Leveling Drag----and I have searched.

[Grove JD]

Looks like a land plane made from rail. The only thing I would have done differently would have been to make your first cutting edge angled instead of straight across. It will work better angled at cutting down the high spots instead of bouncing or hopping over them. Think of how a mandolin or guillotine blade cuts at an angle.

Somebody mentioned dirt building up between the rails. As long as he has enough loose material it will only carry a small amount that will drop into his holes and the extra will fall over the top of the rails and leave a smooth surface behind. With regard to compacting your holes I would just plan on running over the area a few times with rain in between and let the rain do all your compacting.

Grove

 

[rutwad]

Grove, you are right. I had planned on putting the 3 blades straight across, hoping the weight would cut the high places and carry some dirt to fill in the low spots. I asked my dad and he said angled blades probably be better, so that was a last minute change. You can see the blades in the forklift picture. First 2 at opposing angles and rear is straight. With my original idea of the 3 straight blades, I was going to attach to the front rail to pull it. Started welding the angled rail and realized I had to do something different. Only decent piece of scrap was 4" channel, so it was welded across the front with a couple braces.

So started using it Saturday evening and it was working well considering I was unsure whether it would work or not. Sunday morning I started dragging different area and before I could even flinch the 2nd blade caught a stump. The front channel piece folded up along with some other damage. That is when I changed to straight blades so I would have something beefier to pull against.

It does need tweaking. The ground was already disked, so I was letting it run on skids so it wouldn't dig too deep. Now I'm wondering if it needed the skids. And I see many drags have teeth, but I'm guessing I wouldn't since the ground is already disked.


QUESTIONS

• Skids or none?
• Teeth?
• Angle 2 blades? Same or opposing directions?

I'm just brainstorming, but could I drag without skids pulling it so the blades cut more. Then possibly drag it backwards for smoother finish? What if I welded the skids to the top, but left about 2"s from the skid bottom to the rail. Confusing to me so basically the rail would cut being pulled when positioned like

____________________________________
/ / /
/ / /


pulling it < direction.

Then flip it over. No. Plan # 147.B


____________________________\ O
/ / \
/ O / O

Pull it < direction. (The "O"s represent the top of the rail). And somehow have the rear rail maybe 1-2"s higher and angled the opposite direction. Scratch that plan now that I drew it, but I was thinking maybe some of the dirt clods may roll under the rear rail helping bust them up.


So probably the top drawing and a heavy pipe attached with short chain that is slightly wider than drag? Pipe help to bust clods?

 

[rutwad]

Forget the drawings. They look nothing like it did when I typed them.

 

[bcp]

Irrigated land used to be smoothed with large wooden "floats" after disking. I think they were about 4x12 material, with all the bottoms steel sheathed. They were about 10-12 feet wide, maybe 20-30 feet long. Three cross pieces, with the front and rear at about a 30 degree angle, and the center one vertical. Steel rod diagonal bracing.

All I could find online was a plan for a much smaller one.



Bruce

 

[PhysAssist]

Irrigated land used to be smoothed with large wooden "floats" after disking. I think they were about 4x12 material, with all the bottoms steel sheathed. They were about 10-12 feet wide, maybe 20-30 feet long. Three cross pieces, with the front and rear at about a 30 degree angle, and the center one vertical. Steel rod diagonal bracing.

All I could find online was a plan for a much smaller one.

View attachment 393860

Bruce

Hi Bruce,

Thanks, that's an awesome illustration that will be going into my archive for future reference when I start "trying to make myself a land plane/grader.

Rutwad, hang in there, you will get this figured out and the basic materials you are working with (those rr rails) are so heavy duty that once you get it dialed in, it is going to really an amazing piece of work, given that everybody always says that with these implements weight is key to performance.

Thomas

 

[Scooby074]

Thats a beeeeeeefy drag! It wasnt till I saw the forklift pic that I understood the scale of it. I kinda thought 1600 lbs was wishful thinking too.

As to how to address the buildup of dirt, I keep this video in my playlist. Its a heavy duty tow behind highway drag out of Sweden or Finland. Might give you some ideas? Maybe not..