EddieWalker
Epic Contributor
Way back when, I first learned of drags from a friend who had a metal mattress frame that he dragged around his place behind his truck to smooth out his roads. It worked pretty good, but at the time, I really didn't put allot of thought into it.
When I bought my land, I was a member here and had seen various threads on what people used for making a drag, which led me to cut a length of oak and wrapping it with some cyclone fencing that I had. This was my first drag, and first experience using one myself. I was very impressed with how is smoothed the ground out. It had a few drawbacks, but for the price of a chain, it was pretty nice.
The biggest drawback was that it would slide over a bump if it was hard packed or bigger then a football. I would go over a bump several times, but never get it to disappear with the log drag. The other problem was that it rotted out on my last year. I think I got five years out of it, so I'm not complaining.
Instead of making another drag that will rot out on me again and not be able to cut off the bumps like I want it to, I started working on a plan to make a new one. Egon sent me an email a few months ago suggesting I make it out of concrete. I really liked this idea, but had a problem with the weight. I wasn't sure how much weight I could pull effectively, and I also wanted to be able to remove weight from it when spreading seed or going over an area that I had disked.
I wanted a sharp cutting edge at the bottom and I wanted it heavy enough to cut off those small bumps. I'm not a great dozer operator, so I either spend hours trying to get it just right, or I get the backhoe and smooth it out with the loader bucket. Even then, it's not what I really want, and I rely on the drag to get it there. The sharp edge at the bottom of the drag was important in my design. I also wanted it to be tall enough to carry material. Again, I wasn't sure how much, which was another problem I had with making it out of concrete. I was going back and forth on how tall to make the forms before abandoning that approach and switching to angle iron.
I bought a stick of 3in x 3/8's of an inch thick angle iron for the front and back frame. I think 3/8's should be thick enough to hold up to years of use and still hold an edge against my red clay. I cut them to 7ft 4in lengths. This worked out perfect for ten cinder blocks. I used 3/8's inch thick 2x4 steel tubing cut to 16 inches for the ends and middle pieces. The ends could have been made of anything, but I liked them because I didn't have to worry about an uneven lip for my cinder blocks, and they are heavy duty.
I drilled a hole in the tops of the middle two 2x4's for the chain. This worked out very well and made for an easy way to attach it. I added the welds around the hole to give it more strength, but honestly don't think it needed it. That steel is pretty thick.
When I went to buy my cinder blocks, I noticed that McCoys has solid blocks. I never noticed them before, but for $3 each, and 75 pounds each, they looked allot better then cinder blocks. With ten of the blocks, and the amount of steel in this, I'm guessing that it weighs around 900 pounds.
On my first test run, I realized real quickly that I needed a way to hold the blocks in place. The dirt works its way under the blocks and forces them up off of the angle iron. Some fell off, others spun around and all of them lifted off of the angle iron and were riding on the dirt that wedged between the blocks and angle iron.
After thinking about it, I decided to cut some threaded rod that I had laying around, and welding it to the tops of the 2x4's. Then I cut a piece of channel, and drilled holes in it. When I bolted it all together, it became VERY SOLID!!!!
This really did the trick and the results are amazing. It's heavy enough to go right through any bumps in the ground. It holds plenty of dirt in front of it and fills all the low spots with that dirt. One surprise bonus is that it takes out the plants from my roads. I didn't expect this, or even consider it. I can go over a road that is growing over with grass and weeds, make a few passes and it's a nice and smooth, dirt road again. Did I mention how impressed I am with it? LOL
My 35hp, 4 wheel drive tractor pulls it just fine. I can be in mid range, 2nd or 3rd gear for most of my pulling. For the side slopes and wetter areas, I go down to 1st gear, but still have plenty of power. It's more of an angle issue and staying in my seat while on uneven terrain for down shifting.
Let me know what you think.
Eddie
When I bought my land, I was a member here and had seen various threads on what people used for making a drag, which led me to cut a length of oak and wrapping it with some cyclone fencing that I had. This was my first drag, and first experience using one myself. I was very impressed with how is smoothed the ground out. It had a few drawbacks, but for the price of a chain, it was pretty nice.
The biggest drawback was that it would slide over a bump if it was hard packed or bigger then a football. I would go over a bump several times, but never get it to disappear with the log drag. The other problem was that it rotted out on my last year. I think I got five years out of it, so I'm not complaining.
Instead of making another drag that will rot out on me again and not be able to cut off the bumps like I want it to, I started working on a plan to make a new one. Egon sent me an email a few months ago suggesting I make it out of concrete. I really liked this idea, but had a problem with the weight. I wasn't sure how much weight I could pull effectively, and I also wanted to be able to remove weight from it when spreading seed or going over an area that I had disked.
I wanted a sharp cutting edge at the bottom and I wanted it heavy enough to cut off those small bumps. I'm not a great dozer operator, so I either spend hours trying to get it just right, or I get the backhoe and smooth it out with the loader bucket. Even then, it's not what I really want, and I rely on the drag to get it there. The sharp edge at the bottom of the drag was important in my design. I also wanted it to be tall enough to carry material. Again, I wasn't sure how much, which was another problem I had with making it out of concrete. I was going back and forth on how tall to make the forms before abandoning that approach and switching to angle iron.
I bought a stick of 3in x 3/8's of an inch thick angle iron for the front and back frame. I think 3/8's should be thick enough to hold up to years of use and still hold an edge against my red clay. I cut them to 7ft 4in lengths. This worked out perfect for ten cinder blocks. I used 3/8's inch thick 2x4 steel tubing cut to 16 inches for the ends and middle pieces. The ends could have been made of anything, but I liked them because I didn't have to worry about an uneven lip for my cinder blocks, and they are heavy duty.
I drilled a hole in the tops of the middle two 2x4's for the chain. This worked out very well and made for an easy way to attach it. I added the welds around the hole to give it more strength, but honestly don't think it needed it. That steel is pretty thick.
When I went to buy my cinder blocks, I noticed that McCoys has solid blocks. I never noticed them before, but for $3 each, and 75 pounds each, they looked allot better then cinder blocks. With ten of the blocks, and the amount of steel in this, I'm guessing that it weighs around 900 pounds.
On my first test run, I realized real quickly that I needed a way to hold the blocks in place. The dirt works its way under the blocks and forces them up off of the angle iron. Some fell off, others spun around and all of them lifted off of the angle iron and were riding on the dirt that wedged between the blocks and angle iron.
After thinking about it, I decided to cut some threaded rod that I had laying around, and welding it to the tops of the 2x4's. Then I cut a piece of channel, and drilled holes in it. When I bolted it all together, it became VERY SOLID!!!!
This really did the trick and the results are amazing. It's heavy enough to go right through any bumps in the ground. It holds plenty of dirt in front of it and fills all the low spots with that dirt. One surprise bonus is that it takes out the plants from my roads. I didn't expect this, or even consider it. I can go over a road that is growing over with grass and weeds, make a few passes and it's a nice and smooth, dirt road again. Did I mention how impressed I am with it? LOL
My 35hp, 4 wheel drive tractor pulls it just fine. I can be in mid range, 2nd or 3rd gear for most of my pulling. For the side slopes and wetter areas, I go down to 1st gear, but still have plenty of power. It's more of an angle issue and staying in my seat while on uneven terrain for down shifting.
Let me know what you think.
Eddie
I am going to need something like that in the future for our place...
