Old disc to row hipper

   / Old disc to row hipper #1  

charlz

Elite Member
Joined
Jul 22, 2006
Messages
2,959
Location
Meridian Idaho
Tractor
Kubota B7100D
Background: In one of my gardens I have 'drive on' raised beds. My 3pt tiller is 50" and I just drive down the beds when it is time to till. However the beds are slowly getting wider as the tiller sometimes throws/pushes dirt to the outside if/when I can't drive straight :D This makes the paths between the beds smaller and harder to mow. So I have been thinking I would like a hipper to run down the beds and pull the dirt back to center.

I've been keeping my eyes open for something I could use to build a hipper. This is a big farming area but everything is 'big'. I found this old disc at an auction and figured I could use some of it to make a row hipper... paid $25:

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Not sure what kind it is, there was a second set of gangs that went on the back. They attached to the center of the first set where the hitch is using 3 long arching 'fingers' or 'arms' that came up and over the top of the first set. Some old horse drawn disc maybe?

I dropped it off behind the shop and started cutting it apart with the torch... later I switched to the PowerMax 600 plasma I picked up at an auction a while back and what a difference. No having to wait for rusty old steel to heat up etc. :)

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Here is one of the gangs separated from the rest of the disc:
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I didn't take any pictures of the process but I took the gangs apart, cut down the 1" axle shafts, welded them back together and re-assembled the gangs with only 3 discs each. The first shaft I cut with a sawzall... the second I used another new toy I picked up off Craigslist, an old Kalamazoo horizontal bandsaw. What a huge difference that made! I removed the drag arms and used the brackets from the weight pans as mounting points. The small angle pieces came from a pile of the stuff I got for cheap off Craiglist a while back:

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The mounting holes are centered in this pic as I tried long and hard to figure out how to suspend them below rails which would allow me to slide them back and forth. The more I measured and thought about it the less certain I was that I would be able to lower the discs enough to engage the sides of the raised beds and yet raise them enough to clear the ground etc as I was driving around.

At that point I decided to go with a horizontal mount where the arms would 'drag' the hipper gangs instead of 'hanging' them.

Part of the game here was to keep costs to a minimum since I wasn't sure this would really work at all. So I tried to primarily use just the steel that came with the old disk. This is where the bandsaw really came in handy. Very easy to trim rusty old steel into usable pieces. Before I would use all new steel from a place that will cut it to your dimensions. This has really opened my eyes to 'rusty old pieces of junk' that go for cheap at auctions (But, honey... it's got lots of good steel in it. ;) )


All of the pieces in this pic came from the disk with the exception of the angle cross piece at the bottom of the 3pt A frame and the small angle at the back of the arms. The all-thread and space at the top was used to hold the pieces in alignment for welding and is where the top link goes.

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And here we have everything welded together and on the tractor for a test-fit. I am probably going to add gussets in the corners. Even though this will really only be used with loose/tilled dirt the top piece of angle did not get as much purchase at the front as I would have liked. The square tubing was just a bit shorter than I would have liked... but not enough I wanted to go purchase a new piece of steel ;) I need to spend some time sliding the gangs around to figure out where I can add reinforcements that won't interfere with the gangs.

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Now with the gangs mounted. I ended up drilling off-set holes in the front and back angle brackets. This raised the front and lowered the rear to give me some vertical angle to hopefully pull dirt upwards and not just inwards:
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Next post we get to figure out if it actually works :D With the cost of the disc, some new nuts and bolts, a little steel and lift pins I have about $50 in it.
 
   / Old disc to row hipper
  • Thread Starter
#2  
Wow, 70+ views and no comments... guess you guys are all busy biting your nails waiting to find out if it works... well... it does! ;)


Here is a pic of one of the beds before:

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And after:

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One thing I kept focusing on during the build was getting the 4 feet of width between the rear hippers... completely forgetting that 4 feet is the final width... I needed something a little wider to pull the edges back to 4 feet or less... oh well... quick bit of landscape rake work and another pass helped pull the material back into the center of the rows. I am hoping that after this initial work and using the hipper will eliminate the rake work.

Here is a shot of me using it on my sons minibike track. As he rides it the dirt migrates to the outside and 'dishes out' the track. I use the tiller to groom his track but it doesn't do a good job of moving dirt back to center. It tends to ride on the dirt at the outside and not really touch the low spot in the center. Now I can use this to pull the dirt back in and level things out again.

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Here is a shot of how I offset the mounting holes to give angle to the gangs:

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Overall I would say it is pretty useful. I will be cleaning out the corn patch soon which will give me an area of dirt to play in. By putting a leveling bar or chain across the back I think it would make some nice beds for squash etc. Moving the gangs up front it could be used to make more narrow rows and possibly hill rows of potatoes etc.
 
   / Old disc to row hipper #3  
Looks great to me..!! I love to see someone modify something like that to suit their purpose... And to see it work that well, sure gives one a sense of accomplishment, and satisfaction.

Plus..., you have spare parts..!! That is.., if you still have them, and not get tired of mowing & walking around them for the next umpteen years... Round-up works well for me, in my spare parts inventory, out behind the barn...., LOL...
 
   / Old disc to row hipper #4  
My 85 year old neighbour has this and lends it to me. He calls it a bedding plow. It was made by Ford Motor Company and probably goes back to the 40's or 50's. It creates the type of rows that you describe. I use it to create the mounded rows in which we plant trees. Nice job on your conversion.
 

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   / Old disc to row hipper
  • Thread Starter
#5  
Thanks for the comments guys.

Stampeder, that is an interesting design and likely would have been doable with the materials on hand as well.
 
 
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