guage wheels

[Eric_Phillips]

I have read several posts about building some guage wheels and have one question. Some people have used essentially heavy duty casters from Harbor Freight or TSC for the wheels. My question is how have these held up? With the wheels getting so much dust do the swivel mechanisms hold up? Even the ones that you can grease I would think would just get gunked up with dirt. I would think something like what is on my mower would work beter but I am not sure how easy it would be to find the correct parts. On my mower they basically have a plate mounted off center of the wheel with a rod sticking up that goes into a piece of pipe. There are washers on either end and a cotter key at the top to hold it together. There is a grease nipple so you can fill the whole thing with grease. This seems like a better setup since it has no ball bearings and would stay relatively clean. Would you be able to find a rod and pipe that would work well enough do make your own?

 

[bigdad]

Eric,

Your assumption is correct. Open bearings, grease and dust are not a good combination. I deal with it all the time. My answer is timely grease gun applications.

I am one member that uses the (large) castor system. It was much cheaper and in my case I use them on my RB for snow removal where dust is at a minimum. On the other hand, cinders and salt can raise the devil with open bearings too. again.......GREASE.

Agri Supply has some pretty good looking gauge wheels and supports in their inventory. You might check there.

I think you will like gauge wheels on your blades and rakes no matter what system you end up with. Check out Homebrew's setup. A high end setup in MHO.

Big Dad

 

[Egon]

My gauge wheels [3 in. diam.] are the caster type with ball bearings. They cost about five dollars each at Princess Auto. I don't grease them yet they still work well.

I would post a picture but they are so ugly I'm ashamed to! They do work though.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Here's a pic of the Woods tailwheel which looks like the best design I've seen.

No offense to anyone!

 

[Sprocket1]

Is the main purpose of the guage wheels to limit the amount of depth during cutting or to spread material a certain thickness? Assume I want to spread sand to a depth of 1". If I set the guage wheel to hold the blade up 1" and drive forward until the wheel is on the sand then the blade will be 2" off ground level. Won't I continue to spread deeper and deeper the further I drive forward? Thanks

 

[Egon]

The gauge wheels on a back blade allow the blade to be angled so that one side can cut and the other will drop off dirt in a windrow. This allows one to roll all larger stuff to one side and get rid of it if it is not wanted. Rolling the windrow also mixes the material as well as carries forward. Running a windrow back and forth will soon cut high spots and fill the low ones. The gradual laying in of dirt allows for better compaction.

 

[Dascro]

That looks like a nice, clean gauge wheel set-up that Homebrew has.

Does anyone know if the gauge wheels in that set-up have any adjustment for depth?

Thanks,
Dave

 

[SkunkWerX]

Is the main purpose of the guage wheels to limit the amount of depth during cutting or to spread material a certain thickness? Assume I want to spread sand to a depth of 1". If I set the guage wheel to hold the blade up 1" and drive forward until the wheel is on the sand then the blade will be 2" off ground level. Won't I continue to spread deeper and deeper the further I drive forward? Thanks

You aren't going to drag too much of a pile, only what would fit between your rear tires and the blade.

There would be a good deal of wheel sinkage in the freshly spread material, as well. In a perfect world, your scenario may be a problem, but, in practice, it doesn't quite happen that way.

Let's say it was gravel, where your wheels wouldn't sink as much.
I think you might spread first, coarsely, without the wheels, then once the material has been laid out, then you would use the gauge wheels to "screed" the material off to the desired depth/coverage.

the gauge wheels help quite a bit, however, you aren't going to get road-grader precision.