is pretty dang heavy if pulled low. It will let the 9540 know its back there in 4wd, 1st gear in high range. Keep in mind this dirt was turned about a month ago now with only one rain on it. Then harrowed once as well about two weeks ago. Pretty soft still. I have had to drag it twice to get tractor ruts out from first drag. I havent finished. It sucks to have to work for a living, but that is not a complaint in todays world. I just need to win the lottery. Then I wouldnt worry as much.

Also dont let anyone tell you a wire welder wont weld rusty metal. I welded rusted 3/8 chain to it yesterday from the front side down to the flat bottom side. (Pulls with top of rail forward) It pulls pretty good. I left enough chain to angle it however you want so that the dirt will run against it and fill in holes, or ruts. Works pretty good. I have another piece I think I am going to cut down for a drag behind the disk. I then wouldnt be doing what I doing now I dont think. I could have saved a trip over the pasture. Next year I am going to turn a 15ac pasture, this 4 acre was the test ground. They all have not been turned in 15 yrs or so.

Jimbrown · Mar 11, 2009

Here is mine. If you close you can see that there is a cutting edge off of some kind of grader bolted to the bottom edge. Don't know who made it it was given to me. Works great on my 3/4 miles of dirt road.

kcprecision · Mar 11, 2009

This is the one that I use to drag my road and fill the pot holes.

It was first built and pulled behind a truck, when I got the bigger tractor I changed it to a 3pt. The jack you see was being used to adjust the angle before the anchor points for the 3pt were welded on. The RR iron floats behind the thing to smooth out the ripples.

DIRTROAD · Mar 15, 2009

I built one similar, using the three point hitch. Made it nine feet wide and it works great to scrape the driveway. Still don't know how to post pics, sorry.

teg · Mar 15, 2009

Dirtroad, When you post a reply, scroll down below the "Submit Reply" and "Preview Post" buttons... and click on "Manage Attachments" (see photo). That will open a menu box where you'll want to click on "Browse" (top line). Find photo on your computer, then click Upload. Let me know if you need more help.

kcprecision · Mar 15, 2009

TEG, I have a question about posting pictures on this site. Do you have to size the pictures down? Like to maybe 100MB. The pictures I posted were less than 100MB. I am just curious.

teg · Mar 15, 2009

The limit is 1,000 kb or one meg... Your photos were below 100 kb (well, below the limit) - as long as it's below, you don't have to re-size. I normally try to crop photos to show only what I need, (maybe adjust the colors or shadows) then resize to 800x600 and when I save, I compress the file to 40-50% - to create the smallest file I can. It's just a habit I've gotten into.

PILOON · Mar 15, 2009

Please keep them small for us dial up guys!

Those big pics tha spill out over the side of my screen just get stopped and never seen as I just can't wait forever.

rutwad · Apr 7, 2009

threeman said:
I will let you know how it goes. Made it yesterday afternoon out of 16' piece of rail. I need to smooth out my pasture for sprigging.

How about a drag harrow behind a disc? Or just a drag harrow?

threeman · Apr 8, 2009

rutwad said:
How about a drag harrow behind a disc? Or just a drag harrow?

Drag harrow is too light. I have an 8'. I use it to knock down poop in the pasture, that way you dont have any ant beds or clumps of grass each year. Also more healthy for the livestock, less worms in them.

I have a tire drag built from six 22.5" truck tires that works better than the drag harrow for grass. doest rip up anything and doesnt ride over any any hills at all. They are bolt into a triangle pattern. I use it on pasture that have hay on them only each year after burning if I have ant hills.

I could cut down the railroad iron to drag behind the disc. Problem being they are 8.5' and I dont want to cut the rail just yet. I want a 10' set or maybe 12 for that. I have way too much tractor for the 8.5 pull set that I have. It has a drag behind it and it does ok but not as good as the large rail did. After it rained it looked like a parking lot. Depends alot on the disc. These cut extremely well (Athens disc) but in my opinion the 3 point Hardee set that I had before these were better for leveling. I used a friends disc at his place the other day helping out, they were JD 210's. Excellent leveling harrow. I was impressed. the 6400 pulled them well until the second pass in cross direction. It loaded it pretty good then. He told me if he had turned it before he had couldnt let them down really at all with the 6400 because it was too much. Nice disc I would like to own them.

rutwad · Apr 8, 2009

I am not sure if this is the same model, but my friend has a disc with the "versa bar" and he raves about the job it does. It leaves a picture perfect finish. He uses it for food plots. I don't know if it would work for your application or not.

Versa Bar

threeman · Apr 8, 2009

yep they work great, the farms that do till around here now use disc with these on the back. I know JD makes them on there large disc sets I think I saw some red disc (have no idea who made them, Case I think) on a farm down the road the other day that has them too. I will just use what I have until I sell the Athens I have. Then I going back to a 3 point set about 8-9' with a board on the rear. Dad made one years ago for a set and it worked better than anything we have used since. I probably still look for a larger set of pull types someday.

Trippy · Apr 15, 2009

Ford850 said:
I wonder if you could weld stubs of rebar or 1" square stock, 4 inches long, extending an inch or 2 off one bottom edge. Maybe 2" apart. Then you could drag it with the teeth down to scarify a pasture or break up rough ground, or turn the rail over and drag the smooth side.

If your looking for teeth. Go down to any old rail line. There are lots of spikes lose on the ties or laying on the rock. They work perfect for teeth. You can even weld on some hard face for added dirt ripping life.

DJCohenour · Apr 24, 2009

I know that this is thread is a little old, but here is a pic of my drag.

johnk · Apr 24, 2009

What are you pulling it with?

bigdad · Apr 26, 2009

Trippy said:
If your looking for teeth. Go down to any old rail line. There are lots of spikes lose on the ties or laying on the rock. They work perfect for teeth. You can even weld on some hard face for added dirt ripping life.

Or you can buy a new spike for 50 cents a piece. Please be careful on ANY RR track.