need advice building a road drag

[Jeff Lary]

I have searched these threads looking for a homade simple road drag.I have not seen what I think I need. I can get 6' I-beams 4"x6".We have some woods roads that could use a tune up from time to time," hit the high center so to speak". The beam I can get is the same style as a steel guardrail post. Can anyone send me a few pictures. I am a visual kind of person. This will be made of scrap farm steel we really dont want to spend the kind of money it would take to buy new steel. Of coures this is also for a 3pt hitch tractor.Thanks for any input.

 

[Mike476]

I made a drag for our paddock last week. Like you I didn't want to buy new steel, found the 4x4 square stock and angle iron in the junk bin of local welding shop, along with enough 1/8th inch plate for this and another project, cost $30. Only other cost was $5 for the two lift pins and about 25% of a 2 lb spool of .035 wire (mig).

I used a 4x6 inch I beam found in the woods, someone else had welded the gator blade to it. I welded the hardened steel pins on for my use but it's possible you'd just need the blade welded on, which you can usually get from the dept of highways pretty reasonably (free in my neck of the woods normally).

It is quite heavy, and with the blade welded on to cut into the crest of your roads I think it might serve you well. Yes, there are actual attachments you can buy that will probably do a much better job in a lot less time, but what's the hurry to get out of the woods..............

 

[electrarc]

I have searched these threads looking for a homade simple road drag.I have not seen what I think I need. I can get 6' I-beams 4"x6".We have some woods roads that could use a tune up from time to time," hit the high center so to speak". The beam I can get is the same style as a steel guardrail post. Can anyone send me a few pictures. I am a visual kind of person. This will be made of scrap farm steel we really dont want to spend the kind of money it would take to buy new steel. Of coures this is also for a 3pt hitch tractor.Thanks for any input.

Hi Jeff,

I am using mine today. It is made from old Railway Track. Work well.

Cheers Zac

 

[atgreene]

The problem with a drag is that it pushes material out into the ditches and lowers the center of the road. It then collects water. Water leads to potholes. No matter how you try a drag will never properly crown a road.

 

[electrarc]

The problem with a drag is that it pushes material out into the ditches and lowers the center of the road. It then collects water. Water leads to potholes. No matter how you try a drag will never properly crown a road.

You are correct. I use my drag to level ground as I am doing in the picture but I also use it to fill holes in my farm driveway as a quick repair.

Cheers Zac

 

[Mike476]

"Hit the high center" made me think of the woods roads around my neck of the woods, well travelled by quads / 4x4s etc and are well rutted, leaving quite a crown in the center of the road. I thought what the op was looking for was a way to knock the crown off into the rutts to make the road passable, but not necessarily by the family vehicle.

If that is not the case then the drag shown by electarc looks like what is needed.

 

[NormL]

I've been considering building a drag for my driveway and loop. I have some materials collected for it but no time right now to build it. In the meantime maybe I can get some advice for my build too. I want to use this with a 3ph as well. What I have in mind is two 8" channel beams and two grader blades welded into a square configuration. The channels to be the sides and the blades front and back. The front blade will be welded on the underside of the channels, laying flat with the cutting edge down - the channels are upright. The blade at the rear is welded across the back and acts as a backstop to gather the loose material the front blade has stirred up. Once there is as much material as it will hold the rest spills over the top and out of the way. I'm theorizing that after a couple passes most holes and ruts should be leveled out. I will probably need to add some weight to make it cut better. I think this could be useful after spreading fresh gravel. Thoughts?

 

[bcp]

The problem with a drag is that it pushes material out into the ditches and lowers the center of the road. It then collects water. Water leads to potholes. No matter how you try a drag will never properly crown a road.

Here's one that will. I'm thinking of building a steel version.
King road drag - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"...dirt would be pushed to the center to create a crown so that water would rush off."

 

[Jeff Lary]

Mike You are correct these are woods roads ,Tractor style woods roads not car and we just need to do a little leveling on occaision.

 

[crash325]

Here are pictures of the 2 drags that I have built and use.
The big one is 8' across, the smaller is about 5' wide. The small one also has teeth that dig down about 4 inches, Helps loosen the soil.

A drag pulled at an angle will move dirt to either the side or center of the road. After dragging the road should be rolled.

 

[crash325]

OOPPPS Forgot the pictures. :laughing:

 

[Mike476]

NormL, sounds like you have a circular type drive so your plans sound like they'll work great. Mine is straight so I like to be able to lift the implement, I don't have the room to circle around at the end of each run.

As far as weight is concerned, you might need to add some but more important I think is the time of year you try to grade. I live in a subdivision (private rd, not cared for by the county) that I drag each Spring before the road packs too hard. Once it dries out very few potholes form, and that's with traffic from 6 households. I use my back blade to do it because I can angle it and reclaim some of the gravel from snow removal. It's surprising how much material you'll loosen up with the top-link and adjustable lift-arm adjusted to get the blade to cut while maintaining the crown in the road.

I don't worry about crowning my drive, I just make sure it slopes away from the house to keep water away from my foundation.

 

[NormL]

NormL, sounds like you have a circular type drive so your plans sound like they'll work great. Mine is straight so I like to be able to lift the implement, I don't have the room to circle around at the end of each run.



I don't worry about crowning my drive, I just make sure it slopes away from the house to keep water away from my foundation.

That is correct; I do have a long drive with a loop at the end. The driveway is long and elevated from the yard and yes, it has a crown most of the time. Right now we need a fresh layer of gravel and when we get that I'll be spreading it myself. That's where the drag comes into it's own. I've tried using the backblade without success. The swoops and humps just become more pronounced. I'll smooth it first with the drag and then deal with the crown later. The backblade will fix that.

 

[brucewj]

I made this from my scrap pile. I used two old grader blades. I shape the road a couple of times a year with my back blade to get/keep the crown the way I want it, then I use this drag about once a month to keep the road smooth.

The drag goes a lot faster than back blading it, and keeps the road nice. One thing I would do over if I was to rebuild is to make it about a foot wider and much heavier.

 

[tmajor]

Just this week, I re-surfaced my driveway. I use a modified, which has been called by different names by the same quarry ... it used to be "1-A modified", most recently called "1/2- modified". I believe, the stone is 1/2 inch and smaller. Anyhow, it works great, as it doesn't separate, while moving it from place to place. Plus, it packs like concrete.

I spread it and level it with the 3pth back blade. The trouble is, if the tractor front goes down, the blade comes up and vise-versa. Thus, you are continually working the 3pth control. After getting this to be fairly well graded, back-blading in reverse, keeps the tractor on the most uniform finish and allows the blade to "just cuff off" the high spots.

However!: I think, this rig would work better, as a "fine-grader". I believe, I'll have a look at making a "removable" mod. to my back blade.

 

[flusher]

I have searched these threads looking for a homade simple road drag.I have not seen what I think I need. I can get 6' I-beams 4"x6".We have some woods roads that could use a tune up from time to time," hit the high center so to speak". The beam I can get is the same style as a steel guardrail post. Can anyone send me a few pictures. I am a visual kind of person. This will be made of scrap farm steel we really dont want to spend the kind of money it would take to buy new steel. Of coures this is also for a 3pt hitch tractor.Thanks for any input.

I'd build a float like this one that my contractor used to grade my gravel driveway when it was installed a few years ago.



Good luck

 

[Jeff Lary]

Thanks for all the great pictures.

 

[davedj1]

I think this would be better to keep from rolling all the dirt off to the sides.
Tebben Enterprises: Yard Leveler

 

[NormL]

I made this from my scrap pile. I used two old grader blades. I shape the road a couple of times a year with my back blade to get/keep the crown the way I want it, then I use this drag about once a month to keep the road smooth.

The drag goes a lot faster than back blading it, and keeps the road nice. One thing I would do over if I was to rebuild is to make it about a foot wider and much heavier.

brucewj: The drag you built is almost exactly what I envision for my needs. Where I will make a change is at the front blade. I will flip it end for end and weld it to the bottom of the sides so that the cutting edge will shave the high points but not dig aggressively. Other than the sides being heavier channel than yours, mine will be almost a copy. Also, instead of using a top link I plan to have a length of chain there. That way the drag will be self balancing while in use.

 

[Piston]

However!: I think, this rig would work better, as a "fine-grader". I believe, I'll have a look at making a "removable" mod. to my back blade.

I've been thinking of adding the same exact thing, except I am thinking of adding it to my boxblade.

Disclaimer: I haven't even used my box blade yet, actually have never used one in my life, so I'm not sure if it is needed yet or not. I plan to 'learn' the basics and then decide, however I feel like if I had a guage wheel my learning curve would be a lot easier.