Single disk gang to pull dirt

[DeadTurtleCreek]

I'm trying to reclaim some rutted up roads through a young timber stand. Years of disking the roads by the previous owner has left a bar of dirt on the edge of the road which holds water on the road itself. I can continue to disk these roads every year when they finally dry out in August, but the problem will get progressively worse - and August disking makes for a very muddy winter.

So for the solution, I was driving yesterday and passed several rice levee plows (small terrace plows for those who aren't from rice country). It had me thinking I could do something similar, but wider to reclaim my mud roads and pull dirt to the center. I'm considering taking 3 of the 4 disk gangs off of an old disk. The two front gangs push dirt out and the two back gangs pull it inward to create a smooth surface. If I removed all gangs except for the back right, in theory that gang should pull dirt from the right side of the road into the center.

Has anyone tried this or pulled a broken disk similar to this to help explain to me how it would pull? My concern is it would just pull sideways until the gang was perpendicular to the road and then roll straight as opposed to remaining offset and pulling dirt to the middles.

 

[zoedog2012]

I'm trying to reclaim some rutted up roads through a young timber stand. Years of disking the roads by the previous owner has left a bar of dirt on the edge of the road which holds water on the road itself. I can continue to disk these roads every year when they finally dry out in August, but the problem will get progressively worse - and August disking makes for a very muddy winter.

So for the solution, I was driving yesterday and passed several rice levee plows (small terrace plows for those who aren't from rice country). It had me thinking I could do something similar, but wider to reclaim my mud roads and pull dirt to the center. I'm considering taking 3 of the 4 disk gangs off of an old disk. The two front gangs push dirt out and the two back gangs pull it inward to create a smooth surface. If I removed all gangs except for the back right, in theory that gang should pull dirt from the right side of the road into the center.

Has anyone tried this or pulled a broken disk similar to this to help explain to me how it would pull? My concern is it would just pull sideways until the gang was perpendicular to the road and then roll straight as opposed to remaining offset and pulling dirt to the middles.

Do you have a rear blade?

 

[jeff9366]

Years of disking the roads by the previous owner has left a bar of dirt on the edge of the road which holds water on the road itself.

1) The disks on your rear gangs are probably all the same diameter. If you reduce the diameter of the outer disk on both rear sides by 4" the bar should disappear. (Taking apart an old disk can be one bear of a job.)

2) A Landscape Rake or Rear Angle Blade set at 30 degrees to 45 degrees to windrow, will spread that bar material across the face of the implement.

 

[bcp]

My concern is it would just pull sideways until the gang was perpendicular to the road and then roll straight as opposed to remaining offset and pulling dirt to the middles.

Try it with a 3pt disk instead of a tongue-pulled disk.

Bruce

 

[DeadTurtleCreek]

Yes, I have a 6 or 8' rear blade. I've tried it but this heavy clay doesn't ever really dry out deeper than a couple inches. It balls up and sticks to the blade. Where I've tried it it can work, but is extremely slow and difficult to get dirt to move to the center. I have miles of roads that need to be reclaimed and small window that they're dry enough so time is a big factor.

I wasn't very clear, but the bar of dirt is pushed into the trees lining the road edge. I can't get this dirt back. I'm trying to essentially dig a borrow ditch on the sides and pull that borrow dirt to the middle so I can get these roads to shed water and dry out sooner in the summer for maintenance. A couple passes with a disk can help them a lot, but the point where I am now they don't dry up until very late summer if at all and I'm stuck doing the same thing every year.

Disk gangs with cleaners work well here so I'm trying to figure out how that can work for my purposes. I have an old 3pt disk but its very small. Maybe I'll try it with just 1 gang and see if it has the weight and wide enough gangs to move much dirt. I figured a 3pt would pull the tractor sideways quite a bit more than a tongue pulled.

 

[oldnslo]

How much room is there along the edge of the road? Can you run the tractor tires off the edge or do you need to stay on the road?

just curious if a disc plow would work but these trail directly behind the tractor

of if roads are all similar width make an oversized garden hiller so pulling dirt from both sides while driving down center of road. Might be similar to a levee plow

 

[bcp]

If you have a loader, fill the bucket with rocks to reduce side pull from an implement.

Bruce

 

[DeadTurtleCreek]

Filling the loader is a good idea for traction as long as it’s dry enough. I’ve been using the term “road” loosely. My roads are dirt/mud paths through the CRP trees. They are constantly muddy and rutted which makes maintenance tough. My original thought was to take the front gangs off my 3pt disk and widen the back gangs similar to what oldnslow suggested. It’s still a possibility but my roads vary in width which would make a set width attachment less useful

 

[Cycledude]

Hire a backhoe and buildup the center of the road so the water can actually run off

 

[npalen]

Tilting the frame of a pull type or 3PH mounted disc to the rear will pull the dirt toward the center to create a crown.
I don't see a need to remove any of the gangs as the front gangs won't move any dirt if the disc frame is tilted to the rear and should pull straight. Some folks do this to maintain the crown on field terraces.

 

[jyoutz]

Hire a backhoe and buildup the center of the road so the water can actually run off

A road grader is actually the best equipment for pulling ditches and crowning roads. At $150/hour, a grader could probably do the job in about 3 hours. Then the OP would have a crowned ditched road that could be maintained with a tractor blade.

 

[Egon]

Consider keeping both right side gangs on the disk. Run the front straight to cut and the back angled to pull dirt onto the road. Lots of weight on the front gang to cut deeper and keep the implement from going sideways.

A plow might also be able to throw dirt sideways. Many years ago many farmers cultivated fields with what we called a tiller. They were one gang of large disks placed at an angle. One of those would be perfect for what you are doing.

 

[npalen]

Guess it would depend on the width of the disk. If the disk is about the same width as the road, wouldn't it make sense to leave all the gangs on and tilt it to the back?

The terracing plow shown is basically how the rear gangs of a disc harrow are arranged:

 

[npalen]

Consider keeping both right side gangs on the disk. Run the front straight to cut and the back angled to pull dirt onto the road. Lots of weight on the front gang to cut deeper and keep the implement from going sideways.

A plow might also be able to throw dirt sideways. Many years ago many farmers cultivated fields with what we called a disk. They were one gang of large disked placed at an angle. One of those would be perfect for what you are doing.

The pics show what we call a oneway meaning it can only be used in one direction (counterclockwise) around the field being worked.
They turn well to the left but not so well to the right. I agree, might work well for crowning a road as they are built heavy.

 

[DeadTurtleCreek]

These have been some good suggestions. I'll try tilting down the rear gangs on the disk this weekend and see how it goes. If I remember correctly they never wanted to dig very well when tilted back until the whole disk was lowered to the point the front engaged also. I need to check but I may be able to reduce the offset of the front gangs while keeping the back offset. This may solve that problem and still pull dirt to the middle.

I have a couple smaller old farm disks laying around I might play with. Trying to add longer braces to an old 3pt disk to look very similar to that terrace plow, but time has been a limiting factor in completing that job.

Will post back results as soon as I can test a few of these ideas.

 

[npalen]

These have been some good suggestions. I'll try tilting down the rear gangs on the disk this weekend and see how it goes. If I remember correctly they never wanted to dig very well when tilted back until the whole disk was lowered to the point the front engaged also. I need to check but I may be able to reduce the offset of the front gangs while keeping the back offset. This may solve that problem and still pull dirt to the middle.

I have a couple smaller old farm disks laying around I might play with. Trying to add longer braces to an old 3pt disk to look very similar to that terrace plow, but time has been a limiting factor in completing that job.

Will post back results as soon as I can test a few of these ideas.

You probably will notice that, when tilting the disk to the back. the outer ends of the rear gangs will contact the ground first and try to dig morethan the middle. May even hold the middle above the road surface during first passes but will still be bringing material towards the middle.

 

[Cycledude]

A road grader is actually the best equipment for pulling ditches and crowning roads. At $150/hour, a grader could probably do the job in about 3 hours. Then the OP would have a crowned ditched road that could be maintained with a tractor blade.

Yes a road grader might actually work pretty well, the original post stated the “roads go through a young timber stand” I wonder what that actually means ? Some pictures showing the roads and the trees might be helpful.

 

[jyoutz]

Yes a road grader might actually work pretty well, the original post stated the “roads go through a young timber stand” I wonder what that actually means ? Some pictures showing the roads and the trees might be helpful.

When I bought my place, the access road (1/2 mile) was rutted and eroded below the surface of the land. I hired a road grader and operator and he cut ditches then pulled the cut material onto the road, then crowned it. He did all that work in about 5 hours. After that work was done, I had gravel delivered with belly dump trucks and spread it with my tractor. Since elevating the road and adding surface gravel, the road is easy to grade with my blade and maintain.

 

[DeadTurtleCreek]

Here’s an example of one of my “roads”. Many would consider it a shooting lane through the trees. But most of these lanes are used to access other parts of the farm and get a good bit of traffic. The part in this pic is in good shape but other parts stay wet and rutted. We built up and graveled our main access road but that’s not feasible on 7-8 miles of trails. I’m trying to solve/improve this issue with a few passes of a disk or something similar so that they can be passable again and make future yearly maintenance quicker and easier. A disk that would give them a slight crown to help shed water would be the ideal implement.

 

[jdmeth]

Consider keeping both right side gangs on the disk. Run the front straight to cut and the back angled to pull dirt onto the road. Lots of weight on the front gang to cut deeper and keep the implement from going sideways.

A plow might also be able to throw dirt sideways. Many years ago many farmers cultivated fields with what we called a disk. They were one gang of large disked placed at an angle. One of those would be perfect for what you are doing.

That is an old turn plow, I spent many hours on one in my youth (I am 69). Almost ever farmer in my area (Hastings, Florida) has one of those in their junk yard. Newer ones are bigger, three point hitch mounted and require a 100 hp or more tractor to pull. Here in north Florida we farm on 60 ft wide beds (18 40 inch rows with a drainage furrow plowed between the two edge rows). The turn plow is run starting in the middle of each one flipping the soil to the middle and working your way to the edge. That "crowns" the bed so water from excess rainfall can drain to the dranage furrows. A "cross drain" blade is used to cut a 12 inch or so slot across the rows.