Crazyharrows

[Hopalong]

Can remember a set of harrows made by Canadian Co-operative Implements and called crazyharrows on our farm.
Hard to explain without a picture but it was diamond harrow type teeth mounted in circular pipe sections, several inside each other.
They were pulled by chains from an eccentric type axle between the wheels resulting in a zig zag pattern from being pulled partly sideways one way and then the other.
Better trash clearance was selling point, stone damage to circular sections a weakness.

[rodd]

I used them once, helped a friend that had 2 sets hooked together. I went after he had deep banded fert in stubble. They did a decent job of leveling, but an amazing job of spreading wheat stubble. It made it easy for his hoe drills to get through.
I have scrapped and recycled 2 sets and have one more set to drag home and dismantle someday. The angle iron in the frame is 3" and fairly soft. Easy to cut and has been used on many projects around the farm.

[Crazyharrows]

Spent many hours draging them around when I was young,did a good job in heavy trash.transport them was a chore by youself lol.

[oldjim]

Seems to me there was an updated version of crazy harrows made in the 70's (or 80's?) by Victory. Maybe someone else has more details - I think the sections were triangular in shape instead of round but the principle was the same.

Edit: Guess there's still a few brain cells flickering - here's a PAMI report about them:

http://pami.ca/pdfs/reports_research_updates/(10e)%20Harrows%20and%20Packers/471.PDF

[Stampsguy]

Yes the Victory ones were triangular but I don' think they worked as well as the crazy harrows. The good thing about them was they folded up for transport. I dreaded having to transport our Crazy's.

[farming101]

When crazy harrows went out of style a neighbour started buying them up and had one for every field

[farmaholic]

We never had a set of those but the good old diamond harrows were sure good for rolling out all the loose rocks and laying then neatly on top where they were a hazard if not picked......here in the slum of the Ghetto anyway....some people don't have that problem.

[Ache4Acres]

Can remember a set of harrows made by Canadian Co-operative Implements and called crazyharrows on our farm.
Hard to explain without a picture but it was diamond harrow type teeth mounted in circular pipe sections, several inside each other.
They were pulled by chains from an eccentric type axle between the wheels resulting in a zig zag pattern from being pulled partly sideways one way and then the other.
Better trash clearance was selling point, stone damage to circular sections a weakness.

I think this is them...Iseeing a resurgence in old school harrows around. The other day I saw advertised a 60ft set of new diamond harrows. Somebody is manufacturing those again it seems

[sawfly1]

they worked great , shaking out the straw lumps, had various combos ,
had a harrow hitch that had 2 20 ft.s hooked side by side. it was towed behind a 40 ft chisel plow.
great in the field. , but transport across the railroad tracks, unhook the the 4 10 ft. rings .
stand in the center ring , lift the whole thing , and carry them across the tracks like a giant hoop skirt.
good thing i was young then.

[AC man]

I am new to the forum and decided to join after following it for a while. I remember the crazy harrows from being a kid in the early 70's. Dad had a set of the Noble 36ft. hooked behind a 35ft. cultivator used for a seedbed before the press drill. This was a set like the ones posted in the picture. I would run this after school during seeding. They did a good job for smoothing the ground out and for weed control. The max. speed you could pull them was just below 5 mph. or you would have the rings breaking. You could not turn too short or the outside ring would jump over and get caught up with the centre one. The Nobles had a winch mounted for lifting the rings onto the frame, for transport and you had to drop two wheels in the centre, the two outside drive wheels were then winged up. Transporting them was a real pain!