Drag Harrow

[rosey]

Anyone out there use a drag harrow to dress up their crusher run / gravel drive??? I'm considering getting one for my sub-cut to dress up my drive and control the weeds. What do you think of it if you use one???

 

[greg_g]

Anyone out there use a drag harrow to dress up their crusher run / gravel drive??? I'm considering getting one for my sub-cut to dress up my drive and control the weeds. What do you think of it if you use one???

Would help if you were a bit more specific. Drag harrows come in at least three different kinds commercially, more if you count the homegrown verision.

Off the top of my head I can think of chain harrow, spike tooth harrow, spring tine harrow - all of which are typically "dragged". I personally have an 8'x9' chain harrow, but I use it more for pasture maintenance than I do for roadwork.

//greg//

 

[Cottonhawk]

I have a flexible tine harrow. I use it for dragging the pastures and dress up the gravel. It works great.

 

[rosey]

I have a flexible tine harrow. I use it for dragging the pastures and dress up the gravel. It works great.

Cottonhawk.............thanks for the reply. So in your opinion a "flexable tine" harrow would be my best bet to dress up the gravel and loosten up the weeds??

 

[gordon21]

GregG:

Can you post a picture of your chain drag with details on chain size and the speed you drive.

 

[DAP]

I have found this works for many uses ... It is not flexible but can be configured in one of 3 ways for levels of aggressiveness. Comes with an option 3ph frame also .... (not shown)

Works great in the pasture to bust up manure and grooms the arena wonderfully... from REM Manufacturing ... my local dealer carried this unit ...

 

[greg_g]

GregG:

Can you post a picture of your chain drag with details on chain size and the speed you drive.

No problem. By chain size, perhaps you mean diameter - I wouldn't recommend investing in anything less than 5/8" hardened chisel point steel. Keep in mind though, all this takes horsepower to pull.

Speed? Fast as I can for the conditions. You can go a lot faster over a level gravel driveway than you can pulling through pasture grass uphill.

//greg//

 

[Slamfire]

I like to make a couple of passes in the spring with my landscape rake. That works much like a spring harrow would. My spike tooth fills up and rides up over rocks and vegetation. It's only good for breaking up clods after plowing.

 

[RonMar]

I use the same as Greg and Dap (5/8" chain harrow) with the tines up for the driveway. Works great. I like these cause they can be used tines up for smoothing, tines down and back for lighter cutting/harrowing and tines down and forward for a more agressive cut. Mine is made by Rankin equipment co but there are several manufacturers out there. Mine is 6' wide and 4' long. And I can just get away with pulling it on the driveway with a 27HP sears garden tactor. The 28 Horse Diesel dosn't even know it is there Cost a little over $200 for just the harrow mat. I used some scrap pipe and chain to connect it to the tractor and I use the boom pole assembly from my post hole digger to lift it off the ground.

 

[Egon]

Try one of these harrows.

 

[MarkV]

Rosey, it sounds like I could be missing your intended purpose or we just do things different in this area of the country. Here with a crusher run drive we would not want to loosen up the base with a harrow. The advantage of crusher run is that all the stone dust, fines, work there way between the larger stone so that as the road is used it compacts together into a very solid surface. A harrow is going to loosen up all that stone dust and let things move around until it is compacted again.

Our maintenance schedule would be to grade the road with a rear blade or box blade to reestablish a crown in the road as needed. Then when shaped as needed to get on it with the vehicles to compact it so it stays as shaped when the next rain comes.

MarkV

 

[Egon]

Mark you are right on with the treatment of a crushed gravel road.

However; many here seem to like the looks a raked gravel drive/ road gives.

 

[rosey]

Rosey, it sounds like I could be missing your intended purpose or we just do things different in this area of the country. Here with a crusher run drive we would not want to loosen up the base with a harrow. The advantage of crusher run is that all the stone dust, fines, work there way between the larger stone so that as the road is used it compacts together into a very solid surface. A harrow is going to loosen up all that stone dust and let things move around until it is compacted again.

Our maintenance schedule would be to grade the road with a rear blade or box blade to reestablish a crown in the road as needed. Then when shaped as needed to get on it with the vehicles to compact it so it stays as shaped when the next rain comes.

MarkV

Mark......I'm aware of the "fines" compacting down. I use the boxblade occassionaly to try to "dress up" areas of the drive and parking area and to loosten up those pesky weeds popping thru the gravel. I thought that a drag harrow would smooth things out a little better after using the box blade.