Unique equipment<p>Is why contractors don't all produce the same product<p><br>Any lawncare contractor can go and buy the newest most expensive equipment but so can your<br>competition. Most of you guys out there are in this state of confusion.<p>For the last few months I have been in search of a wide area core aerator to use on sports fields.<br>My options were few a 1.$1200 JRCO job sorry no way 2. A Cantoo type creation made from a home depot brinley hardy modified to mount to a jrco bar and pushed by a mower 3. A 36 aerating sulky<br>Sold by a Chicago firm. None of the above really fit the bill.<p>But some times you just get lucky. I just bought a 20 year old Dedoes greens aerator 48 wide<br>3 pt hitch set up off a local golf course for the salvage price of $40. The unit is made up of three drums<br>mounted to one axle in which the hollow tines protrude from the drums. The cores are pushed inside<br>the drums where the rotation just breaks them up and the dirt falls thru the wire mesh sides.<p>So this PM is fabrication day. With some help I am going to turn this thing into a sulky I can pull behind any of my mowers. Yesterday I bought a trailer ball it fit on the walk behind and<br>A trailer coupler to mount on the aerator and took an old seat and mounting plate from a dead garden tractor at the Local toro dealer. In a couple of hours a fabricator friend of mine will turn all<br>that junk into a fine piece of equipment that NO other contractor has available.<p>With the addition of this 48 aeration sulky to my fleet I will be able to dethatch with a<br>Jrco tine rake bag the thatch with a 52 Toro with a metal bagger and extension and then<br>Aerate leaving no cores behind in just one pass.<p>I have a Polaroid and will take some pics of the unit in action later today and will post<br>some this evening.<br>
From great minds come...... . Good luck and I hope it does what you want. For $40 you can't go too wrong.
Now add a fertilizer spreader to that and you'll have exactly what I drew on a piece of paper 3 years ago, difference is you made it and I didn't!<p>Homer
<p>Good job Stone. That things looks productive. Some of the tines look bent but cant tell for sure. Are they oriented either forward or back by design?<p>Also, I suspect you will be stressing the tranny pretty good pulling you, a bagger full of thatch and three drums with cores inside. Do you need a supplemental weight rack for good penetration or is the unit heavy enough?
I love it! A few questions though. How do you raise and lower the aerator? Or is it always in the "working" position? Do you have to run ballast in the front to compensate for all the weight in the rear? Also what engine and how many ponies on the Toro? <p><br>
Homer the toro in the pic doubles as a sprayer/spreader. You can see the controls<br>mounted on the dashboard.<p>Turfquip the tines are mounted in swivel<br>bases. I don't see how there will be much more driveline stress vs. a regular sulky.<br>The seat needs to be moved back as far as possible.<p>Jason-It does not hurt the asphalt but you<br>have to "walk" it across any roads.<p>This will be used mostly with a 62" toro which is very front end heavy so it should be a good match. It is very easy to pull, a<br>12 hp engine will pull it around.<p>The previous owner did say it did not pull a<br>real long plug when used as a 3 pt hitch unit. With 260 lbs of ballest it should perform properly. During a short testing session it pulled 1 1/2 to 2 inch cores.<br>This unit need to be used right after a rain or the conditons will be very dusty for the operator.<p>What I can do is just mow in two directions<br>to aerate a field completly.
It looks good.<br>While you are getting the seat moved you might want to weld a short bar across the tongue for your feet.
