Hi folks,

In my winter boredom I've been thinking about trying to repair an old airstrip. It's pretty deep in the back country but has a logging road for access. I'm curious if anybody has tried a drag behind homemade grader before? How effective is a length of chain link fence and some concrete blocks for taking down a few ruts?

Thanks
Marshall

Fine for dressing. Try railroad tie or better rail for leveling and filling.

i've been planning a similar project. My current plan is a 2" receiver to 3 point tractor adapter (Hitch N' Plow) then use a tractor blade. A drag doesn't do much in the rocky dusty soil we have here, and does nothing for pulling up weeds and small bushes.

Split 6 foot of 8-10 inch pipe down the middle then lay flat on the ground two feet or more apart and weld together with angle iron. Front pipe cuts back one fills and levels. Pull with quad or pickup

As a recently retired 43 yr dirt work contractor: 1) chain link with weight will basically turn ground to dust-not much more 2) lighter drags will help with minor imperfections and if heavily weighted will carry/move small amounts of dirt unless you're dealing with sand or very soft/loose soils- then works much better 3) a heavy RR rail will actually cut humps and fill holes better; BUT all these types of grading will still be very dusty and leave a dusty finished surface unless you get some rains. Then the RW will probably be unusable after a rain until dry due to soft surface (not compacted) absorbing rain.
As I've read here before: Your mileage may vary.....
Jack

So for a low cost groomer do you have a better recommendation? Just curious.

What you call a groomer we just call a drag. I built the airport at Burning Man for a few years, looks like I will do Afikaburn's next year as well. Simple tools are the key to making it all happen. We built our own drag out of 6" 'I' beam steel 4'x4'. Essentially it was two legs, with both ends kicked up and two cross braces. Put some shackles on one end and used 20' of chain to make a 'V' to tow it with. Took us around 4 hours to make it out of the scrap 'I' beam. It works well since it is heavy. It will work on soil with good effect. It will scrape down ruts by dragging the high parts to low if you cross at a 45° or so. If it is hardened dry clay it will not work so well. Rocks, not well at all.

Make lots of passes to even out things. Deep ruts, well... get your shovel to speed it along a bit. If you want your now more or less smooth surface to last, hope for rain or borrow a water truck. You need to stabilize the soil to make it stay put or it will just move or blow around. To put it in perspective, I used 30,000 gallons a pass, 3 passes on each 5,000' runway. Helps if you have a roller of some kind while the soil is moist.

Racetrack pattern is what we used to drag fairways. Just start across the end and make a gentle turn to cross the runway a ways down then turn to make the second pass across now near the end then turn same diameter to second pass on down just beyond the last, etc,etc. Don't worry about double coverage along the edges. You want to beat the whole thing up. Start next land. When finished go back the other way doing 45 degree angles across in a racetrack pattern. Give the drag a chance to cut humps and fill holes from every direction. Like when I asked my dad what to do when I finished, "Do it again."

Lots of good ideas! The strip is about 2000ft long and most of it is pretty good, however hunters bumble their way onto it and rut it up in a few spots. I've tried filling them in by hand but once the mud hardens its like concrete. By the sounds of most of the posts, big and heavy is the way to go if I want to cut and fill. I'm sure I can find a scrap I beam kicking around this ol pulp mill.

Not the rutted section:

That much vegetation will handicap most any sort of drag.

I use a soil conditioner/ power rake on my compact track loader on my grass strip. It will cut the humps and clumps and not mess up all the grass.

You sir appear to have had quite an interesting life......

dogpilot wrote:What you call a groomer we just call a drag. I built the airport at Burning Man for a few years, looks like I will do Afikaburn's next year as well. Simple tools are the key to making it all happen. We built our own drag out of 6" 'I' beam steel 4'x4'. Essentially it was two legs, with both ends kicked up and two cross braces. Put some shackles on one end and used 20' of chain to make a 'V' to tow it with. Took us around 4 hours to make it out of the scrap 'I' beam. It works well since it is heavy. It will work on soil with good effect. It will scrape down ruts by dragging the high parts to low if you cross at a 45° or so. If it is hardened dry clay it will not work so well. Rocks, not well at all.

Make lots of passes to even out things. Deep ruts, well... get your shovel to speed it along a bit. If you want your now more or less smooth surface to last, hope for rain or borrow a water truck. You need to stabilize the soil to make it stay put or it will just move or blow around. To put it in perspective, I used 30,000 gallons a pass, 3 passes on each 5,000' runway. Helps if you have a roller of some kind while the soil is moist.

Thunder Lake?