How do you store your flexible harrow? - Project Done!

[HungarianHippo]

I’ve got one of these to pull behind the ATV. It’s a great tool but such a royal pain to store. I drive it into my hayshed, unhook, and then manually drag it to the side so I can get the ATV out. If I leave it laying flat in the shed, it takes up too much room and is a dangerous trip hazard. Rolling it up means it often gets hung up on itself when I try to unroll. It’s too heavy to lift up to hang.

Anyone have a great way to deal store these?

One idea I have: drag it onto a piece of plywood that has a few hooks on one end. Pull it fwd until I can hook on to the drawbar, and then tilt the whole board up and lean against the wall. But this may not save my back, since I’m adding the board weight to the harrow.

Note: i put it inside since all of our outbuildings are within the fenced horse areas. So it can’t be outside unless I fence it off. Which I guess I could do.

[goodhors]

What are the dimensions of the harrow? If smaller, you might put up some wall hooks, hang it for storage. Maybe mounting a small chain hoist from the top of tractor shed/barn, to hoist it up out of the way with as needed. Sure less in muscle work for you. You could have a bar made for the other end, so you could hoist and lift for storage, then drop it down to drag back out of shed, from either end.

I have a larger size one, maybe 6’x7’, have old tires on it in summer when not in use. Drag is then “visible” and not enticing to a loose horse or someone working in the barnyard, for going tripping over the tires on the ground. In winter, I lift the whole thing with my front-end loader, put it laid out flat on the flat-bed of our semi trailer. Up off the ground, no one can trip over it, not in the way of snow removal or invisible under any snow. We don’t use the trailer in winter, so storage on it works for us.

[HungarianHippo]

It’s 4x7-ish, weighs around 85lb. Just heavy enough, and awkward to handle given all the moving parts, that I have to seriously work when moving it around. No way can I lift the whole thing to hang it.

The one I have does have a bar both ends (so you can pull with tines pointed fwd or back). So I think you’re right, some form of assisted hoist probably will work.

DH suggested a boat winch and pulley to hoist it up against the wall. So I just bought that stuff on Amazon and will rig it up next week, will see how it works.

[Jim_in_PA]

I think that the winch idea is a good way to approach this.

[goodhors]

My harrow has only one bar, which is unhooked to move to the other end when you want the teeth going in the opposite direction.

I suggested a chain hoist over a winch, because the one-piece (endless) chain runs steadily to lift, no cranking by hand like a boat winch. You just get the chain rolling by pulling on it, keeps on lifting or lowering what is on the hoist hook! You tie or fasten off the chain of hoist you lifted harrow with, which then needs to stay lifted, so chain can’t move to lower it.

Winch will work, just more work if not electric. Does the hand-crank winch have a brake system for lowering the drag/harrow to prevent the whole thing falling in a pile when you want to lower it? Dropping it in a pile is UNSAFE for you!! You don’t want to untangle the darn thing to be able to use it!

My drag weight is over 85#, so I always consider things before parking it! Sure hate trying to drag it sideways for hooking up or aligning it behind the tractor. That is WAY too much work.

[DHCarrotfeeder]

Ours lays outside on a patch of grass where there is no traffic.

[wendybird]

I fold mine up against the fence in the paddock - have done for years. Horses seem to be able to avoid it.

[SuckerForHorses]

[QUOTE=DHCarrotfeeder;7895802]
Ours lays outside on a patch of grass where there is no traffic.[/QUOTE]

Same here.

We have the 8’ x 8’ so there is no WAY in HELL I’m able to move it without equipment.

[HungarianHippo]

Project done! installed a couple pulleys and a boat winch today, and that @#$$%& harrow is now very politely hanging tidy against the shed wall. I can pull it with the ATV far enough into the shed that I’m only dragging it a couple feet to hook it to the pulley system that I rigged up.

[goodhors]

Congrats to finishing your project! I love the chain harrow as a tool, but kind of a pain to store. Can’t leave mine on the ground in winter, to chance running over it or snagging it with the bucket while plowing snow.

Sounds like you came up with a good system to let you store it AND use your small shed. Be careful bending over to drag it any, good way to hurt your back. Get a longer piece of rope to pull drag with on that last couple feet in or out, so you can pull standing upright, to save your back. Thanks for telling us how you ended up, I had wondered.

[merrygoround]

Iowa is too dang far to have to pay you to come and do mine.

[HungarianHippo]

Vicarious-- seriously, it was $30 worth of hardware (two pulleys and a boat winch, and it took a whopping 30min to install. Stole a hook from a tie-down strap that was frayed and ready to be retired. Screwed one pulley into a joist directly above where I wanted it to hang against the wall, another pulley directly above the winch (the nearest post). Run a 3/8 braided poly line from winch, up to pulley 1, over to pulley 2 and attached a hook on that end. (I used two pulleys only due to the arrangement of posts, etc in that shed. I needed to keep the line at ceiling height because it is crossing an active aisle that we move round bales through. Maybe you have joists and posts in the right places to just do the one pulley. Anyhoo, it was really, really, REALLY easy. Now I can drive the harrow forward into my shed, to where it’s even w/the hook, disconnect from the ATV and just attach the hook right there without dragging the harrow more than a couple inches. Winch it up until it’s hanging on the wall, then I can just back the ATV out.

End result, I’ve used the harrow twice now in the last week, which is about how much I used it all last year. Took advantage of the warm temps/soft soil surface to break up piles of manure in the pasture, and to rake the barnyard so the ground is nice and smooth in advance of the hard freeze coming tonight.

ETA: a more durable line would be a steel cable, but I happened to have the braided rope lying around and it’s got a 450lb test weight so I just used it.

[HungarianHippo]

[QUOTE=goodhors;7895582]
…Winch will work, just more work if not electric. Does the hand-crank winch have a brake system for lowering the drag/harrow to prevent the whole thing falling in a pile when you want to lower it? Dropping it in a pile is UNSAFE for you!! You don’t want to untangle the darn thing to be able to use it! …[/QUOTE]

Agree the chain hoist would be lots less effort. The last couple of rotations are a bit of work, but it’s not so heavy that I’m at risk of losing control of it on the descent. But your image of it falling in a heap was instructive as I set this up. What I did was to leave a long “tail” of rope where the hook is, that I can hold as I unwind the winch with the other hand. So I’m pulling that rope taut, which effectively pulls the top end of the harrow towards me, away from the wall. Hard to explain, but end result is I can lay it flat on the ground, not in a pile, just by keeping tension on that rope.
Anyway, thanks for the feedback, it helped me avoid a potential problem.

[goodhors]

Your explanation of taking the drag down, is what I pictured would be needed, so you could drag it out with no tangles. Glad the warning helped prevent problems or injury! I have seen some winch projects go badly when letting things down.

Sounds like a good system, and you are already using the drag more, so a win for you!