Quick & Dirty Drag

[N2DFire]

Needed something to break up the dirt clods and needed it pretty much right now, so Dad & I built this quick & dirty drag.

For scale - the poles are 8' long and the channel pieces holding them together is 2"X4"

Sides secured with three 3/8" x 4" lag bolts per corner and the top braces / cable mounting points are 3/8" X 6" lag bolts

Shown here it's very "dirty" because it had already been "field tested" :laughing:

 

[PhysAssist]

Needed something to break up the dirt clods and needed it pretty much right now, so Dad & I built this quick & dirty drag.

For scale - the poles are 8' long and the channel pieces holding them together is 2"X4"

Sides secured with three 3/8" x 4" lag bolts per corner and the top braces / cable mounting points are 3/8" X 6" lag bolts

Shown here it's very "dirty" because it had already been "field tested" :laughing:

Nicely done- did you consider letting them roll instead of drag?

Thomas

 

[N2DFire]

Nicely done- did you consider letting them roll instead of drag?

Thomas

I did (after the fact ) and that may be a retrofit project.

At the time we were in a bit of a hurry anyway, and those channels are actually aluminum (old computer rack post I rescued from the trash pile at work).

Without something to make a decent bearing with - a rotating lag bolt (even with some washers) would eat thru that pretty fast.

We probably have less than $10 invested in hardware that we didn't have on hand, everything else was scrap; so junking the entire thing & starting over wouldn't be a big deal. I wouldn't mind going back and making a new frame in sort of an I shape and fixing the poles where they will rotate and can be locked in place as well.

Just need to scrounge or buy some metal to make the frame with (and add this to the project list :laughing: )

 

[EddieWalker]

I have the same disk as you do, but I haven't been as creative with adding weight to it like you did!!!

 

[flusher]

I did (after the fact ) and that may be a retrofit project.

At the time we were in a bit of a hurry anyway, and those channels are actually aluminum (old computer rack post I rescued from the trash pile at work).

Without something to make a decent bearing with - a rotating lag bolt (even with some washers) would eat thru that pretty fast.

We probably have less than $10 invested in hardware that we didn't have on hand, everything else was scrap; so junking the entire thing & starting over wouldn't be a big deal. I wouldn't mind going back and making a new frame in sort of an I shape and fixing the poles where they will rotate and can be locked in place as well.

Just need to scrounge or buy some metal to make the frame with (and add this to the project list :laughing: )

Nice, simple drag:thumbsup: If it works, don't fix it.

Good luck

 

[PhysAssist]

Nice, simple drag:thumbsup: If it works, don't fix it.

Good luck

There is that, and of course, as they say, the enemy of good is better, however, it would be interesting to see if having the logs rotate improved it's effect, or in fact, has a deleterious effect on its effect.

 

[N2DFire]

There is that, and of course, as they say, the enemy of good is better, however, it would be interesting to see if having the logs rotate improved it's effect, or in fact, has a deleterious effect on its effect.

We wanted/needed it to try and break up some pretty serious "clods" of good old Virginia red clay. My thoughts were having it fixed (aside from being quicker to fabricate) was that it would push/tumble the larger clods along rather than roll over them and thus (hopefully) cause them to break up.

I can see where rolling over them and using the sheer weight to crush them might also work but I suspect it would need added weight above what just the logs would provide (unless you added spikes which then increases the PSI of the contact area ...sorry my inner engineer slipped out).

My real reason for wanting to make them roll would be to use as a makeshift cultipacker after I had my seed down.

Use it in fixed mode to break up the dirt & roller mode to press the seed into the finished surface.

It might happen sometime in the future but right now I have more projects than I can get done already.

 

[PhysAssist]

We wanted/needed it to try and break up some pretty serious "clods" of good old Virginia red clay. My thoughts were having it fixed (aside from being quicker to fabricate) was that it would push/tumble the larger clods along rather than roll over them and thus (hopefully) cause them to break up.

I can see where rolling over them and using the sheer weight to crush them might also work but I suspect it would need added weight above what just the logs would provide (unless you added spikes which then increases the PSI of the contact area ...sorry my inner engineer slipped out).

My real reason for wanting to make them roll would be to use as a makeshift cultipacker after I had my seed down.

Use it in fixed mode to break up the dirt & roller mode to press the seed into the finished surface.

It might happen sometime in the future but right now I have more projects than I can get done already.

I see your thought process, and can't argue with any of it, but I also feel your pain with the work/projects to allotted/available time dissonance.

Just keep plugging away,
Thomas

 

[jwmorris]

The best ones I have made were made with steel catwalk grating welded together.

They are basicly 1x1/4 serrated flat strap on the walking surface that is against the dirt for dragging.

This one is one I put together to pull behind a 4 wheeler using a forklift battery strap via one chain link cut in half and welded to the front (take strap off when no in use). I have saved a bunch of them over the years because new straps come with each battery and they have an extra loop in the center to keep it from shifting from side to side, they also make a perfect strap for gambrels as you just run the large loop through flat strap and there is still enough loop to hook through the legs and they store in almost no space.

We have used that one for more than a decade and does a great job for what it is. 5' wide and 20" long.

They scrape up and hold/bust clods until there is a place for them to fall out but as you can see rocks can get stuck I between them, doesn't seem to hurt function much though. We built it for leveling trails but I have used it here at home to maintain crushed asphalt.

I recently put another one together for the farm with even more sections that works even better but is a bit more to drag around.