Chainlink fence drag to smooth dirt

[chim]

What it lacks is a scarifier. It works best on loose soil, sand or gravel. I originally made it to drag our stone driveway, and it did knock down the high spots and fill in the holes. It made maintaining the driveway an easy chore. By making the two drag chains different lengths, it could be quickly set up to cast the spoils left or right. The edges of the front beam have 4 holes that can be hooked into to make it either more or less aggressive. With the chains in the top holes, it will dig in pretty well, and in the bottom holes it will spread the material out. The one photo showed it being used to spread sand we added to the volleyball court. It was a lot easier to get the sand spread even using it rather than the FEL...................chim

 

[PineRidge]

Chim you say this gadget works well for gravel drives? How bout sharing a drawing or two with the TBN site? I for one would like to add one to my build it list. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[chim]

Will do. I'll get some info together..................chim

 

[chim]

PineRidge, here's a sketch of the drag. The beams are 70" long, and are 6" tall with 6" flanges. They are that size simply because the two beams were free. Fortunately, they worked fine with those dimensions. They are bolted together with six pieces of 1/2" allthread that keeps them 10" apart.

There are 4 holes near the edge of one flange to connect chains to. I used those repair links with the threaded thingy to connect the chains to the drag. Connecting to lower holes makes it less aggressive, and connecting to higher holes makes it more aggressive.

To use it, the chains connect to the frame of the boom lift via grab hooks. Lifting is done with one chain from the lift boom tip to the top center allthread. I keep the lift chain completely slack, unless I'm feathering something in. By making the two chains that pull the drag different lengths, you can cast the material to the left/right/straight ahead. This is nice for bringing material toward the center of the driveway for some crown.

Since it lacks scarifiers, it won't dig up a dry hard driveway. Our driveway would get almost like concrete when it was real dry. It worked best when there was some moisture in the ground. I have used it successfully to spread topsoil and sand.................chim

 

[PineRidge]

Chim the first picture of your drag attached to the boom pole appeared to be U channel. However the drawing clearly shows that you basically used a couple of lengths of I-beam connected by the all-thread rod.

I have used a box blade in the past but the rippers cause me more grief than they are worth on my gravel drive. They tend to pull up the large stone that was used as the base material (8 to 10 inch stone). I just had it topped with 45 tons of number 57 stone and I need something that will keep it smoother than the landscape rake turned backwards that I am currently using.

I already own a boom pole, and I have access to scrap steel so we'll see what I can do with your plan. Thanks for sharing your idea with me and the other TBN'ers

 

[chim]

You're quite welcome. Good luck with your project. One thing you won't believe till you try it out is how much difference it makes by hooking the drag chains in the different holes.........................chim