Using a Pulverizer

[jtn]

Does anybody have much experience with a pulverizer? I am in the process of replacing my lawn and have already thoroughly disked it (I plan on posting pictures soon). I am thinking a pulverizer would be the best implement to give a final grade and finish to the dirt before I seed it with a Brillion seeder.

Couple of questions before I plunk down the rental money:
1. Do pulverizers really work? The soil is loose but it still has some larger clumps, ridges and furrows left from the disk. Will a pulverizer break up the clumps and level the seedbed?
2. How dry does the ground need to be to get the best use out of a pulverizer? We have had a lot of rain recently which has delayed this project. I am still waiting for things to dry out.
3. Can you turn your tractor with the pulverizer in the ground?

Any information would be appreciated.

 

[crb478]

1 Pulverisers work well, it will break up clumps and generally level a area knocking down high spots and filling in the low ones. You may need to make several passes depending on how many clumps and ridges you have.

2 They work best if the ground is dry to the point that it will not stick to the pulveriser, and smooths easily

3 Turning is not a problem, it is simular to turning with a box blade on. No real sharp turns but gradual turns are fine.

 

[BeeBop]

Believe it or not Pulverizers actually work very well. If you have large clumps then the best thing to do is to use a Landscape rake and rid the area of all rock, roots ect ect then use the pulverizer because you'll be dragging the debris up w/the pulverizer and making trenches in your yard. The trick to using a Pulverizer is to operate the top link and lift for best results so as to not be so aggressive when you want to put the cap on things. You can turn w/the pulverizer in the ground and all will be fine but on occasion I have bent roller spikes but only 3 in my career so it's a small price to pay considering you can hammer them back straight. Damp soil always looks the best to me when using this. Hope this helps.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

I'm sure this is way too late, but pulverizers work great. I did grading work for a landscape company for several years when in my early twenties. I just bought a JD 4310 and the first implement I purchased was a pulverizer. The models with double roller work best, but one will do the job. The work great for filling in ruts and an excellent job of breaking up dirt clumps. The ground is best when you can stomp on a clump of dirt and it breaks up. It it's muddy you'll just be making a mess. If it's really dry it will still work fine but you'll be a dusty itchy mess and so will your tractor. And yes, you can turn with the pulverizer down.

Hope it goes (or has gone) well.

 

[Charliebrn]

Ummm... I have a 4' Woods/Gill pulverizer for sale, $400. It has about 3 hrs on it and is in great shape. Thought I was gonna need it to completely rework the back but decided not to....

 

[jtn]

Kind of wierd replying to myslef but...

I used the pulverizer with fairly good results. I found the best way to break up ridges left by my disk was to work the pulverizer in circles. It did a nice job of breaking up the clumps. In the future I think I would use a roller harrow (AKA a cultipacker) for the job. Because the soil was loose from heavy disking the pulverizer was not as effective as it would have been on harder ground (IMHO).

JT

 

[rdln]

"<font color=green>Because the soil was loose from heavy disking the pulverizer was not as
effective as it would have been on harder ground</font color=green>

Right on.

 

[BrettW]

I hate to be the total novice but that is what I am. What is a pulverizer? is it a spiked wheel of some sort that smoothes the ground? I ask because in 1 yr, I'll have about 2 acres to take from a field to smooth yard. I was going to spray RoundUp on it, till it lightly and drag a blade or box blade over it. If this sounds like a very bad plan, I'd appreciate all advice. thanks, bw

 

[Charliebrn]

Ok, picture this: An I-beam laying on the ground with two rows of heavy spikes bolted to it. Now add a bracket to it that has a roller with spikes on it. Add a 3 pt hitch and drag it around packed clay. It breaks up the clay with the big spikes and then the roller with spikes breaks it up even more and does a noice job of levelling. No better way of making a seed bed. PERFECT for putting in lawns. They are expensive new though. (Did I mention that mine is for sale???) /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[Strider]

Hi folks,

Does anyone have experience using both a pulverizer and a drag harrow? We are planning to convert several acres to lawn, and I already have a basically brand new 8 ft drag harrow. Is the pulverizer that much better, that it's be worth an extra $500 or $600 (counting trading in the drag harrow) to move up to a pulverizer? As I mentioned in another post on this forum, we are having the neighbors disk it with one of their large John Deeres beforehand. Also would you folks recommend the heavy duty versions, or for this amount of land will the lighter duty models work OK? Leinbach has both types, but there is a $300 or $400 difference in price, of course.

Thanks!