CountyLine Carry All or County Line Boom Pole for a DIY gravel drag

beowulf · Nov 14, 2016

I have a box blade and grader blade which work fine to maintain a crown and toss gravel back to the middle of an 850' long gravel driveway. But I would also like to use a section of chain link fence, a frame with chains, a bed spring or whatever I can build to smooth the gravel on the driveway (between those times I need to grade) and to smooth the gravel in a large open yard area. I have put together some of these "drags" before but recognize it would really be convenient to be able to adjust the tilt (front to back, side to side-with TNT) and to be able to lift what I am dragging for turn arounds.

So, I started thinking about either a 3PT hitch attaching Carry All or Boom Pole to attach to whatever I could build. They cost the same at TSC ($149). Both would apparently give me front to back tilt. I think the Carry All would work out better with side to side tilt and would have other uses - and also would have the two "feet" to attach my drag to. The boom pole would give me side to side tilt at the front of the drag, and would give me an easy way to lift and turn around - and would also have other uses, but would be more of a problem to attach the front of the drag to.

Any thoughts? I will likely be attaching a chain link fence section framed with pipe and about 6' to 8' wide - or perhaps something as simple as a simple bed spring, or may build a frame with lengths of chain attached side to side to a frame.

zzvyb6 · Nov 14, 2016

7 - 8' landscape rake will do MUCH better. May even replace both your blade and box implements. Must have gauge wheels behind the tines to do a nice job. And it has other uses. Get one wide enough so that the tractor tire marks are eliminated when fully angled. Also one which you can add a lot of weight in order to make it dig. Works for me, especially now that I'm using 800' of crushed asphalt. And it digs out the grass and weeds at the edges and center.

beowulf · Nov 15, 2016

zzzvyb6, that would be a great solution, but the carry-all will be about $125 and the landscape rake over $500, and I would typically use it about 4 times a year - that is about how often I need to smooth the gravel given our level of use on the driveway. I have been able to do a very decent job of pulling the gravel in to the center and maintaining the crown by using the grader blade - and I do that about every other month.

And I have dragged a section of chain link fence to smooth the gravel but that has not worked very well mostly because I cannot raise or lower or tilt it. So I was just looking for a relatively inexpensive way to attach something like that to the 3PT so enable me to lower, tilt, turn around and so on. Thus, the $125 for a carry all that I could lift and tilt looked like a go, assuming my concept would be doable with that.

wcampbell47 · Nov 15, 2016

A double blade grader works well for me. I have a 60 inch which I use to maintain a local subdivision's unpaved roads. I have an Armstrong Ag Light Duty Double Blade grader. Tractor Land Levelers and Graders For Sale has a video that demonstrates the implement.

CADplans · Nov 15, 2016

wcampbell47 said:
A double blade grader works well for me. I have a 60 inch which I use to maintain a local subdivision's unpaved roads. I have an Armstrong Ag Light Duty Double Blade grader. Tractor Land Levelers and Graders For Sale has a video that demonstrates the implement.

Ditto the landplane,, I have a box blade, rear blade, and a landscape rake,,,
they are useless compared to the landplane.

I too was not willing to spend the money to buy a landplane, so I built one,,, I do have about $200 in it.

If you are going to build,, build the right thing the first time.

My wife is now spoiled by how smooth the driveway is,, she must be driving close to twice as fast,,,

Clay45 · Nov 15, 2016

CADplans said:
Ditto the landplane,, I have a box blade, rear blade, and a landscape rake,,,
they are useless compared to the landplane.

I too was not willing to spend the money to buy a landplane, so I built one,,, I do have about $200 in it.

If you are going to build,, build the right thing the first time.

My wife is now spoiled by how smooth the driveway is,, she must be driving close to twice as fast,,,