Tire drag?

Anyone made or used a tire drag? They look like you basically bolt together 4 or 5 old truck tires to lay flat with a bar along one side to keep straight and pull against, then drag gravel drives or roads to smooth them up. Looks like a cheap and effective way to keep my lane smooth. Seen a few pictures but not much info otherwise. Thanks.

Muy neighbor had one like that with the bar. It didn't tow right. I made one with a hole in the tire in the middle of the tread for the rope. I had three big tractor tires. Used one short rope and two long ropes. All three ropes hook to the tractor. Worked perfect.

If you go to a place that builds commercial fences. Tell them you want to buy a scrap section of Industrial grade galvinized link fence. You DO NOT want anything lighter. Next determin the width drag you want. Six or eight foot fence are very common sizes. You want the "drag" to be almost a 2x3 or 2x4 ratio. I have built two of these and the bigger one is 6x 10 feet and is commercial fence. It drags true and straight and does one bang up job doing dirt on lawn leveling and gravel drives too. The smaller one made out of cheep fence does not track true but it is good for really tight work spaces. At the scrap yard I got hold of two pieces of 2 1/2 galvinized angle when they were modifying the power line towers. This stuff is more than 40 years old and there is not a speck of rust on it. Did a lot of drilling about 3 inches apart and used eye bolts to make little links. Works great. You want one front and back. Used 3/4 black pipe to make a hitch assembly for it. You want to make it so it can flex and pivot! If you need more weight throw a couple iof cement blocks on it. Last thing. You will find that it will prefer a left turn or right turn. It will fold up one way or skid all over the place the other way.

My dad made one, they used them a lot in his native Holland to drag cow pies out in the pasture. Called a shlape in Dutch. Long steel pole like a harrow bar. Row of five tires cut with the tread, and tread side down. An elongated U shaped bar hooked over the bead on the tire and through a loop on the bar. A long chain attached to either end of the bar and through a clevis on the drawbar. Been here almost 50 years and I still use it on pastures and laneways Does a nice job. He used tires from a road grader so there was less effort cutting them vs through the lugs on a tractor tire. Ben

I made one with 5 tires to drag cow pies

I use an iron gate for that .

I made one out of steel wheels off of a Valley water drive, for dragging meadows. I have a feeder house chain out of a 7700 JD that I use to drag my road and drive ways.

They work nicely for level surfaces like indoor arenas, and for scattering horse manure in pastures, but they are worthless for a road or driveway. I believe that you get rain in Iowa, so you need a crown on a driveway or road, and one of these drags would tend to remove it, so the next rain will bring worse potholes.