Homemade Cultipacker Size/Weight?

[cornfedkiller]

I have been checking out your homemade cultipackers and have plans to build one myself, but I'm not sure what size culvert to use. I want to make it between 48-54" wide so that covers my 4-wheeler tracks. If I use a 12" tile, filled solid with concrete, it would weigh around 450# without the metal frame. If I use a 15" tile, it would weigh a little over 700# without the frame. If I put some 4x4s inside, each board will displace 65# worth of concrete.

I have a 400cc four wheeler and a tractor, but I would like to be able to pull it with the wheeler if I want or need to - no idea what it could handle though? A 12" would be easier to handle, but obviously I want it heavy enough.

If 700+ is too heavy (which it probably is?), I could use a 15" and 4x4s and could make it the same weight as a 12" tile. Is there an advantage to using a 15" culvert over a 12" culvert?

Anyone have any advice/experience for me?

 

[dsinwi]

I have a 700cc atv. My packer weighs around 500lbs. If you have heavier soil you may want to go with the heavier one. Your not compacting the soil, just pressing the seed in. I see no advantage or disadvantage to either diameter.
You should be able to pull either with your atv, obviously the lighter one would be easier on the atv. Just my 2 bits....

 

[cornfedkiller]

I have a 700cc atv. My packer weighs around 500lbs. If you have heavier soil you may want to go with the heavier one. Your not compacting the soil, just pressing the seed in. I see no advantage or disadvantage to either diameter.
You should be able to pull either with your atv, obviously the lighter one would be easier on the atv. Just my 2 bits....

Thank you. I'm guessing you used a 12" culvert then? Do you ever feel like yours isnt heavy enough?

 

[dsinwi]

I believe it is 12". I have used it 4 times so far across two separate properties. It does a nice job of getting the seed set into the soil and germination was great. I do not feel like it is not heavy enough for my sandy soil.

 

[cornfedkiller]

I believe it is 12". I have used it 4 times so far across two separate properties. It does a nice job of getting the seed set into the soil and germination was great. I do not feel like it is not heavy enough for my sandy soil.

Awesome..Thank you again for your help!

 

[MRBB]

cannot say what YOUR atv will pull or not, but my old Honda 400 foreman 4x4, has pulled this 12 ft wide double row cultipacker for about 15+ yrs, never a issue with dragging iot behind it, and it weighs about 1500 lbs or more?
on a STEEP hill, on loose ground it would spin if I didn't have a running start, but 90% of all my food plots were on level ish ground, so NO worries

the goal of a packer is to PACK< so the heavier the better
a 4 ft wide one or so, unless you have a LOT of hills, a 1,000 lbs should be fine, your atv should be tow rated for this and not be an issue!

 

[FarmerDan]

Size depends on a lot of things. Universal truth, huh? Factory made cultipackers using 9 1/2 wheels weigh about a 75-100 lbs per foot. I looked at an old 9-foot Brillion today. I'd guess it weighed somewhat less than a ton...but not much. It had the old cast iron 15-inch wheels. For the sake of discussion, let's say that one comes in at 200 lbs a foot. I think the distinction is import for the cubic weight determines how aggressively the cultipacker will work the soil. These 100 pounders, I think, are OK if all your doing is rolling an already well established seed bed for the purpose of making good seed to soil contact. This Brillion, at 200 lbs a foot, was meant to be pulled behind a disc or a planter to, in the first case, create a fairly workable seed bed. In the latter case it's firming soil around seed that might be up to two inches below the surface.So, I guess you have to decide your situation and manufacture appropriately.

 

[alldaysit]

I just got done tonight with the tractor pulling the cultipacker. It's about three times as fast as the ATV on my plots. The tractor is 4wd and weighs 4000lbs so pulling the old cultipacker is only noticeable going up steeper hills. The ATV would and did struggle with it (Can-Am Outlander). I will now use the tractor pulling the cultipacker forever.


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[cornfedkiller]

I just got done tonight with the tractor pulling the cultipacker. It's about three times as fast as the ATV on my plots. The tractor is 4wd and weighs 4000lbs so pulling the old cultipacker is only noticeable going up steeper hills. The ATV would and did struggle with it (Can-Am Outlander). I will now use the tractor pulling the cultipacker forever.


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Yeah I would likely use a tractor when I could just because my ATV struggles a little bit with a lawn roller full of water, so it takes a bit to get going and slow down, whereas the tractor just goes like nothing is behind it.

However, I would like if my cultipacker COULD be used with the ATV if it had to be.

I will be using a 15" tile (its what I have access to for free) which would hold 715# of concrete, and then use some foam insulation to take up some space inside and displace a little of the concrete down to about 500#. Add in the steel for the frame and stuff, and I'll likely have a finished weight around 700#.

 

[FarmerDan]

Like with most things, I'm going to overthink this. I've operated from a position of "bigger is better." I look at the newer cultipackers with smaller 9 1/2 inch wheels and wonder how they can do what needs doing. Aren't the older, bigger ones better? Well, maybe not. A farmer friend explained the smaller cultipacker is probably equal to, if not better than, the bigger old models. As the theory goes, it isn't about total weight, but the down pressure applied. So, the one's with big wheels come with a lot of surface are leading to more 'float.'

Let's go back to the culvert pipe. I don't know how to do this with a cylinder. I'm going to assume a flat box and hope the same applies to a cylinder.
Going with the cornfed's weights, a box 48 inches long and 12 inches wide will hold 450 lbs of concrete. With one side of the box on the soil surface the down pressure is 0.78 lbs per square inch (450lbs/(12 inches x 48 inches).

A box 15 inches wide and 48 inches long holds 700 lbs of concrete and the surface area of one side of the box is 48 inches x 15 inches = 720 sq inches. So, the down pressure per square inch is 700/720 = 0.97 lbs per square inch.

A 56% increase in weight only results in a 24% increase in effectiveness? Is the extra impact and related pulling energy required for the additional weight worth it? Maybe not.

There are a lot of things wrong with my scratchin', but I think it's probably worth consideration. It's changed my thinking!

 

[MRBB]

I think most modern farmers today DON"T use cultuipackers at all, they do NO till, and any seeder that has a roller behind it, tends to have down force controlled vie hydraulic cylinders, to add or decrease as desired.
larger disc's on a packer are LESS prone to clogging up, from my experience, as are one's that have movement in them, as to a solid tube with just ridges(as in a culvert pipe like deal)
they were made way back when with this movement in them to also help conform to rocks and such and self clean,
I personally prefer the double roller models over the singles row models too,a s the offset in things, gets you a nicer bed in one path, and the heavier I think again, the better, to a POINT.

I have owned about 5 different packers in the 8-12 ft range, half being double roller models, and the heavier one's always worked better , almost all were the same sized disc's on them too, but overall weight helped the most, also, NOT going too fast with them , I pulled them at ab out 4-5 mph MAX<
faster you go, less down force I think gets put down, like skipping a rock over water?? the more time you have the weight pushing down, the better the seed bed got from things
also why I liked the heavier packer again, going slow, just one pass was needed most times?

go faster and I would end up making two passes, NOT saving me any time going faster!?

 

[cornfedkiller]

If I make it 6' wide rather than 4'6", it adds a couple hundred pounds of concrete, but since the overall surface area is increased, the PSI isn't really increased a whole lot, but I think my wheeler would have a tougher time pulling it... right?