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Tire Cultipacker
Old tires make a great cultipacker to pack and firm the soil to reduce erosion, according to Stan Goodman, Piney, Man., who built a 7-ton field cultipacker using large industrial earthmover tires. It cost him $1,200 to build the 16 ft. wide cultipacker, about 1/10th the cost of a comparably-sized commercial steel model, Goodman points out.
"I built the tire cultipacker because I was having problems with my steel roller packer. In fine peat moss soil, it tended to windrow the soil instead of packing it," says Goodman.
Equipped with 6-ft. dia. tires, his home-built cultipacker is taller than commercial rollers, which keeps the soil from windrowing. Compacted tracks left by the tire tread help to reduce wind erosion, Goodman points out. An added benefit is that the tires turn separately on corners for even packing on turns.
Each earthmover tire is 2 ft. 8 in. wide and weighs one ton. Goodman simply slipped the tires onto a 32-in. dia. pipe which acts as a rim for the tires, which aren't pressurized.
Goodman used the rear axle from a Minneapolis Moline tractor for hubs and bearings. The framework and hitch are made of 10 ga. metal "I" beam.
Laird Welding and Mfg., Merced, Cal., builds a commercial tire cultipacker that uses 20 to 28-in. truck tires and is pulled behind the company's range-land drill, John Laird, president of the company, told FARM SHOW.
He says tire cultipackers work better than steel rollers on rangeland because the tires turn independently of each other, and rubber is more flexible when rolling over rocks and stumps. He adds that the smaller truck tire cultipackers don't work as well as steel rollers on tilled soil, unless the tires are filled with concrete.
Laird Welding mounts truck tires on a roller which can be filled with water or sand for added weight. Laird says the 10-ft. wide model, equipped with 14 tires and a water-filled roller, weighs about 3,200 lbs. and sells for $1,250.
For more information, con-tact: FARM SHOW Followup, Laird Welding and Mfg. Works, P.O. Box 1053, 531 S. Highway 59, Merced, Cal. 95341 (ph 209 722-4145)


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1984 - Volume #8, Issue #5