Homemade Lawn Roller, how heavy should it be?

[beenthere]

rmcess That was a smart offer on your part.
And you are right on too, about operating your own equipment if 'on loan'. No hard feelings if you break it yourself (at least beyond the normal reactions). But no end to hard feelings if someone else breaks your equipment, even if it was obvious it was not their fault.

 

[jimgerken]

Bubba, I read most of all the great replies the guys already gave you and would add one idea. I built a roller two years ago, and learned that the width is not important, but the diameter is what determines the pressure per square inch. The point is to concentrate enough weight on a small area to force it to level the ground, but still be able to pull the thing up your biggest hill. If you use a large-diameter tank, you will get more psi. Length of the tank then determines total weight, but that is not as important as weight per square inch on the ground. Example: I used a 24" diameter steel fuel tank, 30 inches long, filled with water. 30 inches was enough to span from rear tire center to center. 24 inches gave pretty good pressure, but STILL not enough. I added another 480 pounds of steel weights to the frame (use good bearings, you may wish to add weight also). Now the total with tank, frame, water, weights equals almost a 1000 pounds. And more importantly, this 1000 pounds is applied to the ground over just 30 inches. You can see that if it was twice as wide and still weighed 1000 pounds, it would be half as effective because the psi would drop in half. Build with large diameter tank. A friend of mine built one this year out of a 5 foot diameter by 5 foot long cast concrete culvert section, and did not need to add any weight inside, he says it works great.