Drive Groomer

For years I've used push blades, rakes and shovels to maintain my gravel drive, all at the expense of sore muscles and an aching back. Necessity is the mother of invention it's said and that is what finally drove me to make an implement to do the manual labor for me.

The latest creation from the secret lab "The Gravel Groomer". Pretty corny right?

Started life as a 2'X4' sheet of 1/4" curved plate steel. Add a draw bar of 2-1/2" square post welded to a 2 X 5/8 X 6" piece of bar stock with a 1/2" hole drilled for the hitch pin. 2' of 1" square post attached to the center line of the blade provide the attach point for the draw bar. Looks like an "Erector Set" so far.



Add a diagonal brace made of 1-1/2 X 1/4 bar stock to stabilize the L-R movement (later on the diagonal will have extra holes for left or right orientation). Add another 60 pounds of steel bar and it looks like this...



Took it out in this configuration and it did "okay" but I knew it could do better, back to the garage it went. Time to pull the welder out and go back to work. Added 10 1-1/2" scarifiers made of #3 grade 60 rebar welded to a piece of 1" square stock that runs the length of the blade.



The scarifiers engage at a 45 degree angle due to the curvature of the blade.



Time for another test run mounted on the 704 .



And the results of a few passes. Wish I'd taken a before pic



In conclusion I'm really happy with the performance. In retrospect I wish that I had the foresight to make the scarifiers 4" long and center them in the bar, that way there would have been a fresh set waiting to be flipped over. Word of caution, if the governor kicks in, lean forward immediately and push the clutch! This blade will go on the 416-8 in the spring for more driveway and garden work, should be good for debris and crust busting.

Very Nice!

I love seeing people create implements for their specific applications. However this one is useful for many people!

Thats it, mass produce and put on the store!

Like!!