Building a Land Roller

[CCWKen]

I think it will be a waste of time.
Here's why:
Your roller will hold about 313 gallons. Figure about 300 gallons fillable. That's about 2400 pounds of water (not counting the weight of the tank). Allowing for about two inches of contact with the ground and a width of 96", you'll be putting a force of about 12.5 pounds per square inch. You can probably do better than that with the heal of your shoe. :thumbdown:

Rent, buy, build or borrow a vibratory plate compactor. They'll do more work in an hour than you could ever do with a roller.

 

[Garycw]

Ccwken that would be 180,000 sq ft. With a plate compactor???
I did a patio 180 sq ft for pavers with one and it was a work out

 

[bcp]

I think it will be a waste of time.
Here's why:
Your roller will hold about 313 gallons. Figure about 300 gallons fillable. That's about 2400 pounds of water (not counting the weight of the tank). Allowing for about two inches of contact with the ground and a width of 96", you'll be putting a force of about 12.5 pounds per square inch. You can probably do better than that with the heal of your shoe. :thumbdown:

Rent, buy, build or borrow a vibratory plate compactor. They'll do more work in an hour than you could ever do with a roller.

That's when it is on flat ground. If he isn't concerned about compacting flat ground, the full weight of the implement (minus tongue weight) will be applied to a much smaller area of a bump, like a ridge or molehill.

 

[CCWKen]

You must be talking about the vertical jackhammer style. I just did 960 square feet of #2 base a couple of weeks ago. Did it in less than an hour. The tool did all the work. All I had to do was hang on to the handle and it "drove" itself. I own two but only one has a handle at the moment. I found the bases at a salvage yard less the engines. Since I don't use it that often, it shares an engine with a tiller.

This thread just gave me an idea to adapt the two compactor bases to a 3pt hitch setup. I need something to compact a 1/4 mile driveway. I could drive the compactor vibrators with the PTO. BRILIANT! If do say so myself.

 

[Garycw]

adapt the two compactor bases to a 3pt hitch setup. I need something to compact a 1/4 mile driveway. I could drive the compactor vibrators with the PTO. BRILIANT! If do say so myself.

That might work.just use two motors and pull or lift with the 3 pt hitch

 

[CCWKen]

I thought about the two-motor setup. The problem is that the vibrators wouldn't be in-time but that probably wouldn't matter. I also didn't want to use two motors and have to worry about the throttles. With it PTO driven, it's simple. It's either on or off.

Edit: Sorry about the hijack. I'll stop here.

 

[KennyG]

This thread just gave me an idea to adapt the two compactor bases to a 3pt hitch setup. I need something to compact a 1/4 mile driveway. I could drive the compactor vibrators with the PTO. BRILIANT! If do say so myself.

Sounds like it would be fun to watch, but I would predict a short tractor life. I once used a vibratory plow on a Vermeer articulated machine (a pretty substantial item) and if you weren't careful and got the plow against something hard, it would often break parts.

 

[Densleigh]

Hi,

As the OP asked about a roller to build. I have done this with a 6ft long by 2ft diameter x 3/8" thickness steel water main.
I made end plates from 1/4" plate with a threaded bung hole for filling with water.

The axle was made from 2" pipe with some solid end shafts turned and welded into the pipe. These were then used with pillow block bearings (self aligning type) bolted to a 3" x 1 1/2" channel frame with a tow bar. I urned the shafts down from 2" to 1 1/2" leaving a shoulder of 2" to act as a spacer to prevent the roller moving within the frame.

I welded some pieces of flat plate to the axle tube about 2ft from each end as spokes to support the axle inside the roller body. In addition I welded some similar spokes to the end plates to provide support and prevent any flexing.

I have not noticed any 'surging or sloshing' of the water in the roller. When i fill it I have the filling end of roller raised up on some blocks to provide a real high point and fill until it flows back at me. so probably 98% full.

Commercial rollers usually have a hardwood (oak) block used for the bearings, I was unaware of this when i built mine, but apparently handles shock loads better than a modern bearing, is a lot cheaper and does not seize up!

This is towed around with a 26hp tractor with no problems up or down inclines.

One thing I do is store it on a couple of wooden bearers off the ground to stop it getting rust spot and earth sticking to it.

It isa simple thing to fabricate and does level off the bumps (mole hills and the like) also use it to roll in the grass at the start of the growing season.

If I mind on I can get some pics.

Regards

 

[chim]

We built one at work for the gravel areas. Our homebrew landplane is good for getting the gravel smooth and level. Then we roll it down to tighten it up. This is something we do a couple times each year. The roller is made from 24" Sch 40 steel pipe filled with concrete. The axle is 2" pipe and each segment has a piece of 2-1/2" cast into it. The center segment is about 19" and the rest are 12". The cast-in axles were made a little longer than the width of the segments so the segments wouldn't rub together. It weighs a little more than 3,000#.

The reason I went with pieces rather than one long pipe was so it could turn with a minimal amount of skidding.

 

[KennyG]

We built one at work for the gravel areas. (snip)

The reason I went with pieces rather than one long pipe was so it could turn with a minimal amount of skidding.

I really like the looks of this. Do the segments just float or do you have some type of "thrust bearing" to keep them separated?