Bumpy uneven lawn

[gmbc]

What is best to level and smooth out lawn approx 3 acres. See lots of info and some say power rake. Till or roto till then smooth etc. I have a small Kubota B2650 and not sure how to go about this or have to hire someone. Does the box blade work on something like this. Have not seen lots on pwer rakes and from what I looked at I need bigger tractor.
Help from newbie in acreage ownership

 

[RCW]

Can you post a couple pictures?

My first thought was a roller, but something much more aggressive may be called for...

 

[Diydave]

On 3 acres, I wouldn't do it all at once. You can plow, disc, rototill, then drag a piece of steel, like an H beam, as wide as your tractor's tires, to do almost as good of a job as a harley rake. It will take longer, but you will also not have to worry about a lot of erosion, if a heavy storm comes in, just as you are finishing up...

 

[Tooljunkie]

Harley rake hands down. Im building one, will be posting my results when i get it running. Using a 7" pipe 1/4" wall 4 feet wide. 64 grade 8 bolts 1-1/2" long.
For pounding topsoil flat it should do the job. I have 9 acres to flatten. At least make it less rough.

 

[City Kid]

Adding soil to the low spots? Wait, what was I thinking? Bigger tractor of course!

 

[toxcrusadr]

That Harley Rake looks awesome...at least in dry silty or sandy soil. I wonder what it would do with heavy wet Missouri clay?

 

[FrozenInTime]

My place is the same way, a little rough in spots. I tried a big heavy roller, no difference, even rolled when damp, waste of $$. Still one rough sob to mow.

 

[08quadram]

I have the same problem. 3 acres some very rough. Did a portion one day after cussing it, with the tiller when i had it on this spring. Only oroblem is the ridge you get at the edges of the tilled areas. Thought about having my father drop off a big roller they use on road construction. Boy would i get looks then by the neighbors

Mike

 

[WELD]

Depends how bumpy you are talking.
If you dont want to go through hassle of re seeding grass after power raking etc you can try renting a vibratory roller and a bobcat for a weekend.
A friend of mine does this to his horse fields so they dont break their ankles running around. He let me borrow the roller one weekend for my kart track which was loose dirt mostly and it was like a paved road after an afternoon of dragging that around in the bobcat.

Or i just relized it sounds like your dealing with more than mole hills and frost heaves etc you may want to check around local rental places that carry bobcat equipment and see if anyone has a rotadarion, I know they make a pto powered one but noplace near me rents anything for 3pt hitches.. I don't have first hand experience but i have seen one of the rotadarions in action and it is the way to go if you have pretty decent soil to begin with. don't know how it would deal with rocks.

no matter what you do, once it rains a few times on bare dirt your going to have low spots show up so dragging a land plane or fence around is nice to do after a rain.

 

[Dr Honda]

As above... it depends on how bad things are.

If there a big mounds, and holes, then it needs filld/leveled. That's big equipment, and a re-seed.

If it's normal bumps, from winter... then a roller when the ground is still soft (early spring, late fall) will work wonders.

 

[gmbc]

Hello all, had a large tractor come in and disc up the whole front lawn about 2 acres and left the back to see how the front turns out. The large tractor with dual wheels 14" discs had hard time as the grass was hard to cut through but aftyer going over multiple times turned the grass over. then I harrowed like crazy and it smotthend out the land very well. Had to use my mower to mve the grass and vclumps after I picked out rocks. Reseeded and as long as grass grows back it will be nice and smooth. Pretty happy withh results so far. Bumpy in that the guy who came to palnt trees had to drive his trike pretty slow on the lawn. Looking to buy discs for my tractor to do rest but now think not big enough tractor to do this work. I just want to buy implements for my tractor I guess I boght forks and now looking for rototiller Maybe small plow as plowing first will break up the land then disc would be better and may work for small tractor.

 

[Tooljunkie]

Ran my homemade harley rake for a little bit yesterday,basically tears off the high parts and carries it along to fill low spots. Just cut a flap today, will mount it tomorrow. As it is it would eventually fill my seat with dirt. Pretty happy with the preliminary results.

I had considered discing front yard, but i dont think i need to go that deep, could harrow it for a few days and flatten it out enough to smooth it for mowing.

 

[Jeff Gordon]

What about a York rake?