Land Leveler

[xcoder]

Hi team,

I want to make a land Leveler to tow behind my MF-175 . It's primary usage is to dislodge sub surface rocks that are poking through the surface and decimate saplings etc that have grown. This is to assist in preparation for running a slasher over the paddocks. I've already had most the property gone over with a Schuler rock rake and picker. I'm proposing to make this out of four pieces of train track, each 7ft long and roughly 400lb in weight. Each track will be connected equally distanced by heavy gauge tensile chain. I'll tow it using the drag link and most like rig up some sort of lifting jig on the 3PL to transport it prior to use.

Thoughts?

Cheers,

Lee

 

[robstaples]

Plasma cut holes in rails to feed continuous chain thru. Cross pin in chain link retaining rail could act like shear pin. Pull position retaining pins, take up slack, and lift all together.

Is there a best edge on the rail for this purpose?

 

[Vigo327]

I’m not sure how well it would do at pulling up rocks. Genuinely curious on that.

I dont know why i had the thought but this made me wonder if anyone’s ever just taken the wheels off a scrap car and just drug it around as a leveler.

 

[Renze]

This type of leveling frame is the standard tool to level pastures after ploughing, or yards before paving, in the Netherlands

Behind farm tractors, leveling frames are made of railroad tracks or I beams, and consist of 3 to 5 consecutive beams so you can see the rear beam over the mudguards of the tractor, for precise grade eyeballing.

 

[Vigo327]

I liked that flat bar bending setup on the welding table shown in the first video.

I think something simple like that made with angle iron would work well enough for looser materials and soils. But on hard packed stuff, or attempting to dislodge larger rocks, by the time you got enough weight on it to really shave instead of just riding over stuff, it would probably start beating up the front of the angle iron at the same time, which is where you’d wish for the actual hardened, adjustable (to compensate for wear), reversible, replaceable cutting edges found on all the big land planes here in USA.

But i do think if you’re talking about a driveway and you go over it often enough that it’s never highly compacted, an angle iron thing like that would definitely work. I have seen some almost exactly like that for mini skid steers to use in yards, where i imagine the downpressure from the loader can force the lightweight implement to cut into the dirt just fine.

 

[scootr]

I use a 7ft landplane with some added weight. It kicks up rocks well enough. Some of the rocks are collected and some bounce over the cutting blades. You might find your invention rips 50% of the grass out?

 

[workinonit]

I too use a 7' or so opposing blade landplane that I made. Mine is heavy. We have no rocks in SC. That landplane is a leveling miracle.

 

[scootr]

I too use a 7' or so opposing blade landplane that I made. Mine is heavy. We have no rocks in SC. That landplane is a leveling miracle.

The landplane works best in areas without rocks. Mine needed a weight option for some jobs so I made this barrel rack. The full barrel doubles the weight to almost 1200 pounds.

 

[workinonit]

That I will have to take your word for. We have no rocks. I built mine to weigh over 1200 pounds.

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

I wouldn't waste the RR track on that. My uncle showed up with some drag around mess like that. Nobody was interested. Still, he chained it up and drug it around, swearing up and down how good it was. Just nobody else could see it. He's been gone ten years and ain't nobody even asked about his so called wonderful drag.

My brother and I built a box grader. That critter will change the curvature of the Earth, plus do all the things You ask in your particular circumstance here. Plus, others will ask you about it. Not so with a pile of junk to drag.

Yeah, we tried that and it really didn't work.

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

I’m not sure how well it would do at pulling up rocks. Genuinely curious on that.

I dont know why i had the thought but this made me wonder if anyone’s ever just taken the wheels off a scrap car and just drug it around as a leveler.

We tried rolling car wheels around to level the ground. Still doing scientific studies on that.

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

The landplane works best in areas without rocks. Mine needed a weight option for some jobs so I made this barrel rack. The full barrel doubles the weight to almost 1200 pounds.

If you had teeth on front edge likened to those on a box blade, it would loosen those rocks. Maybe no need to fool with water in and out your drum.

 

[Vigo327]

We tried rolling car wheels around to level the ground. Still doing scientific studies on that.

Oh i meant dragging the car with no wheels!

Although i have seen ‘tire drag harrows’ and ‘rubber tire scrapers’ as tire-based smoothing implements.. I was thinking more like a car body flat on the ground drug sideways. Seems like old farms are just littered with car bodies sunk all the way to the dirt anyway.. hook some chains up and drag it!

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

Oh i meant dragging the car with no wheels!

Although i have seen ‘tire drag harrows’ and ‘rubber tire scrapers’ as tire-based smoothing implements.. I was thinking more like a car body flat on the ground drug sideways. Seems like old farms are just littered with car bodies sunk all the way to the dirt anyway.. hook some chains up and drag it!

They're probably good cars, just had to use the wheels on something else.

 

[chim]

Here are a few pics of things I've done. All were used where they had a chance to pop some rocks up. None reliably brought any rocks up larger than a softball.

The first drag I built was for the B7500, and the original setup was simply a pair of chains to drag it. The adjustment for how aggressive it became was by selecting form the choices of holes for the chain attachment in the leading flange of the first I-beam. Angular adjustment was shortening one or the other chain. When it became apparent it would be nice to pick it up for transport, it was a simple matter to us the lift boom.

The latest version with the original I-beams uses a big old blind flange. The flange adds weight and makes it easy to adjust the angle by dropping a pin through different bolt holes. Aggressiveness is via top link adjustment.

The big one was sketched up by me and built by some guys in our shop. Three sides are I-beams we had laying around and the front has sections of pipe added to keep the ends of the I-beams from digging in.

 

[scootr]

Not sure we are all reading the same page here ... OP wanted to pull rocks up. I want to avoid them. small rocks here are the tip of the iceberg. The weight is added for areas where there are no rocks.
Many yrs ago I had a 8ft length 10" I beam I drug around with a pickup. That thing kicked up plenty of rock

 

[nyone]

This type of leveling frame is the standard tool to level pastures after ploughing, or yards before paving, in the Netherlands

Behind farm tractors, leveling frames are made of railroad tracks or I beams, and consist of 3 to 5 consecutive beams so you can see the rear beam over the mudguards of the tractor, for precise grade eyeballing.

This tool looks like it's being used on alreaty loose material on a flat surface..thus you wouldnt really need to use it.

 

[nyone]

Here are a few pics of things I've done. All were used where they had a chance to pop some rocks up. None reliably brought any rocks up larger than a softball.

The first drag I built was for the B7500, and the original setup was simply a pair of chains to drag it. The adjustment for how aggressive it became was by selecting form the choices of holes for the chain attachment in the leading flange of the first I-beam. Angular adjustment was shortening one or the other chain. When it became apparent it would be nice to pick it up for transport, it was a simple matter to us the lift boom.

The latest version with the original I-beams uses a big old blind flange. The flange adds weight and makes it easy to adjust the angle by dropping a pin through different bolt holes. Aggressiveness is via top link adjustment.

The big one was sketched up by me and built by some guys in our shop. Three sides are I-beams we had laying around and the front has sections of pipe added to keep the ends of the I-beams from digging in.

I take it the last one works better?

 

[chim]

I take it the last one works better?

Correct, although it's a bit bulky. The weight helps when knocking the high spots off and the half-pipe noses on the I-beams help keep them from digging in.

I built the other one when we had a gravel drive and it did fine. Since making the pipe flange modification, I've hardly used it. The last time was several years ago to smooth out fill when I poured a sidewalk.

 

[Renze]

This tool looks like it's being used on alreaty loose material on a flat surface..thus you wouldnt really need to use it.

It depends on your standards...