Old Field Cultivator Converted To Rock Rake

Old Field Cultivator Converted To Rock Rake TILLAGE EUIPMENT Cultivators (16) 30-3-32 "It works like a big garden rake, gathering up clods and stones and getting them out of the way," says Paul Dietz, Hicksville, Ohio, who converted an old Allis Chalmers 14-ft. field cultivator into an inexpensive rock rake. Dietz bought the field cultivator cheap at a salvage yard. It was made from heavy angle iron with two rows of shanks on front and rear toolbars. The cultivator's frame had hundreds of pre-drilled holes on 1-in. centers. He turned the rear toolbar upside down in order to provide a flat upper surface. Then he unbolted all the front toolbar shanks and moved them to the rear toolbar, using 1/2-in. bolts to mount them on 3-in. spacings. A 24-in. long by 14-in. high steel plate was bolted to both ends of the rig to keep rocks from escaping out the ends. He uses the rig to dump the rocks in windrows which can later be loaded and hauled away. "It does a good job of pulling together rocks that range from softball to basketball size," says Dietz. "We don't have a lot of rocks here, but we have enough to cause trouble when we harvest soybeans. Any rocks that'll go through the rake's 3-in. spacings won't cause a problem at harvest. We use our front-end loader to haul away larger rocks. "One negative is that a lot of dirt gets gathered up. Also, the field has to be dry or else mud clogs up the shanks," he notes. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Paul J. Dietz, 8538 Lake Rd., Hicksville, Ohio 43526 (ph 419 542-7250).

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