blackmajicwoman
Silver Member
Has anyone tried to find a really wide turf roller? Well, the wider you go, the more damage that your turf can incur, especially when making tight turns. The outside radius of the roller is going to want to spin at a faster rate than the inside radius of the roller. Seeing as the roller (should be) rigid, the roller will spin on the center point of the roller, which could tear up some of the turf. Hence the need for a multi-barrel roller, where the inside rollers can spin independently of the outside rollers. Also, a way to add ballast without having to take the (lengthy) time to fill with H20.
Additionally, most turf rollers are not heavy enough to be effective to do the job their intended to do. If you fill up a 36" wide roller with an 18" diameter will yield a total weight of about 750#, which on the tangent of the roller will be about 250#/foot. When you think about it, that is just a little more than the average weight of a person (ok, a big boy!) walking on your lawn!!! Thus, what good is the roller doing???
With that said, I designed and fabricated the ultimate lawn roller, with the assistance of my best friend, Mr. Jeff Roy! Check out the few pics we took as reference to my explanation. The design was simple?4) 16" wide sections of 16" diameter pipe bound on a 1 3/4" solid axle with a 1 1/2" square tube frame.
The barrels themselves are filled with sand and the weight tray has the ability to hold a max of (9) 8x12x16 concrete blocks (of which I filled the voids of the block with concrete). Each roller weighs about 225# and each concrete block weighs about 100#. The frame weighs about 150#. Total "dry" weight is about 1050# with the ability to add another 900# in concrete blocks. The resulting tangent yeilds about 365#/foot.
Total cost of materials is near $800 and took about 50 man hours to build.
We ran the roller for the first time last weekend to full capacity. I pulled it with my Kubota BX1500. My friend pulled it with his Honda 4WD ATV. The roller pulled flawlessly and did not bind or yield at all. The hitches of both tow units were fine as well. The resulting turf that was rolled was incredibly smooth, looking like that of a golf course, which was perfect for the aerator to do it's job!
Trust me, this roller is not commercially manufactured by anyone, trust me...I checked! Thus the reason why I design and built it.
Note: On the 3rd pic...don't look into the ARC without the proper shade mask!!!
Additionally, most turf rollers are not heavy enough to be effective to do the job their intended to do. If you fill up a 36" wide roller with an 18" diameter will yield a total weight of about 750#, which on the tangent of the roller will be about 250#/foot. When you think about it, that is just a little more than the average weight of a person (ok, a big boy!) walking on your lawn!!! Thus, what good is the roller doing???
With that said, I designed and fabricated the ultimate lawn roller, with the assistance of my best friend, Mr. Jeff Roy! Check out the few pics we took as reference to my explanation. The design was simple?4) 16" wide sections of 16" diameter pipe bound on a 1 3/4" solid axle with a 1 1/2" square tube frame.
The barrels themselves are filled with sand and the weight tray has the ability to hold a max of (9) 8x12x16 concrete blocks (of which I filled the voids of the block with concrete). Each roller weighs about 225# and each concrete block weighs about 100#. The frame weighs about 150#. Total "dry" weight is about 1050# with the ability to add another 900# in concrete blocks. The resulting tangent yeilds about 365#/foot.
Total cost of materials is near $800 and took about 50 man hours to build.
We ran the roller for the first time last weekend to full capacity. I pulled it with my Kubota BX1500. My friend pulled it with his Honda 4WD ATV. The roller pulled flawlessly and did not bind or yield at all. The hitches of both tow units were fine as well. The resulting turf that was rolled was incredibly smooth, looking like that of a golf course, which was perfect for the aerator to do it's job!
Trust me, this roller is not commercially manufactured by anyone, trust me...I checked! Thus the reason why I design and built it.
Note: On the 3rd pic...don't look into the ARC without the proper shade mask!!!
