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| Home Made Roller?; Home Made Roller? | |
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| Topic Started: Nov 3 2009, 02:56 PM (343 Views) | |
| femike99 | Nov 3 2009, 02:56 PM Post #1 |
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Newbie
  ![]](http://209.85.48.14/static/1/pip_r.png)
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Has anyone made a "home made" roller? I help groom for our local high school's XC ski team. Both areas that the kids practice on have open areas that can get blown down to grass even with 120+ inches of snow per year! One of the kids has offered to make a roller as part of his Eagle Scout project to pack the snow better and minimize the blow off. Is this a wise move? Can anyone help with plans? Thanks. Michael Valleriano Webster, NY |
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| couchsachraga | Nov 3 2009, 06:24 PM Post #2 |
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Advanced Operator
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Making a roller is easy, and there are several styles. From best to worst, in my opinion (Adks, NY location) 1) Frame of tube, with bearings, roller is a 2' or so diameter plastic culvert (see Tidd or YTS site for ideas) 2) Frame of whatever you have (my first was an ash frame, upgraded to steel this year (ash would be fine if I had an open area - for that matter bolted together 2x4's for a frame would likely work OK), roller of plastic barrels (2 makes a nice width). I used a pipe for the "axle" and drilled center holes in each barrel, reinforced with a large washer screwed with self tapping screws in to the barrel (so the washer runs on the pipe axle, not the barrel). Rather than use bearings (which are a good idea) I went cheap - a larger diameter pipe U-bolted to my frame. smaller pipe has washers on it, and a bolt through the outside to keep it running where I want it to. Works great! 3) Old school culvert roller - metal welded frame, with a metal culvert A light frame is nice, hence #1 and 2. Likewise plastic for a roller if far better (snow will hardly ever stick). A new plastic culvert with grooves doesn't need end plates that are larger than the roller (nice for #2 to keep it from sliding around), but barrels can often be found cheap or free... plastic culverts are pricey. One of these days I'll finally get some images of equipment.... |
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| arly | Nov 3 2009, 09:53 PM Post #3 |
Advanced Operator
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As stated by couchsachraga, I’d look at a YTS or a Tidd Tech rollers and use whoever’s design for idea’s. Believe me they’ve already tried this and that and we'd suggest not reinventing the wheel to save yourself lots of grief. We'd also suggest using a plastic HDPE (Black) culvert and if you go to your city or county shops they could have some left over pieces they might give you for free. That’s what we did! Doing that saved us about $300 for a length of it. Whatever you do, please let us know how it goes and post photos here. Good luck!
Edited by arly, Nov 5 2009, 03:35 PM.
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| arly | Nov 5 2009, 08:41 AM Post #4 |
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Advanced Operator
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Here are a few photos of our modified YTS roller.
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| couchsachraga | Nov 7 2009, 08:55 PM Post #5 |
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Advanced Operator
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An image of my rollers... plastic up front with new metal frame (long frame as I will put plywood on it to haul stuff too - might even mount an old bench seat there!). Image of the Ginzu too.
Edited by couchsachraga, Nov 7 2009, 08:58 PM.
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