Land Roller.

[Stormin 9,981]

Last year I thought a land roller would be handy for rolling the green and verges, in front of my home. On my travels I came across the cylinder part of a roller.

 This had a solid bar right through and running on plain bushes. Not what I wanted, so a mod was made.

 

Bar and bushes out, stub axles made and welded in.

 

 

And some nice new bearings fitted.

 

 

 

Next a frame was knocked up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pair of nice heavy weights out of an old storage heater. I've added another now.

 

 

 

Some paint thrown around.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the end result.

 

 

 

Behind the C-81.

 

[elcamino/wheelhorse 9,295]

That is very nice , better than the rollers that are filled with water. You did an excellent job.

[Sarge 3,463]

Make room on that weight box for a cheap small engine like off a push mower . Add a heavy shaft and a doubled pair of pillow block bearings with a belt drive to the engine . Mount about 3lbs of offset weight onto the shaft . Start engine and only engage belt while moving , otherwise it will try to bury itself in soft ground ...

I built one similar to that , but with a larger diameter roller and added an old 3hp Briggs engine , pulley drive with cable actuated idler pulley and a heavy shaft on double bearings . It would literally flatten the ground in one pass but if you went too slow it would start creating mud quickly and try to sink . Worked great , used it once and some guy riding past one day offered a hefty price so he owns it now - no idea where it even went . All the metal and engine was freebie garbage scrap , bearings were scavenged off another scrap job - worked fine for me . Plenty of ideas on YouTube out there....search out building a vibrating roller..

 

Sarge

[DennisThornton 4,769]

I'm thinking that is mighty fine!

 

And Sarge, I think you just took that up a couple notches!  Have you priced ride on vibratory rollers?

 

Thanks to you both!

[chris sutton 610]

Brilliant job Norm and well handy. 

[Stormin 9,981]

You've seen it in action Chris. Used in conjunction with the grader blade.

 

Sarge! Converting to a vibrating roller is a future consideration if a small engine turns up.

[KC9KAS 4,741]

@Stormin Very nice yard roller.

By the way...is your lift table an old hospital bed?

[Sarge 3,463]

Biggest issue with the vibratory is isolating it from the engine itself - unless you like replacing engines . The further away from the engine , the better . Best design is an offset weight inside the roller itself but that's not easily done and requires super heavy bearings to withstand the stresses .

I ran vibratory cable plows for a few years - those things will loosen every bolt on the machine if you don't use crimped head locking nuts on every single fastener - even lock washers don't work . Ditch Witch knew what they were doing - their vibratory box is one of the toughest in the industry and they seem to last forever with the exception of main shaft oil seals which are easily changed . I actually used one with a 4' blade and knife cut right through 2 curbs and 10" of asphalt on a hot day like butter - the street was getting rebuilt anyway , lol .

Wish I had a picture of a friend's Dad's roller machine - it was built somewhere around 1953 by a local welder and he made 3 of them . It uses a simple old 9hp Briggs horizontal shaft engine that I overhauled the carb (had to make all the parts) , a simple power steering pump from car (Saginaw) and uses the hydraulic pressure to both drive the machine off of 2 hydro motors with a 3rd to run the vibrator in the rear drum . Weighs in around 2.5 tons and does a great job , although it doesn't turn very well .

 

I know from working construction that if you take a very large asphalt roller and put it in grass it's worthless , seen far too many operators get them stuck easily turning around in the median strip on Interstate highways . We used a big 20 ton machine once to knock down the bumps and holes in an equipment yard - that thing killed all the grass but the ground was extremely smooth.

 

Sarge

[Stormin 9,981]

2 hours ago, KC9KAS said:

@Stormin Very nice yard roller.

By the way...is your lift table an old hospital bed?

 

Thank you and yes, hospital bed. On of the best things I've ever got for free.

[chris sutton 610]

4 hours ago, Stormin said:

You've seen it in action Chris. Used in conjunction with the grader blade.

 

Sarge! Converting to a vibrating roller is a future consideration if a small engine turns up.

How many engines do you want Norm. 

[ztnoo 2,298]

Now THAT is a lawn roller!!!

WOW!

Very nice.

[Stormin 9,981]

1 hour ago, chris sutton said:

How many engines do you want Norm. 

 

Has Alan not told you yet?

[chris sutton 610]

2 minutes ago, Stormin said:

 

Has Alan not told you yet?

Ot oh, told me what ?

[Sarge 3,463]

The more I think about it and as rough as this property has gotten I need to build another one - maybe put a pink paint job on it so no one will want to buy it out from under my occasional use . Wish I could find those pictures , they should have copied over with the other files off the old computer...aarrgghhh .

I really want to do one with a center cam weight like the big highways are built - it's a lot more effective and just takes mounting the roller's bearings in heavy rubber pads to protect them . Actually , the European made JCB uses a whole different setup and I'm told they last forever - might want to look at one closely....

Sarge