A Level Field

[sunspot]

I have old pasture land that is a bit hard to mow due to dips and holes and a few rises. I recently ran a two bottom plow through about a half acre and after a week, I ran a 20 X 20 Tandem Disc Harrow over it.
It's still not the level field I'm looking for. I want land that I can drive a normal car over it at speed without breaking anything on the car or my neck.

I've been eyeing Spike/Drag Harrows wondering it that would help smooth thing out.

So the question to the members here is what to use? Chain or Spike. Ridged or Flexable?

I was thinking of a Spike Tooth Drag Harrow with a rigid frame vs. flexible.

Here are some models I found on a web search.
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Leinbachs

Per the web site, they make this in house.
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Martens

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McFarlane

What is the difference between open end and closed end?

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Buhler

 

[Egon]

You may also want to consider a drag of about 10 feet wide that can be angled and then do multiple passes from different directions to help smooth the ground. Disk afterwards and repeat the process till it meets your needs. A rough field is no fun.

The spiked harrows look nice. That is about all that was used in the area I grew up in. We called them diamond harrows!

 

[N80]

I'd keep going over it with the disk. Over and over in different directions, each time decreasing the angle of the gangs. I've been amazed how good that is at leveling. That should take care of any major humps/depressions, but a drag harrow would be nice to smooth out the little rows left by the disk.

 

[tessiers]

plow then disc then harrow. an old steel bedspring can do the harrowing if you disc it well, or a chain harrow works well.

 

[Toolguy]

They can be hard to find these days but a spring tooth drag works much better than a spike tooth for leveling ground, IMHO. They work pretty good for breaking up clods, too. My dad used both and says the springs are much better. I know the springs do a good job but I personally have no experience with a spike. All we used on the farm when I was a kid was springs. I have used a small section that I could pull with my garden tractor for years on lawn projects. Last summer I salvaged an ancient Ford 3PTH spring tooth from my neighbors fencerow. I plowed and then leveled off some reclaimed swampland with it and a roller. I could easily drive a car on it. Good luck.

 

[oldhippy]

I made a drag out of two crossties with a section of old chain link fence between the ties. I had old field with rows from soybeans to level. I tilled the dirt then ran the drag over the loose dirt and it smoothed it pretty well. I think that it would have been better if I had a roller to pack the dirt before I leveled it. I have a roller now and am going to use it when I level some more land. big dan

 

[ampsucker]

IMHO, the key to getting the ground level is length of the implement.

think: road grader vs. snowplow.

the longer the ridgid lenth of the implement, the less prone it is to sinking into the valleys and causing dips at the cutting surface.

once the surface is broken (plow, tiller, disk, whatever), i've had good luck using the front end loader in a drag type position to shave off high spots and fill low. you'll never get the same results as a grader because of the location of the wheels relative to the cutting surface, but it's better than a flexible drag that just follows the contours of the surface.

if you think about it, the best way to maximize the length of your machine is use the front end loader in combination with a back blade. set both to scrape just an inch or two off the high spots and then go at it from all different angles until you gradually get it smoothed out. this will shave high spots and fill low spots.

another way to get some advantage is use a machine with large wheels relative to the size dirt clumps you have. if you have access to a larger tractor with very large wheels, you won't have as much undulation as you drive over the plowed surface.

it takes some time, but short of renting a grader, you'll end up with a pretty smooth end result.

 

[EddieWalker]

I'd build a log harrow. Find a straight lenght of oak, or something heavy, and cut it as wide as you can pull behind your tractor. I pull an 8 foot one that's 18 inches thick behind my 35hp 4wd tractor. I have a length of chain wrapped around each end of the log that I loop over my tow bar. Then I have a length of cyclone fence wrapped around the log to help smooth things out.

The disk breaks up the dirt. The more you disk the land, the softer the soil will be and the easier it will be to smooth out. The log will plow the high spots and fill the low spots. It wont move allot of dirt, but it will move some. If you have really bad areas, it will ride up over them and make the smoother, but it won't take them down. You'll need to do that with a FEL or box blade. Then go over it with the log drag.

I've been using mine for 4 years, and it's one of my favorite implements. Also my cheapest!!!!

Eddie

 

[texasjohn]

Eddie Walker and N80 summarize my experience and recommendations. My drag is a long metal pipe.

 

[sunspot]

Thanks to all for the replies. I think I will try to save a few bucks and try the logs and fence method first.
If that fails, it's time to spend $ on a new toy.

 

[N80]

Well, since everyone is sharing their homemade rigs I'll tell you what I use. It started out just like Eddies log harrow but it was an old 6x6 I found. But, my plots are small and it would not make tight turns plus it tended to wander from side to side. So, one day I just rolled it up like a carpet. So you basically have several layers of chain link fence wrapped around a 6x6. I wired it together and now just drag it this way. I works very well and turns tigher too.

I also noticed that the info about my disk says that it is built strong enough (I hope) to pull a harrow behind it. I'm done disking this spring but next fall I may try to rig it so that I can pull it behind my disk. It will need to be able to hand back far enough not to get tangled in the disks but close enough so that it will come off the ground when I left the disk. Even then, I suspect I'll have to be careful to prevent tangling when lowering the disk back down.

Of course it would only be used on the last pass.

I'll post pics if I ever make this work.

 

[sunspot]

If it's sharing time, I'm going to use 3 logs 7' or 8' long, chained together, laid on a piece of cyclone (chain link) fence.
I tend to overdo or over-think some things.

 

[EddieWalker]

Dana,

I understand about over thinking these things, but in this case, I don't see how you will gain anything with more then one log. The key to the log drag is the log being big enough to work as a plow on high spots and to be able to push dirt forward to fill in the low areas.

It wont level a field, but it will make it allot smoother. I've tried and tired, but my log just isn't big enough to move enough dirt to remove a real high area. For those, I use my FEL or backhoe and dig them away. Then the log drag is awesome at smoothing it out.

More logs wont do anything for pushing the dirt, but having the largest, heaviest one that your tractor can pull will.

My neighbor tried to build one out of channel iron. The idea was that the front of the iron would break off the high spots and spread the dirt back to the the rest of a frame that he welded up. Unfortunately, it was too big and if part of it lifted up, it didn't do anything.

A length of railroad track would work great, as will some I beams or just about any heavy iron with sharp edges. My other drag is a pair of oversize forks for a very large forklift. Each fork is over 300 pounds. I can pull them with my 35 tractor on solid, dry clay, but if I hit anything soft, I'm not moving. With my 80hp backhoe, I can pull it through just about anything. It's heavy, but it does a great jog at smoothing out my roads.

Eddie

 

[dqdave1]

I would rent a rear tiller; then a landscape rake with guage wheels. A Harley power rake would be the ultimate to finish with after the landscape rake , it would be as level as you want it and smooth.

 

[texasjohn]

Fellas, I've never gotten smooth in one step.... disk/harrow in one direction, then at an angle... let it rain and melt down.... disk/harrow more shallow... maybe at 2 or three different angles.... let rain melt things down.. if that isn't smooth enough for you...you are too pickey!