Low-Cost Wheel Rim Cultipacker

Low-Cost Wheel Rim Cultipacker TILLAGE EUIPMENT Miscellaneous 20-2-17 George "Franky" Norris, Jr., was never satisfied with the job done by his 8-ft. disk alone to prepare a seedbed for soybeans. So the Montross, Va., farmer built a cultipacker out of old car wheel rims that he says does a lot better job when pulled behind the disk. "It's great for breaking up clods and getting the ground nice and level. I'm able to save at least one pass this way," Norris says. "What's more, it cost less than $100 to build because I already had the wheel rims." Norris used 15 14-in. dia. rims welded together in a row. He made a frame out of 3 1/2-in. angle iron and fitted it with an A-frame tongue out of 1 1/2-in. dia. plumbing pipe. Overall width of the tool is 12 ft. and it's 10 ft. long with the tongue. He welded a 14-in. dia. 1/4-in. thick plate to the rim on each end. He welded a 2 1/2 in. dia. bushing and 4-in. long pin from a backhoe boom to the plate for the unit to turn on. He used another piece of angle iron mounted on the frame 1 in. ahead of the rims as a scraper. Norris pulls the cultipacker, which weighs 500 lbs., with a Farmall H. He places concrete blocks on the tongue for added weight. Contact: George "Franky" Norris, Jr., Rt. 1, Box 1942, Montross, Va. 22520 (ph 804 493-9604).

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