Fall. It’s time to weed-n-feed, over-seed etc.
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Home build aerator
- Thread starter Neil Mullins
- Start date
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Looks good!
Somewhere on here are pic's of one I built a few years back but I sure can't dig them up.
Made it from plans I found as a tow behind unit with wheels for transport mode.
Then modified it with a hitch for use with sleeve hitch as well.
Somewhere on here are pic's of one I built a few years back but I sure can't dig them up.
Made it from plans I found as a tow behind unit with wheels for transport mode.
Then modified it with a hitch for use with sleeve hitch as well.
It works really nice. Each of the 7 wheels weigh apx. 90# and turn independent of each other. that keeps it from ripping & tearing so bad in a tight turn. Total weight of the unit is probably nearing 700#
Sure looks like it will do the Job. And last couple life times at least!
I gotta make me one of those!
I think there's an old brillion packer across the street rotting away in the woods,I'll have to go look. That should give me the wheels
I do mine & 2 neighbors while hitched up. Spring & again in fall. Probably close to as much area as a football field. In spring & 1/2 that in the fall. Had it for 3 years now & it does help keep the broadleaf at bay using weed-n-feed. Really helps with over seeding
Very nice Neil,I may have to go that route myself. The old packers across the street got scraped.
There is however an old steel tank of some kind laying over there. It's probably about10in dia x 4ft long. Were getting a water jet table at the shop I work at,which would make short work of some spiked rings to slide on and weld in place. For weight I could cut an end off and fill it with concrete and weld the end back on. I now have my winter project!
I cut my spikes from small drops of steel in 3 pieces that made 1 full circle. Think it was all from 1/2” thick material there might be some 3/8” thick mixed in there. At any rate the only thing I was out of pocket for is the 1 1/2” round bar that is the axle & (7) 1/8” NPT grease fittings, & the little bit of torch gas & welding wire. All the other steel was destined to the scrap bin.
I had a lawn service that sprayed my yard 3-4 times one summer "PLUG AREATE" my yard one day in the fall. It looked like every dog in the county, mostly BIG dogs, had run loose in my yard and took a dump. I decided there had to be a better way!
I started gathering steel,, 1" round bar 44" long for the axle. 7 plates cut into hexangles about 7-8" across the points, 3/16" thk, bunch of 3" channel iron, about 3/16" thk, some 2" x 2" x 1/4" angle iron, and I found a 5 gallon bucket that has 2 ft lengths of 1/2" cold rolled round bar, probably 100#, I borrowed about 50#.
I styled my areator after a GLENCO Soil-Save chisel plow that I ran for a couple days every fall for several years. My plan was to semi-mount it on my #72 with my home-made sleeve hitch. I wanted to be able to lift it out of the ground to cross or turn on my concrete driveway and sidewalks. I made 7 wheels, with 6 spikes of 1/2" round bar each, used iron pipe for bearings for the wheels, 1" rd bar for axle. I had a bunch of scrap alloy cast steel shear blades that were like 3 inches thick x 18" x 10", and several smaller blades. I'd C-clamp them on the frame of the areator, my total weight is really close to the 700# that Neil's aerator is. The steel spikes extend about 3 inches beyond the plate they're welded to, with all the weight the spikes penetrate full depth, 3+ inches, the spikes actually pull a slot in the ground, I've checked and the slot on the surface of the ground is as long as it is deep. I normally aerated just before the first frost, I saw lots of holes in the ground the following spring. I aerated my 2+ acre yard every fall for 8-10 years, the health and vigor of the grass kept improving every year. And the people we bought this place from hired a lawn care company to spray and fertilize and My aerated lawn was noticably better.
There's a group on another forum that buy aerators for their brand of tractors for about what ALL 3 of my Cub Cadets are worth, they swear a plug aerator is the ONLY style worth using, a spike aerator is worthless. Even my SON is a Plug aerator Nazi. If I built a plug aerator it would be about 6 ft wide and weigh 3000-4000 pounds, maybe more, and I'd pull it with one of my FARMALL 's. I pulled my current one with my 982 first fall I had the tractor, with cat O 3-pt it worked great, I had to move the lower arm sway limiters, the aerator would swing the hitch side-to-side that the sleeve hitch on the #72 never allowed. But the aerator is 33 inches wide, #72 is 36" wide and 982 is 46" wide, I need a longer axle for two more new spike wheels total of 9 wheels, make it 49-1/2" working width, and add another 200#+/-. Probably have to add two more wider spaced wheels to carry the aerator when it's out of the ground too.
I started gathering steel,, 1" round bar 44" long for the axle. 7 plates cut into hexangles about 7-8" across the points, 3/16" thk, bunch of 3" channel iron, about 3/16" thk, some 2" x 2" x 1/4" angle iron, and I found a 5 gallon bucket that has 2 ft lengths of 1/2" cold rolled round bar, probably 100#, I borrowed about 50#.
I styled my areator after a GLENCO Soil-Save chisel plow that I ran for a couple days every fall for several years. My plan was to semi-mount it on my #72 with my home-made sleeve hitch. I wanted to be able to lift it out of the ground to cross or turn on my concrete driveway and sidewalks. I made 7 wheels, with 6 spikes of 1/2" round bar each, used iron pipe for bearings for the wheels, 1" rd bar for axle. I had a bunch of scrap alloy cast steel shear blades that were like 3 inches thick x 18" x 10", and several smaller blades. I'd C-clamp them on the frame of the areator, my total weight is really close to the 700# that Neil's aerator is. The steel spikes extend about 3 inches beyond the plate they're welded to, with all the weight the spikes penetrate full depth, 3+ inches, the spikes actually pull a slot in the ground, I've checked and the slot on the surface of the ground is as long as it is deep. I normally aerated just before the first frost, I saw lots of holes in the ground the following spring. I aerated my 2+ acre yard every fall for 8-10 years, the health and vigor of the grass kept improving every year. And the people we bought this place from hired a lawn care company to spray and fertilize and My aerated lawn was noticably better.
There's a group on another forum that buy aerators for their brand of tractors for about what ALL 3 of my Cub Cadets are worth, they swear a plug aerator is the ONLY style worth using, a spike aerator is worthless. Even my SON is a Plug aerator Nazi. If I built a plug aerator it would be about 6 ft wide and weigh 3000-4000 pounds, maybe more, and I'd pull it with one of my FARMALL 's. I pulled my current one with my 982 first fall I had the tractor, with cat O 3-pt it worked great, I had to move the lower arm sway limiters, the aerator would swing the hitch side-to-side that the sleeve hitch on the #72 never allowed. But the aerator is 33 inches wide, #72 is 36" wide and 982 is 46" wide, I need a longer axle for two more new spike wheels total of 9 wheels, make it 49-1/2" working width, and add another 200#+/-. Probably have to add two more wider spaced wheels to carry the aerator when it's out of the ground too.
That's a bunch of good info!
mpatterson
Well-known member
So we have got to see pictures!!!!
Lots of great info. Brain is filling with smoke, thinking hard....
I second that...I've never aerated my yard. Now I'm thinking I might just have to try it
Here are some photos of Denny's home built aerator from the archives:
Wowsa! Thanks Kraig
The wheel weights are almost a necessity to pull one of these things on anything but flat ground My 106 pulled mine OK with regular turf tires, without weights. However it didn’t handle uneven ground or slopes very well at all. I have inner tubes in my tires & found that low pressure 7-8# or so also helps
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