10" was what I was looking for originally, but my neighbor had a big piece of 16" laying around and said I could have it....
Ya I could see the 16" being really heavy. I have an old camp on my property with an overhang. I'll just store it under there when not in use so I don't have to haul it around.
Good call! My issue is I plant in 3 locations...helping a friend, my house, and my family's farm....and only made 2 sections of packer for those 3 spots....
that would work....i am thinking of getting a neighbor or two to help me lift it into the back of my SUV..i only built 1 frame so i need to take the packer and frame back and forth between at least 2 of the places i plant
Update. So much for 10" pipe. Rare is the man that undersells what he has. haha I have some Styrofoam that I think I'm going to chop up and put in the concrete to try and keep the weight down. I bought 3 80# bags of quickcrete. Just eyeballing I'd say it would take most if not all of it. My ATV is only an old 2005 330. I'm not sure how well it will pull something that heavy.
Nice 10" pipe you got there haha..
I was thinking about cutting the pipe in 1/2 or into 1/3's just for maneuverability. My ground is very rocky with stumps and roots so I think if the sections could move up and down independently it might work a little better.
This was certainly a creative project building it from wood. My expectations of durability have been exceeded. If nothing else, it has been a good educations experience showing you the value of cultipacking. I've cultipacked small plots simply by using ATV tires. I then went to a water filled lawn roller until it cracked. I looked for a long time at craigslist before I finally found an old farm cultipacker for a good price. And when it rains, it pours. A couple months later, I fond another good deal on an old farm cultipacker so I bought it as well (I have a retirement property where I do some small plots). I have a tractor, so I was able to use a good size cultipacker to speed things up.
Thanks Jack! I saw a video online where a guy had made one and just followed it. I have only used it twice, once on our farm and once at another property last year. This is the first time I used it on my home plot and I had good plots last year with simply broadcasting and running over with the wheeler. Hoping it improves germination even more this year.
I would not expect better germination from a culvert pipe type cultipacker than you get from ATV tires. I think it just speeds the process by allowing you to cover more ground with each pass. You might see some benefit over both with a farm culitpacker. In addition to pressing seed into the soil for better seed soil contact, a farm type cultipacker puts an uneven surface on the soil with either V wheels that put small trenches in the soil or toothed wheels that put dimples in the soil. This can help, depending on topography of the field, by holding rain and allowing it to soak in rather than run off.
got the rain last night and this morning (some of it pretty hard for that pressing into the ground effect) and the seed was all clover (some of which was untreated, which makes the seed smaller than the "treated" stuff) and brassicas
