DIY cultipacker-roller

For those of you who are unfamiliar with agricultural equipment, a cultipacker is an implement used to compress soil.  There are several reasons a farmer may use a cultipacker, but, for me, the primary purpose for the cultipacker is to pack down soil that has just been planted with grass seed.  This should greatly improve seed germination in newly planted bison pasture.

Five truck tire rims welded together form the shape of the cultipacker.  Technically this is really more of a cultipacker-roller hybrid as the ridged portions on the roller should be more closely spaced on a true cultipacker.  A thick piece of steel tube runs through the center of the rims, which I'll explain later in this post.

For added weight each tire rim was filled with concrete after it was welded in place. 

A photograph of the roller portion of the cultipacker completed and waiting for the concrete to cure.  The length of steel tube that runs through the center of the roller is welded to the rims in several places and has been carefully centered.  Lengths of axle-rod salvaged from a derelict car found on our ranch we're inserted snugly into each end of the steel tube. 

The metal frame for towing the cultipacker was assembled from a heavy gauge steel tube left over from another welding project.

A close up of the self-aligning bearings used to connect the axle to the steel frame.  The bearings were the only new item I actually purchased for this project.

A test of the cultipacker on a recently plowed area yielded good results.  I've seen some advertisements for cultipackers that stress the importance of the cultipacker being wide enough to cover the full width of the tractor, but I really don't see the difference between soil compacted by a tractor's tire and soil compacted by a roller.  The test area was gradually sloping land and the ridges on the roller helped to prevent the implement from sliding sideways downhill on even the steepest portions.