Salvaged Roller-Packer: Maintain Your Golf Courses and Hockey Rinks

Our community manages a small golf course that has sand greens and fairways that are covered by native plants. The greens need occasional maintenance and sand needs to be harrowed, leveled and packed about every three years.

I developed this roller packer to level and pack the greens and it has done a fine job.

This roller packers is also used to pack the snow on our community hockey rick before we flood it to make the ice. The roller/ packer has cut the amount of water needed to get the rink started by half.

Step 1: Materials and Tools

Materials

I used:

two 100L propane tanks found in our dump,
8' of 2"x2" tubular steel,
two 1" pillow bearings
6" of 1" cold rolled steel
1/2"x 3" bolts
3/4" threaded flange and plug
2" ball hitch

Tools

kettle with hose for steam
Angle grinder
Welding equipment

Step 2: Preparing the Tanks

I first removed the valves at the top of the tank, then I pumped steam into the tank so that any residual gas would be forced out.

I then cut the the bottom of each tank along the weld seam using a zip blade on an angle grinder.

I drilled the threading out of the valve seats with a 1" bit and welded a 6" by 1" cold rolled steel into this hole on both tanks. This formed the axle for the roller.

I then aligned the two tanks, sitting them on a 12" beam and welded them together. I first spot welded the tanks on all four sides to ensure they didn't move during the longer weld.

Step 3: Making the Tow Bar

I bolted the 1" pillow block bearings on to the tow bar sections that ran past the ends of the welded tank (photo 1).

The tow bar is made from 2" by 2" tubular steel, reinforced at the corners with 1" by 2" bracing sections (photo 2). I bolted the hitch onto the last 3" of the tow bar.

Step 4: Adding Weight and Using the Roller Packer

I drilled a 3/4 inch hole in the end of one end of the packet and welded a 3/4 threaded flange and put a plug in this flange.

This permitted adding weight by filling the tank with water that was easily drained in the fall so that it didn't freeze and rupture.

The roller packer has worked very well at a very low cost using mostly salvaged materials. Helps keep our golf course in good shape and make the flooding of our rink far easier.