Homemade Cultipacker Build

jack707 · Jun 4, 2015

That looks real good!

Nailhead · Jun 4, 2015

jack707 said:
That looks real good!

Thanks! Appreciate it.

jack707 · Jun 4, 2015

Im gonna weld one up as soon as I get electric in the shed.

Nailhead · Jun 15, 2015

Well it works! Went out next to my fall plot that failed last year, due to my bad planning and follow through, and disced a few rows then pull the packer over it. I didn't do a real good job discing and compounded the old rows that are already in the pasture from a previous owner, which caused some pretty bad high and low spots. I will have to make sure and try to get rid of those rows this fall and probably pull a harrow behind the disc to level it prior to packing. I will probably need to add weight to it as well. It was doing a pretty good job, but think it might do better if it were a little heavier. May weld up some expanded metal to make a place to throw cinder blocks on it or something. Should be fun to see what difference it makes for this years fall plot. The packing height behind the tractor is a little low cause of the height of the draw bar, but behind the UTV it should be perfect. The traveling height is perfect behind the tractor, but will be a little nose down behind the UTV but that isn't a big deal. Overall I am pleased with how it came out and how it works. Hopefully it makes all the difference when planting this fall.

jenkinsph · Jun 20, 2015

You may not need to add weight if you can smooth it out prior to running the cultipacker. Where it contacts the soil it looks pretty good to me.

1gr8bldr · Jul 5, 2015

I find a cultipacker very over rated. A pulverizer is what I use. Double roller without teeth. Maybe a cross between a cultipacker and pulverizer would be best if someone were to build one. The point is to crush the small clods. A cultipacker does not do this that well. And the lift ability is a big plus. They can be found on CL cheaper than cultipackers

kebo · Jul 5, 2015

Nailhead said:
Well it works! Went out next to my fall plot that failed last year, due to my bad planning and follow through, and disced a few rows then pull the packer over it. I didn't do a real good job discing and compounded the old rows that are already in the pasture from a previous owner, which caused some pretty bad high and low spots. I will have to make sure and try to get rid of those rows this fall and probably pull a harrow behind the disc to level it prior to packing. I will probably need to add weight to it as well. It was doing a pretty good job, but think it might do better if it were a little heavier. May weld up some expanded metal to make a place to throw cinder blocks on it or something. Should be fun to see what difference it makes for this years fall plot. The packing height behind the tractor is a little low cause of the height of the draw bar, but behind the UTV it should be perfect. The traveling height is perfect behind the tractor, but will be a little nose down behind the UTV but that isn't a big deal. Overall I am pleased with how it came out and how it works. Hopefully it makes all the difference when planting this fall.

It looks great, and I'm sure it will serve your needs, but... you mentioned adding a "basket" that you could throw in some cinder blocks, to add weight. That would certainly work to add weight, but I am guessing it would be a pain to have to remove them every time you flipped the unit over to transport. Now if you don't need to do that often, then it wouldn't be a prob. However, if it needs more weight, I would suggest just welding some extra steel weight on it, or attaching something permanent (like the blocks) where they couldn't "fall out" when you flip. Otherwise, great job!

L3650 · Jul 8, 2015

I found an old cultipacker in a farmers junk pile and bought it for scrap price. The intention was to build it for use with the atv. The 6 foot lead was in bad shape as were the two side pony sections. After disassembly and rebuild from available pieces there was one complete four foot section. The hunting land has several food plots with some rough trails that need to be traveled. Travel wheels where added. Works good for the intended purpose.