Homemade Steam Roller!!!!

[hurleyhuckster]

Howdy fallers,

Well not really a steam roller….but…I was out by the shed thinkin' and stuff.

I have a gravel (We call it Item4 around these parts) driveway. It likes compaction, and then a little rain and its nice and hard. Just getting my first big boy Tractor and been doing lots of jonesen', thinking' and a pondering, not that any of you guys would know anything about that right?

So i look over and spy out my lil eye, the big oil drum I pulled out of the ground years back just sitting there, long overdue to get discarded. But wait, I'm getting a tractor now, so Its fabrication time. Dusted off the old welder and torch and getting ready for delivery day!

So what would it take to turn my big phat oil drum (48" Dia, by 7-" length) into a nice roller? Heh?

I am of the engineering type, but not master fabricator thats for sure. So I was wondering what kind of thoughts I could garner from you creative gents to help my pondering reach a new level.

I am thinking like some kind of bearing on the ends with a simple U-type bracket that mounts to 3 pt. I don't even think you would have to lift the thing, just pull it.

What say you?

 

[Tooljunkie]

Sounds good, filling with ballast?
A note of caution,oil drum may still have flammable material inside.
So take necessary precautions.
U frame from square steel tube,a pair of bearings/pillow blocks and a couple 2" pieces of round bar welded to plates for bolting to drum.

 

[Diydave]

If you fill that tank with water, it will weigh 5200 lbs + tank weight. Be careful...

 

[bcp]

48 x 84 inches is about 88 cubic feet.

Concrete is around 145lbs per cubic feet.

Full of concrete would be around 13,000 pounds.

I hope your land is flat.

Bruce

 

[hurleyhuckster]

Thanks so far for the replies. Upon further investigation, it seems like not such a new idea. Plenty of example of homemade lawn rollers on google.

I think I will do it. Looks simple enough. I doubt I fill it completely full of water, I couldn't imagine! I will start dry and go from there. Gonna b a big roller!

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

Do Not attach something like that to the three point, you will just damage it that system.
Make something like these sheeps foot setups.
And I do hope your going to pull it with a Large L or M and not a BX or B, as the shear mass of it could overpower the tractor in nothing flat and lead to a serious disaster!

 

[Tooljunkie]

I guess i didnt think of the 3 point thing. Adding ballast in small amounts and testing it to make sure it can be controlled. That tank, if fully loaded with water does not add any weight to tractor,making traction a huge issue. Stopping would be near impossible unless machine is heavier than implement.

 

[Daren Todd]

Do Not attach something like that to the three point, you will just damage it that system.
Make something like these sheeps foot setups.
And I do hope your going to pull it with a Large L or M and not a BX or B, as the shear mass of it could overpower the tractor in nothing flat and lead to a serious disaster!

Isn't that what the creeper gear is for???

 

[Diydave]

Also remember, that in an unbaffled tank, water will slosh to the low side, and when making hard turns, will slosh to the side, too. Just be safe...

 

[sawmill]

How about a piece of 8" pipe long enough to go through the drum and fill it with concrete, weld it in the drum then weld plates with stub shafts (as tooljunkie suggested) on the ends of the pipe.

 

[coachgeo]

Also remember, that in an unbaffled tank, water will slosh to the low side, and when making hard turns, will slosh to the side, too. Just be safe...

fill it with Wiffle balls before adding water. Doing so you could consider as a Poor-mans slosh baffles. Works good so I hear inside tanks of dune buggies, rockcrawlers etc.