What's that Lassie? You say that PaulS fell down the old
rec.crafts.metalworking mine and will die if we don't mount a rescue
by Wed, 6 May 2009 10:10:22 -0700 (PDT):

Can you tell me more though how you made your King road drag?

Did you use real split log, or regular lumber like 2x6's? Add a metal
blade to it?
Do you run it at a 45-deg angle, or some other angle?

I was under the impression that one needed to "ride" the drag,
controling the cut with your weight by moving back and forth on the
drag. You state however that you run it alone. How does that work?

Do you run it on a dry or wet surface? How many passes do you use?
Any advice for someone who wants to build and use a drag on his rutted
dirt road?

Thanks for any answer and good luck with the plow.

Best regards,

Hey Paul.

I made my drag from scrap steel that I had left over from a large
shipping crate at work. Riggers wanted to charge us to haul it away!
Ha!

So I used some of the 5" channel iron for the 'logs' and 3"x1.875"
square tubing for the cross pieces. I made mine with 7 ft. long
'logs' since I had a 14 ft. length. I offset them so that at 45-deg
the ends line up front to back. I used a length of chain attached
near the middle of the channel on the leading side and at the top of
the channel at the discharge side. That's so that any rocks or sticks
can go under the chain. I attach a nylon recovery strap to the chain
with a grab ring(simmilar to a grab hook, but its a ring). The strap
is attached to the Jeep on the drivers side, using the rear recovery
hook mounted on the frame rail.

Using the grab ring I can adjust the angle that it pulls at. At
45-deg it does a good job of pulling dirt to the center of the road.
Lesser angles are good for filling small pot holes.

The best time to drag is when the road is damp, like after a light
rain.

I have the channels going with the flat faces forward, but I think
that I should add some 1/4" flat bar to the outer third of the leading
channel to cut in some more. On a hard packed flat surface it won't
cut in at all, just glides over. On the rutted areas, it cuts in nice
on the high spots and drops the dirt into the low spots.

The road I'm working on has some big low spots that will take some
time to fill in. But all the little dips filled in quickly.

I did make a wooden platform to stand on out of some 1x3 and 2x3, but
when I turned the drag over to use with my Jeep, I found that the
middle 2x3 landed on top of the center cross piece. I didn't get the
center cross piece in the center of the outer two. The platform was
for use by a person at the boarding stable that has a draft horse that
needs exercise. The woman was hitching him to an old tractor tire and
dragging it up the lane. So I offered to make a King road drag for
her to use instead. So far I've been using it more.
--

Dan H.