DR Driveway Grader Assembly

[The Original Rooster]

I'm about halfway done with assembling the DR Driveway Grader. I got the non-power one that you pull behind a lawnmower. Quality seems to be pretty good and it's heavily made. The instructions however are crappy. I'll post some pics when I finish it up tomorrow.

 

[The Original Rooster]

Oh, I also put one of those no-flat solid rubber tires on my wheelbarrow today. Y'all need to get one of them, it's a good investment. It's worth it not having to pump up the tire every time I want to use the wheelbarrow.

 

[NE GA Pappy]

you can bring it up here and practice on my driveway Rooster.

 

[The Original Rooster]

you can bring it up here and practice on my driveway Rooster.

I'll give y'all a review of how it does on mine soon. Everybody with a gravel drive needs somebody to harrow or disc it every now and then to freshen it up.

 

[sinclair1]

I'll give y'all a review of how it does on mine soon. Everybody with a gravel drive needs somebody to harrow or disc it every now and then to freshen it up.

I could have used that in Hancock. My issue was needing to move Rock back up the hill. It would wash down the hill each heavy rain.

 

[The Original Rooster]

I could have used that in Hancock. My issue was needing to move Rock back up the hill. It would wash down the hill each heavy rain.View attachment 1206741

I got a little spot like that which was the main reason I got this thing. Think I'm going to hit the crown of the driveway first to even it out some and then hit the sides until it levels out. Really won't know how I did until it rains though. Better than just buying gravel because my driveway is old. It was originally graveled in 1974.

 

[NE GA Pappy]

my neighbor has a land plane that he keeps up the driveways to his chicken houses. I would love to have one, but can't justify 3000 to keep up 200 ft of driveway. I just use my box blade and scarifyers

 

[turkeykirk]

I'm about halfway done with assembling the DR Driveway Grader. I got the non-power one that you pull behind a lawnmower. Quality seems to be pretty good and it's heavily made. The instructions however are crappy. I'll post some pics when I finish it up tomorrow.

Hope the assembly goes better than your chair.

 

[The Original Rooster]

Hope the assembly goes better than your chair.

Not everything is related to the chair and the chair was easy to put together because there were no instructions.
The instructions for this thing has you undoing what they did at the factory to fit it in a smaller box, which is aggravating. Later, they have you tighten the grader part down when you may want to reverse them later to be more aggressive in grading. It's aggravating to have to read all the instructions ahead to make sure they're not going to tell you some other option later in the instructions. I've read them through twice now to make sure there's nothing else I'll have to undo.

 

[sinclair1]

Not everything is related to the chair and the chair was easy to put together because there were no instructions.
The instructions for this thing has you undoing what they did at the factory to fit it in a smaller box, which is aggravating. Later, they have you tighten the grader part down when you may want to reverse them later to be more aggressive in grading. It's aggravating to have to read all the instructions ahead to make sure they're not going to tell you some other option later in the instructions. I've read them through twice now to make sure there's nothing else I'll have to undo.

I had a neighbor give me a new lawn sweeper years ago. He bought it at an auction and couldn’t figure out the instructions.
Upon trying to figure it out, I realized he had the whole thing upside down.
I used that thing 10 years and plan to get one for all these pine cones ruining my blade.

 

[turkeykirk]

Not everything is related to the chair and the chair was easy to put together because there were no instructions.
The instructions for this thing has you undoing what they did at the factory to fit it in a smaller box, which is aggravating. Later, they have you tighten the grader part down when you may want to reverse them later to be more aggressive in grading. It's aggravating to have to read all the instructions ahead to make sure they're not going to tell you some other option later in the instructions. I've read them through twice now to make sure there's nothing else I'll have to undo.

It’s every thing these days. Horrible instructions, 3 different languages, sometimes just bad pictures. Makes for some colorful language.

 

[dwhee87]

I had instructions once that showed the tools needed to include a phillips screwdriver, and there wasn't a phillps head screw in the bunch.

 

[elfiii]

I had instructions once that showed the tools needed to include a phillips screwdriver, and there wasn't a phillps head screw in the bunch.

You should have seen me trying to reverse the door swing on the fridge I bought for camp. The bottom flange was there but they failed to drill and tap the hole in it for the gizmo that held the door's post. The instructions were basically just pictures.

 

[The Original Rooster]

Alright, I finished putting it together this morning and ran it up and down the driveway playing with it most of the afternoon trying to find the best set up for it. Here's my opinion of it thus far on a scale of 1-5, 1 being bad and 5 being great.
1. Instructions-2, good enough to get it together but several points have you undoing what they did at the factory to make it fit in a smaller box. Also, they have you put it together first without telling you the adjustments you could make during construction to make it more aggressive. I had to undo some of what I had done to make it aggressive in digging up rock.
2. Quality-4, seems to be pretty heavily built but they caution against going more than 5 mph. I didn't go that fast even because of all the roots in my drive. No sense breaking it, the mower, or myself getting in a hurry and it works better at a slower speed anyway. They provide a breakable pin and some spares to mount it to the mower in case you hit something too hard. They also sell replacement carbide teeth for it in case you break them but I didn't go fast enough to break anything.
3. Performance-3.5, my driveway is well packed since it's nearly 50 years old. It took a few times running over it with the scarifier to break up those old rocks. Then, it took a few times running over it with the spreader side to get them spread out again. Next time, I'll add the two concrete blocks they mentioned that will help it dig in better and see if that improves performance. Overall, I'm happy with the performance but if you have a disc on a tractor, that will do a better job at breaking up old rock in a driveway. I think as I use it more on the drive and break up more and spread it out more, the better I'll like it.

 

[The Original Rooster]

Oh, one more thing I'll add. Be sure to blow off the leaves and pinestraw before you start with this thing because it will act like a glorified pine straw rake and rake up a ton of leaves and straw.

 

[Duff]

Post a pic if you get a chance. I’d like to see it

 

[The Original Rooster]

Post a pic if you get a chance. I’d like to see it

It's the manual grader instead of the power one. 48 inches wide.

 

[Duff]

 

[normaldave]

I've been watching this thread with interest. There's a pretty big price jump from lawn or (garden) tractor to a Sub Compact Utility Tractor. With the popularity of zero turn mowers, and SCUTs, the lowly lawn or garden tractor seems to be losing ground.

There is still a market for light use it appears. Here's a good video showing the aftermarket. Powered sleeve hitch, small bucket. Of course they fall short of the tractor, but do provide an option for some of us.

 

[Ruger#3]

I bought three double door wardrobe style storage cabinets when a school got the wrong ones on a mass order. The instructions were worthless in assembling. I found no screws in the boxes, this caused a ton of confusion as I could not convince myself these 6 ft x 5 ft cabinets could be assembled without hardware. Took me two days to assemble the first one. Once I figured out the puzzle the other two snapped together quickly without hardware.