Aerating season has begun here...

[quincy]

A few pics of my core aerator. Promised to post them last year but never did.

Took a standard agrifab 48" tow behind aerator, removed the wheels and draw bar and adapted it to fit on my 3pt. A bit too much weight when the drum is full of water but it sure does get max penetration (and some). Havent broken a spoon yet!

Passed inspection by quality control...

 

[Danocheese]

maybe a little too much weight it seems to be digging in and casuing stripes. I have the opsosite issue. Not enough weight on my seven footer. It has dropped twom inchs of rain tonight so I doubt I will get to aereate for a bit. The frost should go out tommorow. I'm suprised at the benefit of aereating. I have soem clay sand mix and it really spreads out the grass and I have only areated twice.

 

[chowhound]

Very nice.
My neighbor made an aerator that I use, but it only puts slits in the ground and doesn't pull a plug out. If you're overseeding that plug is nice because you can mow short, disperse the plug, and it will give you enough topsoil for your seed.
We only need drawbars though, as we use our four wheelers to pull it, the roller, spreader... it's much more fun
I think I'll check into those Agri-fabs and see if I can adapt their discs to his aerator.
Great photos, btw

 

[PBinWA]

Nice work Quincy. I have an Agri-Fab style one that I tow behind. It seems to do the trick but is pretty messy on corners. It only takes a week for the mess to be washed away and it sure is good for the lawn.

 

[quincy]

I used it as a tow around for a year or two but I found it a pain in the butt to be raising and lowering it with the lever & dolly wheel system every time I had to cross pavement or gravel paths. Using it on the 3pt hitch makes it much easier.

I'm going to do some more aerating this weekend. Using the 55gal drum of water (for weight) was OK but it was a bit of a faff getting it together, so I made a few changes to the design a few weeks ago, with some 2" x 1/4" flat bar and a few concrete blocks. It's a bit more conventional looking now.

Each block is about 25kg (55lb) so hopefully thats about the right weight for the job.

It looks a bit more "elegant" anyways (if you can call it that)... lol

 

[Jim_S]

I used it as a tow around for a year or two but I found it a pain in the butt to be raising and lowering it with the lever & dolly wheel system every time I had to cross pavement or gravel paths. Using it on the 3pt hitch makes it much easier.

I'm going to do some more aerating this weekend. Using the 55gal drum of water (for weight) was OK but it was a bit of a faff getting it together, so I made a few changes to the design a few weeks ago, with some 2" x 1/4" flat bar and a few concrete blocks. It's a bit more conventional looking now.

Each block is about 25kg (55lb) so hopefully thats about the right weight for the job.

It looks a bit more "elegant" anyways (if you can call it that)... lol