Rolled lawn yesterday

Here are some pictures of the 5000# roller I made 15 year ago. It was my first retirement welding project.

I pull it behind my 72 inch woods mower.
I decided to roll lawn after I got 2 plus inches of rain. In true redneck engineering, everything was FREE, except for welding rods and 7 bags of Portland cement

500 gallons of water would have been just fine, except the tank wasn't made of thick enough metal. So I cut out 4 bung holes and made 2 places to get inside. Weld rebar, add forms and it took 7 different concrete pours to line tank,

Make a place to add about 250 gallons of water. I added water once and Jubilee was clawing grass for traction . Only use this roller on level ground. Don't stop real fast. At 5 mph, you know it's back there. I made the roller to flatten mole runs, which it does. I was hoping to crush moles, which it doesn't. Next day moles are laughing at me, I'm back.

One time I had white rock stuck to roller. Went over sidewalk and made powered lime.

So far my redneck roller has worked for 15 years. I transported it to my WTH property. It took me half day to secure roller and transport it. I transported it back to property where I built new pole barn and said I'll never move it again. If I think it's scary to load and move, you know it has to be scary. Never again.
Share pictures of your roller or redneck engineering projects so the wanta be rednecks can get ideas.

George

I would think turning with that hooked to the back of your mower is hard on your three point hitch arms.

Been doing this for 15 years. You would think I would have damage something by now.
Never damage Jubilee or Kubota.

I've got a roller I built out of two 55 gallon drums welded end to end and filled with cement with a steel bar down the middle for an axle. My Case VAC will pull it, but turning with it hooked to the drawbar makes it want to pull the tractor to the side. It's less than 5000 pounds.

110 gallons is about 15 cubic feet about a half yard of concrete about a ton.
Neighbor has scales and weighted mine.
Please post pics of your redneck engineering.

George, when you made the cement pours how did you hold that heavy drum in place after you had made an odd number of pours making the drum unbalanced?

No pictures but a solid description. My dad took a 20 inch diameter pipeline pipe 14 feet long with 3/4 wall thickness. He built bearings for the end caps from full floating ford truck hubs. The axle stub was cut off the center section, then welded to a 3/4 in plate that formed the end cap. The driving axle flange was cut off short and welded to a 2X 4 channel that formed the hitch. The draw bar was about 7 feet long. He filled it with used motor oil as antifreeze. We used it every spring on at least 35 acres. Timing was everything on clay, as it had to be rain mellowed but not muddy or fresh plowed and disked so the clods would actually crush and not just get smashed into the surface. I didn't see it go away, but I think it did when I was in school. Jim

Used 2 ratchet straps and frame of
roller.
It wasn't easy to do.
I was determined.
Every redneck need to make his own rules.

Here are a few pictures of my home made lawn roller. It is two 55 gallon drums welded together end to end and filled with concrete with a steel bar through the middle for an axle. I think the steel bar is 1.5 in diameter. Then I built a tongue around it. You're probably pretty close with your ton estimate. Probably a bit more than a ton once the weight of the steel in the tongue is factored in. It is all I want to pull with my Case VAC. My International cub loboy 154 will not pull it, it just spins.

Glad to see YT has rednecks.
Good job

Holds about 1200 Gallon of water . I didnt build it