Tumble bug scraper

Anonymous-0 · Mar 16, 2010

Seen an ad in the implement section for a tumble bug scraper. Just curious what it is and what it is used for. No I'm not a farmer just like tractors and reading this forum. I've learned alot from you guys, tractor related or not.
Thanks

John in Nebraska · Mar 16, 2010

A tumble bug scraper is a poor mans dirt mover and leveler. Most were not hydraulic. Imagine a large barrel with a slice taken out of it, laying on its side. The hitch attaches to the ends. Pulled by a tractor, when you pull a trip rope the "barrel" will roll, release the top and it stops the rolling, so the blade in the notched area is down, and it will scrape full of dirt. Pull it to the dumping area, pull the rope again and it will roll over and dump its load. Some have several notches that let it stop and level dirt, smooth dirt, or be pulled short distances. Many a barn yard has been leveled this way. Think of a very small pan scraper.

GeneMO · Mar 16, 2010

I've got one down in the scrap pile. We used to pull it with an H Farmall. It's kinda hard to explain if you never saw one work.

Imagine a drum about half again bigger than a 55 gallon drum. With it laying on its side, cut a rectangular chunk out of the side that is about 1/3 of the drum. Leave the two end intact. Then along one edge of the rectangular slot, attatch a section of grader blade. Now on each end fashion a Pin sticking right out of the center. This attatches to a yolk that becomes the hitch.

There is catch system that will lock the drum in place, or when you trip it let it tumble.

You trip it so it starts digging, it will fill with dirt then roll over to the transport position (notched side up so the dirt doesn't fall out). You then drive to wherever you want to dump the soil, pull the rope that releases the catch and it tumbles over and dumps the soil out the slot.

That is about the best I can do.

You might search You tube and find a video of one working.

Gene

Janicholson · Mar 16, 2010

Imagine a barrel like cylinder with bearings on each end. (Lawn roller on steroids)
Remove a section of the barrel and attach a mechanism that will allow the cylinder to be stopped in its bearings so the removed section is down and forward, letting the trailing edge of the hole cut into the dirt.
Imagine a release to allow the cylinder to roll and dump the dire it scraped up in the slot.
The heaver they are, and the better the edge is on the rear of the slot, the better they work.
Variations used wheels and runners and hydraulics, and inventive welding to "improve" the basic design. I hope this helps. Jim

Janicholson · Mar 16, 2010

Fun is like minds describing the same thing!! Jim

Leyland-270 · Mar 16, 2010

We used a couple when I was a kid. They worked some what like an earth scraper. Hooked behind the tractor there were at least three settings. You drove ahead in scrape or fill mode, stopped, then pulled a rope as you backed up a little, stopped, released the rope and it would lock into transport mode as you pulled ahead, drive to where you want to dump it, give the rope a quick jerk and release and it would go into spread mode.

They worked good but slow.

PJH · Mar 16, 2010

Several very good descriptions below. My experience with them is not pleasant. My old tumblebug will cut real good one pass, then the next pass will just hop up and down. If it was consistent, it would be easier to deal with.

If you ever use a good wheel scraper, you'll never hook to another tumblebug.

Paul

BCnT · Mar 16, 2010

our "tumblebug" was actually a horse drawn Frisco...after the mules got traded off for a 8N my grandfather would hook it to a tractor and i would grab the handle on the Frisco and he would drag us both around the hog pasture fillin in roots...lotsa fun...NOT!

PJH · Mar 16, 2010

BC - that thing might be what we call a "slip scraper". I have one in the barn - it has wooden handles on a scoop about the size of a wheelbarrow. A pivoting yoke hooks to a singletree behind a horse. You have to maintain a delicate balance of lifting the handles just the right amount to get it to cut, but not enough to allow it to pitch you up on the horse's butt. The old timers used to joke about moving dirt with a billy goat and a slip scraper. . .

Up until the early thirties, roads were built with equipment like that.

Paul

Heyseed · Mar 16, 2010

Duane, try this link to a pic of one.
https://photos.yesterdaystractors.com/cgi-bin/gallery/trouble_pic.cgi?v=a&pic=http;//photos.yesterdaystractors.com/gallery/trouble/r3724.jpg&firstrec=19&lastrec=27&Parameter=heyseed&mode=All

BCnT · Mar 16, 2010

yall musta had the deeeelux model...ours had a single iron handle about 6' long...i got lifted quite a few times before i got the hang of it.
i thot the 3 point Dearborn scoop was better than women when it first appeared in the barn yard...i finally bought a tractor with a loader few years back...dont see how we did the work we did without it...its no wonder my knuckles drag the ground these days lol

willL · Mar 17, 2010

Never heard of a "frisco". Do you mean a "fresno"??

PJH · Mar 17, 2010

Well BC, I never thought of this thing as deluxe, ha. It has a socket on each side for handles, and we always used a couple hickory limbs shaved to fit the sockets. If you stiff-arm those handles it will give you a nasty flip. Yours with a single handle - you sure wouldn't want to get straddle of that handle!

Ours will never be used again by this old cuss. . . It's one of them things the grandkids stare at while you describe how it worked.

JMOR · Mar 17, 2010

The names get shuffled, but whatever you may have called each, the slip scrapper & tumblebug are not the same. First is slip scrapper and second is tumblebug, which many also call a Fresno. Fresno was a company in CA town of same name & probably made both & more types of dirt movers.

Crem · Mar 17, 2010

I can remember my dad using a slip scraper with a mule and then later a tumble bug with a 9N Ford. I sure wish that he could have had a box blade and landscape rake for that tractor back then. I can remember having to ride and steer that mule for cultivating the garden and getting off with my pants wet with mule sweat and that part wasn't too much fun.

BCnT · Mar 17, 2010

yeah,thats rite...been awhile since i thot about that old thing...i knew it was some west coastie name lol

BCnT · Mar 17, 2010

thats tha jewel slapper we had...pic on the bottom

BCnT · Mar 17, 2010

i hear ya...i was cleanin up the old homestead on West Galveston Island before we sold property and ran across the Fresno in cow pen...it had a huge prickly ash growin thru the middle of it and i knew the pan was rusted thru years ago...i left it as a mystery for the next generation...i knew i wasnt gonna use it anymore either lol

Jaden · Mar 17, 2010

Here"s a picture of mine. You can do a pretty good job of moving and finishing with some practice. Pulling that rope all day can make for some sore muscles.

Jaden · Mar 17, 2010

Lets try that picture again

Jaden · Mar 17, 2010

Lets try that picture again

Tumble bug scraper

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