Bed spring drag

[IMCA38]

An earlier post here mentioned dragging an old steel bed spring to smooth out rough dirt, etc.
I have pulled one before behind my LGT. However, the pain was getting it to and from where you wanted to use it. Now that I have my CUT and a boom pole, I found a way. This is hardly an original idea. The county has a similar setup on their road graders where they hang a two bladed road drag and drop it when needed. This isn't the fanciest thing, but I only spent about a half hour and about $5 worth of new chain. In the future, I might drill some holes in the cross bar of the boom pole and the front of the bed spring and use a hook and eye bolt setup. But this worked just fine yesterday when we prepared to seed a yard. The nice part was that I could back it up into a corner, drop the spring and drag away from the tight spot.
This photo shows it in the upright position.

 

[IMCA38]

This photo shows it in the "drag" mode. Note that the chains on the front do all of the pulling and the long chain on the end of the boom pole is limp. The white things in the middle of the bed spring are lead weights off of my race car, attached with a big 1/2" U bolt. About 80# total weight, to keep the spring from "hopping" as it is pulled.

 

[Henro]

Looks great!

Only question I have is where does one find bed springs like that these days?

I would gladly haul them off for someone if I could find some. What size? Queen?

Or are they simply cloth covered springs with the cloth removed?

Man, sure looks like I don't have a clue about bed springs...which I guess I don't... /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

 

[To20Chris]

Do you keep a fitted sheet around, in case you want to take a nap after dragging? /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[rebelmedic]

That appears to be a old heavy duty set of bed springs.They are normaly covered in cloth.Those can possibly be found at goodwill or other type second hand store

 

[IMCA38]

I'm sure this thing is old. I think they used them as you see it with a "straw tic" mattress on top of it. If they were covered with any type of cloth, I suspect the lady of the house did it. As far as finding one, good question. My dad gave this one to me several years ago and if I could find another one, I'd grab it in a heartbeat. This on is starting to get kind of beat up.

 

[greg_g]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( In the future, I might drill some holes in the cross bar of the boom pole and the front of the bed spring and use a hook and eye bolt setup. )</font>
You might want to rethink that idea, as drilling holes in a boom pole almost certainly decreases it's lifting capacity. It looks like a decent 1000# rated implement now. To keep it that way, you might want to consider having keyslots welded on the underside. Like mine, at http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/download.php?Number=465827 and
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/download.php?Number=465830

//greg//

 

[sassafraspete]

Darn, I knew I shouldn't have gotten rid of those old springs. Mine came from an early 1900s bed that my grandmother had which got passed down to me. I refinished the bed and updated the rails to accept a full sized mattress, and got rid of the old springs. The only set of open springs I've seen around here. So I would guess you'd find them on an old antique bed. Come to think of it, I bet she probably had a feather bed, as many folks had them back in those days.

Anyhow, the combination boom / drag seems to be a great idea.

sassafraspete

 

[Kevin_in_VA]

I've got an old set sitting behind my barn. Now I know what to do with it. Thanks! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[johnday]

An old chainlink fence gate works good too /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

[Tractors4u]

I tried this with the old mattress off of my waterbed. I must be doing something wrong because it had very little effect on the dirt! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[penokee]

Great idea. Some of the bear hunters in my area use them to drag old dirt roads, then later drive the roads looking for a bear print. When they find a print, they release the hounds and the hunt is on.

penokee /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[PineRidge]

A few years back I used a set of springs like that to help finish off our lot after construction just before I threw down the grass seed. Unfortunately by the time we finished there wasn't much left of the original set of springs. They don't last long when you work them hard.

 

[Taylortractornut]

When i take the old box springs we usually just burn the whole then while its still hot dip it in water or spray it. They get a little longer usage and we mist fuel on them to hold off rust. One bad thing about them is I did a job for a fella and he used his bed sprin drag to drag in the seed. Then unhooked it and never got it off the yard. One year later Im bushogging the lot for him and find a pleasnt suprise. I spent 4 hours freeing the drag from the bushog shaft.

 

[SPIKER]

yep any OLD pring MATRES usually has some good inside springs set up to use, you can burn them off or just cut & tear them off. also works is a section of CHAIN LINK, no gate needed but the top/bottom rails on the chain link helps add smoothness to the ground, pull with ATV or rider no BIG tractor needed. add a few cement blocks too. they use these methods around the local baseball diamonds to help smooth prior to games. once saw guy pulling a ~8'x8' chain link section with 2 or 3 kids riding on back, man I was mad, if one of those kids stuck a finger down through the link it would be gone in seconds and very painfull way to loose one too I'm sure...!!!

Mark M