Repairing an old cultipacker

[bnew17]

I recently bought this 10ft cultipacker. I got it for $600, made a good little drive to pick it up only to find out 4 of the 32 wheels are damaged. There is 1 other wheel that is damaged but it is very minor. I am debating on whether to take these wheels off completely, or try and find somebody that can patch/repair these wheels. I would really prefer to keep it 10ft and have them repaired. I am also going to be adding some rear tires on the back of the packer to transport,,,especially after seeing the damaged wheels. There's no way I want to transport it like it is. My question is how feasible is it to get these wheels repaired? And has anyone repaired cast iron before? I was hoping some 1/8" or possible 1/4" flat bar or something cut out of plate could be welded on there. Would certainly not need to be perfect, but something to cover up the hole and keep from having further damage. It has wooden bearings, which I will replace with pillowblock bearings.

 

[nyone]

It wont smoosh ground like that?

 

[CADplans]

The holes would be easily welded closed using steel to fill the holes.
Even a novice welder could do a nice job of repair of the wheels.

If you do not weld, this may be the perfect opportunity to learn,,
a success is the best way to learn, this would 99% chance be successful welding.

DO NOT replace the wood with pillow block bearings,,
The wood is highly successful in this application because of the constant dirt bath,,
The pillow block bearings might not last a day,,

This tool is usually used when a "dust" will just about always be kicked up.

We had one of these when I worked on a farm in the early 1970's,,
The thing was pulled over more than 2,000 acres while I was there.
The wood blocks were perfect that whole time.
Ours was a gang of three, about 15 feet wide total.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

Keep wood bearings greased, and they last a long long time...

SR

 

[CoyPatton]

Welding cast is not as simple as it was made to sound. A good weld shop can do it, but it is involved. It requires pre-heating the cast and depending on the metal in the cast special welding wire/rods. As I understand most shops put the pieces in a forge to evenly heat.
Good Luck with it. Again a welding shop can handle it, but as a once in a while welder m, personally, I would not spend my time on it! I would find a shop.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

Welding cast is not as simple as it was made to sound. A good weld shop can do it, but it is involved. It requires pre-heating the cast and depending on the metal in the cast special welding wire/rods. As I understand most shops put the pieces in a forge to evenly heat.
Good Luck with it. Again a welding shop can handle it, but as a once in a while welder m, personally, I would not spend my time on it! I would find a shop.

I've done it, it not only has to be pre-heated, it has to be cooled at a sloooow rate, so like you said, not all that easy... Brazing is a bit easier though...

I don't know that I would bother fixing it in the first place...

SR

 

[bnew17]

Here is a decent picture of the bearings. They are not solid at all. I originally planned on building my own Cultipacker and bought the bearings. Then when i bought this the seller would not acceot a return of the bearings.

I do mig weld but I am not that good, lol. I can get stuff to stick but this is out of my league.

If y’all recommend the wood bearings, should I stick with white oak? I do have some 1.5” white oak boards in the shop I save for building tables with.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

Last set of wood bearings I made, They needed to be out of thicker than 1-1/2" boards...

SR

 

[bnew17]

I spoke with one welder and he said with the time going into manipulating the steel plate, I would be better off buying another wheel. He doesn't realize that finding "extra" wheels are few and far between. I asked him what he thought If I manipulated the steel myself so all he would have to do is weld , what he thought. Still waiting to hear back. Heck I may just leave them on there and use them as is. There are no stumps or roots in the food plots where I will be using it, and there are no rocks in our area. As I mentioned earlier I will be transporting it on some wheels, not on the actual packer wheels. I have a feeling that is how the previous owner broke them is in transportation.

 

[wolc123]

I would discard the broken wheels, and make up a couple of spacers from steel pipe to take up the missing length. You only have a few busted wheels and a slightly narrower unit will do a better job of compaction.

I did a similar thing with an old 8 footer. Now it has a 7 ft width and works perfectly behind my 6 ft, 2 section drag. I made new wood bearings for it from pressure treated pine 4 x4's about 15 years ago. They have been working well on about 5 acres per year without any grease.

Last summer I saw another old 8 footer with bad bearings and a couple busted wheels about a mile down my road. I offered the widow $40 for it. When I have time, I am going to fix it up to leave at another property so I dont have to haul my other one back and forth.

As you have discovered, transporting them over the road cam be a pain. The 7 footers aren't too bad to carry with my bucket forks.

 

[shooterdon]

Instead of welding up the "wheels", can they be filled with something like concrete? Use duct tape on the outside of the hole to keep the concrete from oozing out.

 

[CoyPatton]

I've done it, it not only has to be pre-heated, it has to be cooled at a sloooow rate, so like you said, not all that easy... Brazing is a bit easier though...

I don't know that I would bother fixing it in the first place...

SR

Agreed it is a complicated process. A comment left me with the impression that all that was needed wad to use any type of welder on it an it was good to go.
I was basically trying to provide a general overview that welding cast is a very involved process and best not to be touched by someone that does not know what they are doing (and yes I include myself in the group that needs to not weld on cast!)

 

[akajun]

Couple things
Those wheels may not be cast, they may be forged which is easily welded. Next, if you have a mig machine you can totally repair those yourself using silicon bronze wire. If you had an arc machine I’d find some 55% nickel rod
Grind each weld clean , pre heat in your kitchen oven or on a propane burner. You don’t need to make perfect fitting pieces you can either build it up with filler rod or chunks of steel then grind back down to shape
Cool down needs to be slow by burying it in a bucket of warm sand or putting it back on the heat source and reducing heat slowly.
lasty
I’d just leave them be
They will not affect anything with holes
Your packing dirt not floating concrete

 

[Sonny580]

I also think they are made of some alloy, and not totally cast iron. could be malable cast which is way different and you might be able to cut some patches and get them to stick for no more than you are going to be using it for. Now IF you were going to use it for serious work----then it needs to be pro- fixed.

 

[bnew17]

I also think they are made of some alloy, and not totally cast iron. could be malable cast which is way different and you might be able to cut some patches and get them to stick for no more than you are going to be using it for. Now IF you were going to use it for serious work----then it needs to be pro- fixed.

Interesting. I just assumed it was cast. Maybe its not?

i definitely do not have a great deal of land to use it on. I have a total of about 3 acres of plots i would use it maybe twice a year.

 

[wolc123]

i definitely do not have a great deal of land to use it on. I have a total of about 3 acres of plots i would use it maybe twice a year.

In that case, I would definitely cut it down in width. The narrower cultipacker (I like 7 ft width best because it is perfect behind a 6 ft drag) will be easier to transport and do a better job of compaction on small plots.

I had a 4 footer that was very nice behind an atv, for doing remote plots, where it is difficult to get larger equipment. It did a better job of compaction than my 7 footer, because if you pulled it along a ridge or ditch, it didnt miss as wide of an area.

I only sold it because I can get a tractor in all my plots, I dont own an atv,, and the profit was very good. I found it dirt cheap, in rough condition, at a garage sale and sold it after replacing the bearings (fun woodworking project).

It also had a couple busted wheels on it, which I replaced with good ones that I had from my "downsized" 8 to 7 footer. The demand for cultupackers is huge as you have no doubt experienced.

 

[rScotty]

Couple things
Those wheels may not be cast, they may be forged which is easily welded. Next, if you have a mig machine you can totally repair those yourself using silicon bronze wire. If you had an arc machine I’d find some 55% nickel rod

We don't use cultipackers here. What is it used for?

But regardless of the use, it seems pretty straightforwad to repair. I'd do pretty much the same as akajun....
I'm not sure about the basic alloy of the wheel, but not sure that it matters since we can see from the damage & holes that it appears a malleable alloy. My preference for this type job is the oxy/acetylene torch and that is what I would use for this job. That way I have pre-heat, post heat (if necessary) and braze/welding heat all available as needed.
Post heat is something I always do, but it isn't so critical with brazing as with welding. Just playing the torch over it as it cools should do it.
For the job I would definitely agree with high-nickel bronze brazing rod (much better than low fuming brass), I like a powder flux that can be applied as needed, and would make the patches of any type of mild steel.
It would surprise me if the repair didn't outlast the rest of the wheel. Why not try? What's to lose?
rScotty

 

[mcfarmall]

Make your new wood bearings out of hard maple aka sugar maple. Soak them in oil before installation. Hard maple bearings were used extensively in the early days for line shaft bearings, in water pumping windmills, all manner of farm equipment. Anything with heavy radial or shock loads.

 

[Skagit]

You can still buy those wheels... Just throwing that out there as an option.

Sent from my XP8800 using TractorByNet mobile app

 

[Ohmanlee]

Both Everything Attachments and Agri Supply sell replacement wheels for Cultipackers. Sweet Tractors sells replacement wooden bearings for various cultipackers and, on occasion, sell used cultipacker wheels