# Northern VS T.S. Chain Drag Harrow ???



## blackeyepea (Aug 21, 2013)

Can anyone give any feedback on the heavy chain harrow from N.Tool?  They do not stock these in the stores in my area, so I cant physically see one without ordering one.

I have never owned a drag harrow. I am thinking about buying one to use mainly in my yard(4.5 acres) to seed grass, dethatch and possibly break loose slightly buried small rock . I will be pulling it with a 4 wheeler. 

T.S. sells a roth-loyal brand that is real heavy duty but costs $300 for 4x8 (146 LBS).(1/2 "x 5" tines-2 Sections)

The one at N.T. is a  4 x 7 1/2  and costs $149.00 ...thats sale price and with a $20 off membership coupon(80 LBS).
(3/8"x 3.5" tines)

I know you get what you pay for but this is something I probably will drag out out 1-2 times a year and use mainly just on grass after the initial  use. I can always tie a pallet to the cheaper/lighter one for extra weight if I need to.

I am just curious how good they work for the money and how well do they dethatch on grass.

Any feedback would help.


----------



## The Longhunter (Aug 21, 2013)

I guess they have their place some place, but I've never used a drag harrow that was worth the trouble of messing with it.


----------



## Crakajak (Aug 21, 2013)

I made one with a 6 x 6  timber,cable, and chain link fence.Its 8 'wide and 10'long. cost me about $60.00 and a few hours work


----------



## blackeyepea (Aug 22, 2013)

*Good news, new yard toy !!!*

Yesterday, a few hours after I posted this, a guy at work offered to sell me this york atv rake. He picked it up at an estate sale and just didnt have a use for it . Its an older model but  heavy duty...needs a little paint as you can see. I didnt have a lot of time to play with it, but I can say it will dethatch, pull loose dirt and move rock. Best part is I give $80.00 for it!


----------



## Crakajak (Aug 22, 2013)

You got a good buy with that.


----------



## jimboknows (Aug 22, 2013)

good deal...that will probably do a much better job for what you want and will last a lifetime


----------



## The Longhunter (Aug 22, 2013)

Crakajak said:


> I made one with a 6 x 6  timber,cable, and chain link fence.Its 8 'wide and 10'long. cost me about $60.00 and a few hours work



Yep.


----------



## 01Foreman400 (Aug 23, 2013)

A pallet works well.


----------



## papachaz (Aug 24, 2013)

I had a crakajak-x-1/2 model myself . Mine was half a cross tie and some fence, not as wide as his, but just as effective. I need to make me another one of them. all I want if for is a to drag some dirt to cover the seed with.

OP that is a good looking rake for $80! I've got a 7 ft one with my tractor


----------



## buc101 (Aug 25, 2013)

Picked up a Northern ATV drag recently and we are pleased with it. Works well at smoothing out our plots and we used it to cover the seeds. Flip it over and its a little more aggressive at scratching up the ground. No complaints so far and it should last us for years. Most of the reviews I've read have been positive.


----------



## blackeyepea (Aug 26, 2013)

The rake works good, I like it. Best $80 I spent in a long time. I used it a good bit this weekend. Moved lots of rock with it. My 4-wheeler dont like it too much though, builds up a lot of heat dragging it around. Got hot and blew an ignition fuse.
Im still considering a chain harrow for dethatching. I will be killing a lot of bahia grass next year with wick wiper, and im sure there will be a lot of dead thatch mixed in my turfgrass that will need pulling up so my grass will spread. 
Its either buy a chain harrow or a dethatcher. If the chain harrow would work good for this purpose, I had rather buy that than a cheapo dethatcher. I would think the chain harrow would work faster because its longer and would be less awkward to pull; my property is not at all level, in fact its hilly.Could throw a pallet on top for extra weight. If I wasnt dethatching over 3 acres of grass, I would just use the rake.
In the end, the chain harrow would have more purpose.


----------



## wyldwulf (Aug 26, 2013)

I used a Tractor Supply chain drag just this weekend. I have an older model of my own that i picked up from a horse owner going out of the arena business, but someone was using it. So I grabbed a friends TS model. Worked just fine. They are great for breaking clods down and smoothing and covering seed.


----------



## blackeyepea (Aug 27, 2013)

Special thanks to Ernie. I sent him a private e-mail through GON about the northern chain drag.We have e-mailed back and forth ...He give some very useful info. Thanks again Ernie.

OK, so I was messing with the rake in the yard yesterday. I decided to see what it would really do as a dethatcher. I quit pulling  after about 2 minutes when I noticed it wasnt really pulling any thing else up.

It took less than 2 minutes to clog it completely up, about twice as long or longer  to untangle this mess and pull it all back out. 

Doesnt seem to work good unless you get the wheels completely off the ground, then as you can see, it pulls up it share of grass with the thatch. I guess thats to be expected even with a tine dethatcher.


----------



## papachaz (Aug 27, 2013)

I just realized you have car tires on your 4 wheeler, that's funny looking, LOL no offense meant.....

is the atv air cooled or water cooled? My grizzly is water cooled, a little bit better for pulling stuff around, it doesn't overheat as fast. when you're pulling stuff you're not going fast enough for an air cooled to move enough air to keep it cool


----------



## blackeyepea (Aug 29, 2013)

Yeaaaah... about the 4 wheeler...
This 4 wheeler previously belonged to Bibb Co. Sheriff Dept. It has car tires on it because it was used on the highway. I had one pass me one day... I was running 45, he went around and was outta sight in a short few seconds.May be this same one, they only had 3 or 4 of these and at least one was yellow.

You didnt get pulled over by one of these did you ? lol... 

Check out this link:
http://itptires.com/pdfs/sheriffskingquad.pdf

Anyhow my dad bought it at auction (cheap) when they done away with the atv program(probably due to controversy). I give him his money back... had to put a fuel pump in it from setting, but it runs good...when I say runs hot...means it physically gets you hot and builds a lot of heat...does not boil over.Has over 9300 miles on it !  This thing actually has a foot throttle! ...and no i wouldnt recommend a foot throttle unless you are missing limbs.  I plan on converting it back to thumb throttle. 

I actually picked up a set stock wheels and tires off craigslist off a 2011 Kingquad 750 for $150 that have like 30 or so miles on them...just havent put em on. The car tires dont mark up the yard too much and in 4wd it does good.


----------



## blackeyepea (Sep 3, 2013)

Decided the rake cloggs up way too bad for the real thick stuff. Takes a lot of effort to clean it out since you cant raise it up like on a tractor. Perty much have to get on your knees and clean it from the inside first.  It definitely has its purpose though. 
Went to Northern Tool yesterday to order the 7 1/2 ft chain harrow and they have like 458 on backorder! I guess they are more popular than I thought !
Put a want ad on Craigslist...will wait and see what happens. My $20 off coupon is good thru 9-28.


----------



## blackeyepea (Oct 11, 2013)

Well, I picked up the Northern chain harrow yesterday mainly to use as a dethatcher for turf grass.
My first impression; its well built. Not quite as thick as the Loyal brand Tractor supply sells...It weight about 1/2 as much; costs bout half as much too. 
In the most aggresive setting, it barely does anything to the grass without adding weight. 4x7-1/2 only weighs 80 lbs.
I added a pallet and a 40 lb weight, and it made a big difference. Scratches the ground real good, lift up the dead stuff. I will sweep the areas I drug this weekend and see how much difference it made.
For leveling, I drug across several areas, I recently had stumps ground and had already removed most of the shavings. What was left, it seemed to do a pretty good job of leveling. Does create a fair share of dust.
Will use it more this weekend and see what the end result is. If I dont think it will work out for my needs, a guy at work will probably buy it. He is talking about buying the same one to cover seeds in food plots.
For the money, not bad!


----------



## Milkman (Oct 22, 2013)

IMO it has too many tines.Try removing every other rake tine and see if it works better.


----------



## elfiii (Oct 22, 2013)

The Longhunter said:


> I guess they have their place some place, but I've never used a drag harrow that was worth the trouble of messing with it.





I couldn't live without mine.


----------



## NotSoFastEddie (Nov 6, 2013)

elfiii said:


> I couldn't live without mine.


now that's a neat looking rig!  I never thought about adding steel to mine to keep it straight and untangled.  Hmmmmm


----------

