I would like to make a small plow to break up the sod at the edge of a
dirt road that I am trying to grade and crown. I have been using a
homemade King road drag with good results. But the road needs
widening in many places, but the drag will not bite into the
grass/weed shoulder. I am using my Jeep to haul the drag and would
like to do the same with some kind of plow. I'm working alone, so it
would need to follow behind the direction of pull without guidance.
I don't need to turn over a furrow, just cut the sod and break up the
soil a little.

I have a bunch of scrap steel to work with:
lots of 3 in. channel and 5 in channel.
lots of 5 in. square tube- .093 wall.
some heavy 3 in angle.
lots of 1 in. square tube- .062 wall
some 1.5 in square tube -.062 wall
lots of 1.0x1/8 in. flat bar.

I can get anything else through work.

Thanks.

--

Dan H.

On Wed, 06 May 2009 02:27:01 GMT, the infamous (dan)
scrawled the following:

I would like to make a small plow to break up the sod at the edge of a
dirt road that I am trying to grade and crown. I have been using a
homemade King road drag with good results. But the road needs
widening in many places, but the drag will not bite into the
grass/weed shoulder. I am using my Jeep to haul the drag and would
like to do the same with some kind of plow. I'm working alone, so it
would need to follow behind the direction of pull without guidance.
I don't need to turn over a furrow, just cut the sod and break up the
soil a little.

I have a bunch of scrap steel to work with:
lots of 3 in. channel and 5 in channel.
lots of 5 in. square tube- .093 wall.
some heavy 3 in angle.
lots of 1 in. square tube- .062 wall
some 1.5 in square tube -.062 wall
lots of 1.0x1/8 in. flat bar.

I can get anything else through work.

How about a modified hula hoe? I used one at a client's house the
other day and they work great for top scavenging.

Put yours on the right side of the drag (3-point hitch for stability,
not single) to catch the shoulder sod.

Reinforce a double-width of the 1" flat bar and stick it on the
outside of the drag. Sharpen the bottom, cutting edge a bit.
__
/||\\\\
reinforcement //|| \\
top & forward // || \\
// || \\
|====================================//===||========\\\
| rear view of drag || \\
|=========================================||====== =====\\ sharpen
new hoe edge

--
The scientific theory I like best is that the rings of Saturn
are composed entirely of lost airline luggage.
--Mark Russell

On May 5, 10:27*pm, (dan) wrote:
I would like to make a small plow to break up the sod at the edge of a
dirt road that I am trying to grade and crown. *I have been using a
homemade King road drag with good results. *But the road needs
widening in many places, but the drag will not bite into the
grass/weed shoulder. *I am using my Jeep to haul the drag and would
like to do the same with some kind of plow. *I'm working alone, so it
would need to follow behind the direction of pull without guidance.
I don't need to turn over a furrow, just cut the sod and break up *the
soil a little.

I have a bunch of scrap steel to work with:
lots of 3 in. channel and 5 in channel.
lots of 5 in. square tube- .093 wall.
some heavy 3 in angle.
lots of 1 in. square tube- .062 wall
some 1.5 in square tube -.062 wall
lots of *1.0x1/8 in. flat bar.

I can get anything else through work.

Thanks.

--

Dan H.

Hi Dan,

Sorry I can not offer any help re making a plow.

Perhaps renting/borrow a rototiller may work for your sod areas? If
you are on Long Island I'd offer you use of my Toro rototiller
attachement for my wheel horse garden tractor. Sometimes when I just
want to scrape off the grass on an area I set it up to only make a 1-
inch or so deep cut over the area. Rake the grass roots out and it's
done. Works a treat making new garden areas out of useless lawn ;-).

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,

--

Paul Schiller

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.

What's that Lassie? You say that Larry Jaques
fell down the old
rec.crafts.metalworking mine and will die if we don't mount a rescue
by Tue, 05 May 2009 21:11:30 -0700:


How about a modified hula hoe? I used one at a client's house the
other day and they work great for top scavenging.

I need to cut deeper than I think that would go. And the soil is full
of rocks.

I was thinking of something like an small old fashioned anchor, but
with one flute. I would need something to keep the flute down and
from going too deep.

--

Dan H.

dan wrote:
I would like to make a small plow to break up the sod at the edge of a
dirt road that I am trying to grade and crown.


Go to a "farm store" and see what is available in plowshares, disks,
etc. Might give you some ideas.
RR

What's that Lassie? You say that Randy Replogle fell down the old
rec.crafts.metalworking mine and will die if we don't mount a rescue
by Wed, 06 May 2009 20:56:11 -0400:

dan wrote:
I would like to make a small plow to break up the sod at the edge of a
dirt road that I am trying to grade and crown.


Go to a "farm store" and see what is available in plowshares, disks,
etc. Might give you some ideas.
RR

I've looked online, and didn't find anything that I thought would
work. Most farm plows haven a three point hitch for use with a
tractor. And all the horse drawn plows require a person to steer it.

I need to drive the Jeep, so I can't guide the plow. I can only tow
the plow with a strap or chain so it will need to be made to follow
without guidance(other than the direction of pull).

I was thinking of something like a large fishhook, with a cross bar to
keep the point down(vertical).

--

Dan H.

On Thu, 07 May 2009 00:28:00 GMT, the infamous (dan)
scrawled the following:

What's that Lassie? You say that Larry Jaques
fell down the old
rec.crafts.metalworking mine and will die if we don't mount a rescue
by Tue, 05 May 2009 21:11:30 -0700:


How about a modified hula hoe? I used one at a client's house the
other day and they work great for top scavenging.

I need to cut deeper than I think that would go. And the soil is full
of rocks.

Bummer x2.


I was thinking of something like an small old fashioned anchor, but
with one flute. I would need something to keep the flute down and
from going too deep.

How about a tractor with rototiller, then a drag to smooth it?

--
The scientific theory I like best is that the rings of Saturn
are composed entirely of lost airline luggage.
--Mark Russell

I need to drive the Jeep, so I can't guide the plow. *I can only tow
the plow with a strap or chain so it will need to be made to follow
without guidance(other than the direction of pull).

Would a spike harrow work? You could probably change out the number
and depth of the teeth as needed to get it to work right with your
soil. Either find an old one, or make one--there's a ton of pics
online. If you use a clamp system for the spikes to the crossbars you
could add/remove/reset the depth, but even just something simply
welded might be enough. I suspect the fancy adjustable angle type is
overkill for your use. You'd just have to keep an eye on it and pick
the rocks out every so often.

Would a disk harrow cut up the sod enough for you to then work with
your drag? You might set the angle so the disks are nearly straight
on, more as a set of coulters to slice stuff up rather than at a steep
angle as a clod breaking tool. Some of the disks have cutouts which
keep them from getting damaged too badle when dealing with rocks.

You talk about towing from a tow-hook, so I'm guessin you don't have a
trailer hitch. You might look for a twisted clevis that would allow
you to go from a vertical pin type (typical on the older tractor-drawn
stuff) and then drop the loop over your tow hook (see ebay item
250263839746 for what they look like). Either that or bolt/weld a 1/2
thick metal bar on somewhere that juts out with about a 3/4" hole
through it. A lot of older tractors didn't have much more than that.
Or if you do have something like a Class 1 hitch, remove the hitch
ball and use that.

There may be a bunch of older stuff out there that will work for you,
assuming it hasn't all been cut up for scrap yet. In fact I could
have sold/given you some a month ago, but we're cleaning up to sell,
so my brother got out the torch...

--Glenn Lyford

On May 6, 8:19*pm, (dan) wrote:

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!

Thanks Dan, most helpful.

--

Paul Schiller

What's that Lassie? You say that Larry Jaques
fell down the old
rec.crafts.metalworking mine and will die if we don't mount a rescue
by Wed, 06 May 2009 20:19:34 -0700:

I was thinking of something like an small old fashioned anchor, but
with one flute. I would need something to keep the flute down and
from going too deep.

How about a tractor with rototiller, then a drag to smooth it?

That would be great. But I don't have access to either of those.


--

Dan H.

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 Thu, 7 May 2009 06:42:45 -0700 (PDT):

On May 6, 8:19*pm, (dan) wrote:

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!

Thanks Dan, most helpful.

I just would like to add that today I added a strip of steel bar
(3/16x1.5x24) to the leading edge, as is shown in all the drawings of
a King road drag. It projects about a 1/2 inch below the channel
iron. This has improved the cutting action greatly. I had left it
out because I thought it might be too aggressive, being much heavier
than if made of wood.


--

Dan H.

What's that Lassie? You say that Glenn Lyford fell down the old
rec.crafts.metalworking mine and will die if we don't mount a rescue
by Thu, 7 May 2009 06:11:13 -0700 (PDT):

I need to drive the Jeep, so I can't guide the plow. *I can only tow
the plow with a strap or chain so it will need to be made to follow
without guidance(other than the direction of pull).

Would a spike harrow work? You could probably change out the number
and depth of the teeth as needed to get it to work right with your
soil. Either find an old one, or make one--there's a ton of pics
online. If you use a clamp system for the spikes to the crossbars you
could add/remove/reset the depth, but even just something simply
welded might be enough. I suspect the fancy adjustable angle type is
overkill for your use. You'd just have to keep an eye on it and pick
the rocks out every so often.

Thanks Glenn, I'll search around and see what I can find online.

Would a disk harrow cut up the sod enough for you to then work with
your drag? You might set the angle so the disks are nearly straight
on, more as a set of coulters to slice stuff up rather than at a steep
angle as a clod breaking tool. Some of the disks have cutouts which
keep them from getting damaged too badle when dealing with rocks.

You talk about towing from a tow-hook, so I'm guessin you don't have a
trailer hitch.
I don't. But the tow hook is off to one side, just what I need.
The road is OK. I just need to rip up the shoulder so the drag can
get a bite. Dragging from the center of the Jeep would mean I would
have to drive though the trees.

Anyway, it may be all moot. I added a cutting edge to the front of
the drag that hangs 1/2 inch below the front channel. That has helped
a lot. Works better than ever now. Scrapes up dirt from the side and
smears it to the middle of the road.



You might look for a twisted clevis that would allow
you to go from a vertical pin type (typical on the older tractor-drawn
stuff) and then drop the loop over your tow hook (see ebay item
250263839746 for what they look like). Either that or bolt/weld a 1/2
thick metal bar on somewhere that juts out with about a 3/4" hole
through it. A lot of older tractors didn't have much more than that.
Or if you do have something like a Class 1 hitch, remove the hitch
ball and use that.

Oh hooking something up is easy. I can make all sorts of rings clips
and hooks and things.

There may be a bunch of older stuff out there that will work for you,
assuming it hasn't all been cut up for scrap yet. In fact I could
have sold/given you some a month ago, but we're cleaning up to sell,
so my brother got out the torch...

Thanks for the thought.

--

Dan H.

On Fri, 08 May 2009 01:45:16 GMT, the infamous (dan)
scrawled the following:

What's that Lassie? You say that Larry Jaques
fell down the old
rec.crafts.metalworking mine and will die if we don't mount a rescue
by Wed, 06 May 2009 20:19:34 -0700:

I was thinking of something like an small old fashioned anchor, but
with one flute. I would need something to keep the flute down and
from going too deep.

How about a tractor with rototiller, then a drag to smooth it?

That would be great. But I don't have access to either of those.

I don't know of any way to make a plow, which is going through lots of
rocks and varying height terrain, pull straight with a single drag
point. g'luck!

--
Change is the process by which the future invades our lives.
-- Alvin Toffler

What's that Lassie? You say that Larry Jaques
fell down the old
rec.crafts.metalworking mine and will die if we don't mount a rescue
by Thu, 07 May 2009 19:25:31 -0700:

How about a tractor with rototiller, then a drag to smooth it?

That would be great. But I don't have access to either of those.

I don't know of any way to make a plow, which is going through lots of
rocks and varying height terrain, pull straight with a single drag
point. g'luck!

Thanks. I do have a few ideas though. I'll post pics or plans when
come up with anything.

--

Dan H.