Homemade Cultipacker

[gbaker5312]

I don’t believe that the gravel would be any better than concrete. I think the concrete will not only provide a heavier weight but also make a more solid structure. The gravel would have a tendency to break up over time and may even cause the drain pipe to rupture. To just elaborate further on my filing of the pipe, I plan to also add some wire mesh and rebar. I would cut the mesh into strips, about 4 inches wide and just about the length my drain pipe then wire them together into a square, put 4 pieces of rebar, one at each corner, then cut 2 pieces of mesh to go from corner to corner making an X shaped across to the other corner that will also help with the axle being centered through the pipe.
I have ordered all my parts and they are all set to deliver this week. I will update the parts on the original post so that I keep everything together so if someone is interested they can find parts and information together.

Okay, I understand now but I just don’t have the money for a commercial built cultipacker. I have looked at some alternatives to the drain pipe but all would cost more than I want to spend on it since I would only use it a couple of times per year. Thanks for clarifying.

 

[Fritz Maurer]

Where do you have to tow it that you would need wheels ?

 

[gbaker5312]

Where do you have to tow it that you would need wheels ?

I live in the country, on a large, around 500 acres of property, owned by my son in law. It’s mostly farming land but I am fortunate enough that I have a very large forested area right behind my home. I have been given permission to hunt it. I have seen on camera, deer, bears, turkeys, squirrels, raccoons, foxes, coyotes, what I believe was a wild hog and also a Bobcat. I have been able to locate about a half acre open area in the far corner and there is an old road that runs through the entire property and it runs right to the clearing. I have tried a food plot there, year before last, I planted it early August but had to go to Virginia for cancer treatment and it really didn’t do well since we didn’t get much rain.
Last year it did very well but I did use my 4 wheeler and ran over it do basically the same thing as the cultipacker will do! So that’s why it will have tires and another thing that I believe would happen without the wheels. The some of the ground from my home to the plot area is very rough so I’m trying to make sure I don’t break it or tear up the drain pipe roller!

 

[Scott 730]

I would just leave it parked in the bush near the plot rather than tow it back to the house. No need to add wheels. If you need one at the house just make 2 of them. The expense of adding wheels should about cover the cost of the 2nd packer. YMMV.

 

[gbaker5312]

I would just leave it parked in the bush near the plot rather than tow it back to the house. No need to add wheels. If you need one at the house just make 2 of them. The expense of adding wheels should about cover the cost of the 2nd packer. YMMV.

Well I guess I never thought about it but I have the wheels! I was fortunate several years ago that a golf cart repair shop that also purchased new carts to trick them out with all kinds of fancy wheels and
other accessories, had a huge amount of the shipping tires. I stopped by and asked if he would sell me some. He said no but you can have all you want. I took as many as I could get in the car. I have given so many away to friends. So the wheels are not a cost factor! I did work on it some today but just waiting on the last parts to arrive. I will post a couple more pictures. I added a cross member to the tongue because I noticed that it was just a bit too wobbly even before I got it done. Also a couple of pictures of the wheel assembly, one showing the short axle for the wheels, that is the outside view of the assembly, the hubs should be here soon. The other view is the inside view and the upper bearing bracket which you can see the tongue attached. The last picture is the drain pipe as it will be situated on the cultipacker. Probably should have it finished on Tuesday next week after I receive, the hubs, long axle and some other miscellaneous items. I had some drain hole covers in my shop, I never throw anything away! I have been called a “hoarder”!
I bought them probably about 10 years ago when I was building a house in Missouri that had a basement and didn’t need all of them. They are a perfect size to fit into the drain pipe, they are very strong with metal cover and a heavy duty plastic frame. I have drilled holes in the metal cover to be able to put the axle in the hole and then use metal pipe nuts to secure the axle at each end of the drain pipe. I will post pictures of the entire axle, drain pipe, bearing assembly and how I will keep everything in place and ensuring that the drain pipe stays stable and intact when it is completed. I can list all my materials, if someone wants, as I have had to add some and change others to make it better and easier to construct.

 

[gbaker5312]

I had ordered two different flanges, one rail and the other a floor. After receiving them I decided to use the rail flange, as it was much stronger built than the floor flange. Plus it gave more stability to the axle than the floor flange would have. I hope that the other parts are here Tuesday, I have to wait for the axle so I can get it centered inside the drain pipe, I am going to use the drain hole covers to be my end caps for the drain pipe. I will do a drawing of how I plan to setup the entire of the cultipacker, so here is the plan, put the end cap on one end and secure it with some screws. Flip it open end upwards, since the drain covers will take a 3” pvc pipe, I am going to take a piece of 3” pvc and apply glue at one end and push it down to the drain cover and get it centered at the open end, the other end should be centered already. Then fill the drain pipe with the concrete, after you have it filled, apply glue to the cap and install it in the drain pipe the same way as you did with the other side cap. Now you have to and should wait several days for the concrete to set and cure. And then you can place the axle through the cultipacker and install it on to the wheel assembly, then it is time to install the hubs on the short axles on the wheel assembly. After having the hubs installed, mount the wheels on the hubs and you should be ready to use it.

 

[Scott 730]

You are making this too complicated. Not understanding the 3" pvc pipe thing. What are you using for an axle?? I built an 1800# lawn roller last summer. 1 1/2" cold rolled axle. Cut 2 24" diameter plywood pieces to fit in the ends of the 24" sonotube. 1 1/2" holes centered on them. Fastened 1 piece into the end of the tube. Stood it on end, installed axle, dropped the rebar cage in, and filled with concrete. Left concrete 3/4" low and installed the other plywood piece. Axle perfectly centered.

 

[paul]

Clearly you are an engineer type, whether officially one or not.

I enjoy the attention to detail and planning. Many of us are much less organized on such things.

For some reason I was envisioning a metal culvert, I missed the part of this being a plastic one.

I enjoy the pics and progress.

Paul

 

[gbaker5312]

You are making this too complicated. Not understanding the 3" pvc pipe thing. What are you using for an axle?? I built an 1800# lawn roller last summer. 1 1/2" cold rolled axle. Cut 2 24" diameter plywood pieces to fit in the ends of the 24" sonotube. 1 1/2" holes centered on them. Fastened 1 piece into the end of the tube. Stood it on end, installed axle, dropped the rebar cage in, and filled with concrete. Left concrete 3/4" low and installed the other plywood piece. Axle perfectly centered.

I agree that I am probably making it a bit more complicated than I needed too! But when I was looking around the shop for something to use as the ends of my drain pipe which will hold the axle centered in the pipe. I found 2 metal and heavy plastic floor access panels. They were exactly the size I needed to fit into the drain pipe ends, I had 2 of them. The 3” pvc pipe fits perfectly in the opposite end of the metal cover so I decided to use these. Now, I also felt that the best way to ensure they are centered and level in the vertical position was to use the 3” PVC pipe to keep everything together in the correct position. When I get the concrete poured into the drain pipe it should be very easy to maintain the center and level of the end caps. I am going to use a 3/4” x 60” black metal pipe as my axle. The metal pipe is threaded on both ends and I have purchased several heavy duty steel pipe nuts and metal pipe collars, I have drilled holes just large enough to fit the axle pipe through the holes in the end caps. After I have the concrete installed, the end caps installed, then I can run the axle pipe through. The extra advantage in using the floor access panels is that I have the ability to remove the metal cover from the plastic body of the floor access panel, that will allow me to put the axle in the pipe, add the pipe collars to the axle reinstall the metal covers one at a time to make sure that you have the same amount of axle coming out of the end caps. Then I can install the drain pipe on the wheel assembly which I have installed on each side a mounted pillow block bearing that the axle will fit into. I will try to get a few pictures of how it looks as I put it together and installed on the wheel assembly.
Hopefully it makes sense now why I am doing it this way. I try to always use what I have before I purchase parts for the cultipacker project. This project has been a bit of a challenge since I have never made axles but only time will tell if my idea to use black pipes for axles will work well! The cultipacker will not be used on the highway, I don’t believe I will use it very far from the house around 1 mile and when I use it, it will not be used on more than about 1 acre. I believe the axles should be okay for my use. If they don’t work well then I will have my son in law make them from solid steel rods and thread them for my project. Got the concrete poured in the pipe and the floor panel I used was similar to that one I am showing. The pipe 3” running through it, well probably saved my day as it really helped me get the pipe centered but is keeping the end to end very tight even though I will run some long screws through the pipe in to the floor panel it will be very tight. After I let it cure, I will put the axle in and attach it to the cultipacker assembly and it should be finished. Then back to the mower project. Was taking a few days break from it! The blade spindles are a bear to get the pulley setup and seated on the spindle shaft, why they didn’t just put a castle nut with a cotter pin instead of the spreader bushing and the clevis York style wedge in it, so difficult to get the pulley in the correct position and then get the bushing in the pulley with the wedge in the groove and hammered into the pulley without damaging anything. Just not my thing but got to get her done!

 

[gbaker5312]

Well I realized today that I ordered the wrong size mounted pillow block bearings, so I just ordered a new pair of them in the correct size. They will be delivered on Wednesday. So I am going to get back to work on the mower rehab project tomorrow.

 

[Scott 730]

I still have no clue what the 3" pipe and a floor cleanout have to do with making a cultipacker.

 

[gbaker5312]

I still have no clue what the 3" pipe and a floor cleanout have to do with making a cultipacker.

When I started looking for a material for the ends of the cultipacker roller, black drain pipe, I found the 2 drain caps and they fit perfectly in the ends of the pipe. So I decided to use them. I thought about how to best use them and how to ensure that I would have them centered from end to end after I poured the concrete into the pipe. I also wanted to make sure I could get the axle pipe through it, so that is why I decided to use the 3” PVC pipe, after I cut the pipe and dry fitted it I got it all glued together at one end and stood it up and rachet strapped it to a pole so that I could keep it as close to straight up and down as possible until the concrete cured. After I got the concrete in, I then glued the other cap on.

 

[rrlund]

All this time I thought were using galvanized culvert,

 

[gbaker5312]

All this time I thought were using galvanized culvert,

Sorry for the confusion. I have been trying to get this done with materials that are easier to source but also less expensive and fairly easy to work with, I also used bolts and nuts to assemble it even though I do welding not every one can! I had to reorder some parts so I have to wait for them to arrive. Hopefully I will be done with it soon.

 

[Scott 730]

When I started looking for a material for the ends of the cultipacker roller, black drain pipe, I found the 2 drain caps and they fit perfectly in the ends of the pipe. So I decided to use them. I thought about how to best use them and how to ensure that I would have them centered from end to end after I poured the concrete into the pipe. I also wanted to make sure I could get the axle pipe through it, so that is why I decided to use the 3” PVC pipe, after I cut the pipe and dry fitted it I got it all glued together at one end and stood it up and rachet strapped it to a pole so that I could keep it as close to straight up and down as possible until the concrete cured. After I got the concrete in, I then glued the other cap on.

Sorry, still makes no sense.

 

[paul]

The plumbing drains were the right size to fit in the end of the culvert, and had a centered hole to be able to add an axle without a lot of measuring and trying.

Right or wrong, easy or not, cheap or expensive, not that hard to understand sourcing and using something to get the job done.

Paul

 

[Scott 730]

The plumbing drains were the right size to fit in the end of the culvert, and had a centered hole to be able to add an axle without a lot of measuring and trying.

Right or wrong, easy or not, cheap or expensive, not that hard to understand sourcing and using something to get the job done.

Paul

OK, so where does his 3"pvc pipe fit into the equation when he said the axle will be a piece of 3/4" iron pipe?

He has stated the culvert is 6". Somewhere in all of this design is a piece of 3" pvc pipe. Then a 3/4" iron pipe axle.

 

[paul]

I read too fast, did not notice the 3 inch pvc; my head transposed it into the 6 inch plastic culvert he is using. Yea not sure where the 3 inch pvc fits into this.

Paul

 

[Absent Minded Farmer]

I read too fast, did not notice the 3 inch pvc; my head transposed it into the 6 inch plastic culvert he is using. Yea not sure where the 3 inch pvc fits into this.

Paul

Won't that plastic just peel off the concrete?

Also wonder if the plastic is impervious to lime.

Things that make you go Hmmmmmm......

Mike

 

[paul]

On 5 acre plots the 6 inch plastic should hold up for a while.

On 40 acre fields it would be interesting how long it would last, and what then would the concrete remain ribbed and function for a good while before chipping up.

I’m assuming it’s single wall culvert, would be interesting if it’s dual wall. That night crush in the ribs quicker if it’s dual wall.

Hope he vibrated it well to fill in the ribs assuming single wall.

Paul