Truck Tire Harrow

When I ranched in Montana, we had a field harrow made out of old semi-truck tires. Worked real well to knockdown cow pies from the winter and freshen up the grass for the spring. With a need for a good harrow around the ranch back home, we set out to build our own truck tire harrow.

First step was finding some used truck tires. Big Horn Tire in Buffalo hooked us up with these guys. 

Once we got them over the mountain, we lined them out and got to work. Drilling the 14 holes to bolt them together was no walk in the park.

Having an assortment of big bolts, we found enough 5/8" fasteners to get the job done.

To pull the contraption, we needed some cable. North Forty saves the day once again. 

We just drilled two holes in the front tire and looped the cable back through and clamped it down.

We had quite the time cutting the cable. Not sure how your supposed to do it without it coming unwound, but we found hose clamping the loose end before cutting it with cutoff wheel on the grinder, kept it together. Then we spot welded the end so the wire rope would stay together and we could run it back through the next tire. Harder than we hoped, but it worked.

We connected the cable to all four front tires to get an even pull.

Then connected them to a clevis and hooked it to the drawbar. 

Giddy up.

So we fired up the 4230 to see if this dog would hunt.

Down the hill and through the gate.

I was super pleased with the way it knocked down the old stemmy weeds.

Cow pies were no match either.

Tore them up so the spring moisture can make fertilizer out of them.

Also did a beautiful job of fleshing up the perennial grasses. 

Lovely. 

With spring one day away, we thought we better waste no time getting a jump on things. Hopefully, the Good Lord will provide us with some moisture to make the grass take off. If not, we'll kick the pivot on as soon as water is in the canal. Fun stuff. I love spring. Let's ranch!