Hi. I'm Ted from Everything Attachments, and we're here today with our new plugger. This particular one is made by Ryan Lawnaire. This is a plugger that we've kept around. I did sell it to a friend about 15 years ago, but the agreement was I sold it to him really cheap, and our whole family and most of our employees uses this plugger twice a year.
We do have another style of plugger. It's a drum plugger, and it works really well and it's really inexpensive. But when you really want the professional job and you're charging for doing your plugging, and you're doing fine lawns instead of big fields and things like that, that's when the penetration and the being able to turn and stuff rrqally comes into effect, where it's not tearing your hole.
Now, Ryan, to me, has always been pretty much the king of pluggers. There was a few things I didn't like about it. So we've tried to change that with our new plugger. We'll go over both of them. The main thing I don't like about a Ryan plugger is the adjustability of a category zero or a category one. Well, this weighs 515 pounds. Our same width weighs 650.
So, basically, no tractor that I know of . . . the old lawn and garden tractors have kind of gone away. The subcompact tractors have replaced them, and all of those are category one hitch. So what my employees hate the most about hooking this particular plugger up and down is trying to get in these bushings into the lift, to make it a category one, while they're trying to balance this cage and all to install it. We simply made ours a category one. If you've got a tractor that's a zero that will pick up 650 pounds, you've got a very small number of tractors that will do that. We're just kind of skipping that group.
These tines are spaced six inches apart, and they're on independent wheels. We're going to go over that with our plugger. The difference here is this is a casted piece. It probably comes from another country, because it's very hard to get casting done here in the U.S. So we've made ours a different way.
They call this a 36-inch Lawnaire Plugger, but if you measure from tip of spoon to tip of spoon, it's only 30 inches. They're six inch spacings. So what they're counting on - and I am also - when I say it's a 36, you're going to have 31 inches tip to tip, but when you make your next row, you're going to have a 6 inch spacing between this tine and the next one that you make. So you get 36 inches every pass you make, even though it's only 30 inches from spoon to spoon.
We're going to go to our plugger. Some of the other things that are different, their frame is an inch and a quarter. Our frame is two inches. Their axle is an inch and a quarter. Our axle is two inches. Their axle is firm. It's straight. It relies on the cinder . . . this particular one had bronze bushings in it when it was made. This was 15 years ago. They are greasable. Now, they're what's called cinder bushings. That means they take powder, put it under extreme force, and force it into something similar to casted metal. It makes a good bushing material.
So what we've done with our extra width and axle, still being able to grease it, and we're going to show you we're letting the whole axle turn on huge pillar block bearings. We think we've just got a superior design all the way over.
Not to mention, the bad thing about the Ryan, it goes through several hands before you're able to get it. Ryan doesn't sell anything, that I know of, without a distributor, a dealer, and a couple of other people in the middle. So you've got a lot of markup on this versus what we're building directly from the manufacturer to you.
So now that we're back here with our own plugger that we've made in-house, and we've made every piece of this, with the exception of possibly some pins and a couple of bolts. I know they're coming off of the USA soil, and we're making them here in Newton, North Carolina. Even the wheels in the back - and we'll show you how we make them - they're made here, and they're made out of American steel.
We've made the adjustment for how wide you want your category one hitch really easy. We've put a carriage bolt in the top, where you don't have to have a second wrench, and we've only used two bolts that are a little bigger. With the Ryan, you've got to have two wrenches. You've got to have four bolts for each one. This one's only got two bolts, and it's easy to do with just one wrench.
It does have two positioning holes here. The smaller tractor we'll actually probably use the top hole, so it will have more distance. It's going to curl it more and give you more lift. A larger tractor can use the bottom hole, because it's going to have more lift on your lift arms. These can be adjusted all the way in to make it really easy for a subcompact to hook up with the center chains or all the way out to a standard dimension of 26 inches or whatever you like for a category one.
On a Ryan plugger, when you get it in, it basically comes in like an Ikea attachment. You've got to completely assemble everything. That's why these hitches bolt on and everything. All of the wheels, all of the spoons, everything has to be bolted on, where we assemble all of that for you.
To start with, not only does each wheel roll independently, which gives you the ability to make some slight turning without tearing your hole. If you have a drum aerator, you pretty much need to stay in almost an exact straight line, because any turning you do is going to tear the hole. If you turn severely, you're going to be in some spoons. So you don't want either of those to happen. So, with these being independently greased and independently turning, it lets you make a little bit of turn without tearing the hole.
So what we've also done, instead of just it being able to roll independently on the axle, and the axle being solid where it can't turn, like on the Ryan, we've put a two-inch pillar block bearing, just like we used on our cultipackers. So they're used to having 1,000 pounds of cast iron wheels on them. We've had no problems. So now, you can turn here and here, and it's all greased.
As far as the spoons go, I've always really liked the spoons on a Ryan plugger, and I haven't really been able to find, from the sources I had earlier, the type of spoon I liked as much as this. What's funny is the Ryan spoon . . . what used to come on them, like the plugger I just showed you, I'm not sure is still the same spoon that is coming in on them, because on the new literature that I just go through reading on the computer, what it says is that it comes with the thick spoon. The thick spoons are usually 3 to 3.5 millimeter, and they usually come from offshore, say China, India, somewhere like that. Of course they're cheaper. From what I can read, this is the spoon that is now coming on them. I could be wrong, but that's the way it looks in the literature.
Now, these are thicker, but if you notice, when you hit them together, it's kind of a thud. It just doesn't have . . . now, let me show you with these tines. These tines are actually thinner. They penetrate the ground easier. Peanut and I did a test on them to try and bend them, and they will way outperform that thick spoon. When you hit these together, they sound more like a bell or a big bell, or kind of like crystal when you do it. That's because of the tempering of the steel. It makes it easier to go in the ground, because they're thinner. Because of the temper, instead of being able to break these spoons, even if you damage this spoon, you might bend it, but you're not going to break it. So you're not going to have to look for the other half of it before you mow next time, to get a flat tire.
So these are a lot better spoons, in my opinion. Believe it or not, we were able to find a company that was willing to make them for us in the United States. So far, basically all of the main components are made in the U.S.
These wheels here, because we've got a laser now, instead of using a casted wheel from China or India, we're using plate steel and just cutting round disks with all of the holes pre-made in it. We cut a square hole in one side, for the carriage bolts, which are on this side and the back sides, where you can't see. To make the hole, there are four different pieces of plate that actually make a round hole.
Okay, as we were going through the video, I just wanted to explain to you, with the parts, so you could really see what you were getting in the video. When we talked about the laminated construction, instead of making that out of casted pieces, this is what we really mean.
This is the exact center plate. That's a piece of three-sixteenths. It's cut with a laser. This port here is a port that comes from the grease fitting from one of the outer plates. It will be led in from a tube from all the way to the outside. So that's your center plate, and then all of these plates are what makes the plate around the hole. Every plate is a different size, and as you laminate this together, it makes a semi-round hole.
So you have several plates that have the slots cut in them. Currently, we have eight slots in them. By making it 16, we would simply would make this a slot right here. It's super easy to do, but since we sell so few with 16 instead of 8, we're going to leave this at 8. If we want a 16, we'll simply burn another plate. We're not going to leave the majority of the pluggers with 16 holes in them, because all that's going to do is cut down on the weight and leave you with more holes to get packed with mud, if you're not going to have a spoon in that hole. So if you want a 16 spoon plugger, we will burn the other holes, and you can have it your way.
As you'll see, that random hole there is the grease fitting hole that leads to the outside, where the grease will come into that slot into that one. So you get the idea of how we make our round hole in the center with all the different plates. On the plate with the nut, then you've got the round holes here.
On the disks that are in the center there, they're all the same, and they've got round holes on one side. Then your outer disks have square holes in the end of them, so they can capture the square head on a carriage bolt, where we can push the bolt up flat and tighten it simply with a torque wrench on the other side.
So this is how many plates it takes just to make up one wheel. The Ryan plugger casted wheel weighs 73 pounds, I believe is correct. Our assemblies are weighing 85 pounds apiece. So you're getting a little more weight, and this looks a lot more labor-intensive. It really goes together pretty quickly, because all of the holes are perfectly aligned.
The main thing we're getting is we're not having to buy 48, 000 pounds at a time, in a container, from India or China, which is what we prefer to not do, even if it does cost a little more money. This is good American plates, oiled and pickled, and then we put everything together, so you get a 100%
American-made aerator. This is the only way I know to do it at this time.
Instead of the center axle riding on an inch and a quarter, you've got a two-inch. So, you've got over double the surface area for the turn of the wear, when you're keeping it greased. So that helps a lot. You've got the full six inches. On the Ryan wheels, the center is hollow, and the bushing doesn't go all the way through. So you've got a little less weight. You've got, definitely, less surface area on your axle there. So that should last longer.
When you're pulling a plugger straight, and that's the way you're pulling it most of the time, even though you can make a little turn with the independent wheels, most of the time you're pulling it straight. So, in that case, all six wheels would probably actually make the axle turn in this bearing instead of in the wheels. So you're double protected and double wear-area'd. You've got wear area here, and you've got greased roller bearings on the side. So we've protected it in every direction.
Now, the Ryan does have the ability to put 16 spoons on each wheel, instead of 8. We only sell about 1 in 100, at the most, with 16 spoons instead of 8. If you want 16 spoons, it may take a week or so to do it for the first one. It's easy to do. We simply are just going to have to cut new plates in the center here. The bolt's already here for the spoon. We can do it, but I've done it before on Ryans and used them.
The performance of the weight, even though this would weigh more, I think it would do better. When I put them on the Ryan, it just seemed to have a lot more tearing of the holes. It was just so much holes, so close together. I, personally, didn't like it, but if that's what you want, it can be done.
Now, we chose to only cover half of this with the shield, instead of all of it, just to keep it easier to ship, since we're going to ship it put together. For safety, we covered the front, in case you did happen to fall off of your tractor. If you walk up to the back of it, while it's working, I'd say it's kind of you're fault. So they are dangerous. There are sharp spoons. Just stay away from the backside of them.
So, basically, we've taken everything that we've learned from using the Ryan plugger for 15 years, incorporated it into our plugger, made it better, made it easier, and made it 100% US made. We've put the bolts in here, where you can remove the carriage, if you want to. It's really easy to put it on your tractor and lift it up. We've got one bolt, instead of two, on those side clips, needing two wrenches to change these spoons. You've only got one bolt to do it.
We think we've come up with the best design to be able to make it here in the U.S. and not have to cast those wheels and use those clamps to hold on the spoon. There's no way that spoon can come out of that center of that plate metal.
This is rated the same way as a Ryan, even though this is called a 36, and the Ryan is called a 36, from spoon to spoon will only be 31. But your next pass, as you come by, will make it - as they've calculated it - a 36. In other words, our 48 will only be 42 inches wide, spoon to spoon. But when you make your next pass, it makes it a 48. So that's the way they've rated it, and that's the way we're going to rate it.
So this weighing 650 pounds - theirs weighing 515 - even when you've got some dry conditions and clay, you're not going to have to wait for that extra rain to get that good three or four inch plug out of this.
So if you've got any questions about, "Will this fit your tractor? Will your tractor life it," this will still go through a 48-inch gate. So that's what we've tried to keep it down to.
If you've got any questions or anything, just give us a call or email at EverythingAttachments.
Second Video
So we're here today with our new Lawn Air plugger. We're here with Peanut.
We brought one of our employees tractors to use, because our Bobcats were on another job. This is a nice little Massey Ferguson. It's made by Iseki and it is a great little tractor and it's the perfect sized tractor to be using for lawns like this and this size aerator. This is a 650-lb. aerator. This is the first time we've tried it.
Dad does his yard twice a year. Right now he's got some bermuda that hasn't come back green from the winter yet. It's still cold, but Dad doesn't care what it is as long as it's green. So we're gonna get him a new yard here fescue. And then we'll come back and take a picture at about two and a half, three weeks when this comes up and you'll be able to see how much difference where the holes are actually aerated of what's gonna come up, because after we get through plugging, Peanut will put out the seed and the fertilizer. Then it'll all blend in and it'll melt out these what should be plugs that are gonna come out.
These are a new spoon that we've had designed. It's a total new piece for us. Right now we've got the 36 and the 48 with the 60 and 72 to come. But these have the all independent wheels where you can kind of turn a little bit and not tear your ground. It simply doesn't have any of the weight that you're gonna have to add to the top or drain the water. Make sure it doesn't bust. And it's a one shot deal plugger
You shouldn't have to go over it twice. Simply because of the penetration. Right now the ground is probably close to right. If anything, it's a little bit wet. We're probably gonna get a good three and a half or four inch plug. We'll see what we get. Go ahead Peanut give it a try. We've set the stabilizers on it also. Just a little bit loose were you've got a little bit of play so if he varies from an exact straight line, that it's gonna let it follow without tearing a hole.
So it looks like it's going plenty deep.
It is a little bit wet. Peanut is getting four inch plus plugs out of this. It's almost going all the way up to where the weight is and that's about a full five inches to the weight and he's getting about four and a half inch plugs. That's about as long as I've seen.
The ground is just a little wetter than it would normally be when you want to plug and that was the water meter he slowed down to go over. Those spoons are good enough where if you do go over your asphalt water meter or something, you're not gonna damage these hardened tempered spoons.
This particular implement, it's not designed for a quick attach. It could be, but there's some reasons it's not. If you're insisted on having it for a quick attach we can make one. Right there's the water meter he's trying to go slow over. And right there's the other one. That has two water meters. One that's for the irrigation that he doesn't have to pay any sewage extra bill on and one for the house.
Even though you only have 30 inches from spoon to spoon he's skipping the six inches in between the last row. So he's getting the 36 inch coverage on every pass. And the only reason we have a 36 and we built it first is because when we were buying them from Ryan, which is Lawn Air, the 48 was just so expensive you really just couldn't afford it. Dealer cost on that 36 right now, buying it through a distributor is 2,400 dollars plus. And that comes unassembled and plus frieght.
The four foot last time I priced it was well in the 3,000 dollar range and it's just more than I'm willing as a home owner to invest since I don't do it professionally. And these pluggers are more expensive than our drum pluggers, but you get a lot more for your money and it's something that will last you a lifetime. They're not in the 3,000 dollar range and 6,000 dollar range. You still get the exact same quality of plugger without the big price.
So we're gonna follow it right behind it where you can see it in action. So he's plugging a whole lot faster than he should be and let's go back and look and see how it came out. He's in third gear instead of first gear and it's still leaving great plugs. If you were able to plug that fast on a commercial job, you sure would save a lot of time. Get your production up.
It's still leaving a full size plug and there's no reason to not be plugging fast if you can. So he's plugging at probably six or seven miles an hour and it's leaving great plugs. This yard's a little softer than it should be. We had rain a couple nights ago, but it's just with our timing and whether it's what we have to do.
See he's leaving that six inches in between his last row and his new row so that he gets the full 36 inches on every pass. And at that speed, he would get a lot plugged quick. It's really gonna take a large tractor to be able to lift our five or six footer at the weight this is per foot. That's over 200 pounds per foot.
You see there he's able to make that turn without tearing the holes and still leaving his plugs. Where a drum aerator would really needed to be lifted up to make that turn.
The Ryan video said they could plug up to four miles an hour in the right conditions and this is a little bit wet. I believe we could easily plug in the six or seven miles per hour range.
For this size of yard it's better to not have a really big heavy tractor on the lot.
OK so after we've done our testing here today we really like the results we've gotten. It is a little wet. We're getting a really long plug which is okay it's over four inches. We were able to see that we were able to run up to about seven miles per hour and still get the full plug without tearing, which would be way past any other plugger I know. Mainly because it just doesn't have enough weight to keep that much penetrated and that much ground speed at the same time. It needs the weight to work slower to get it in the ground that far.
Some of the things we've done and we've been asked about this on tractor by net. The hitch is fully adjustable here and as you'll see we put it on the top side of this instead of out front. This particular tractor here is almost a class two, in fact it probably is a class two compact. So it's bigger than would need to use for a 36 inch plugger, but on a lot of the tractors the sub compacts and the class one compacts, they need this hitch to be bringing this heavy weight as close to the tractor as possible.
Even if you have a tractor that can pick it up with no problem. The closer this unit is to the tractor, the more turning you're gonna be able to do without tearing the hole, because the further it gets back, the further the implement moves. So we've put it this way on purpose.
Now we've had some people say, "well I don't buy any attachment that's not a quick attach attachment". That's fine. We can make it a quick attach attachment if that's what you want, but you're gonna lose some of the performance as you bring this back further on the ability to turn without tearing your hole. You're gonna be able to turn as much as possible, but the further it gets back, the less you're gonna get of that.
We like the design we've come up with. It's the first time we've used it. We're really happy that we're getting these nice big, long plugs and that's not even close to one of the longest ones. Still got the grass and all on the top of it. You can see where the roots are pulling apart right there. There's nowhere to go but up for this spring. As soon as Peanut gets through putting out the lime and the fertilizer.
There's a nice sized plug. Some of them are even an inch longer than that, but once it pushes through those spoons that we had made here in America, that it was worth the effort to come up with everything that we've done to make it here in America. Not get our wheels casted off shore and to get our tines here in America. Those tines with the tinsel strint they have. Even if you're going over your driveway or asphalt or something, it's not a good thing to do. It's probably gonna be harder on your asphalt than it is on the tine, but they will stand it without breaking and so forth.
We're really happy with all the testing we did on that tine. We went through a lot of trouble for almost a year to get the tine that we wanted with the manufacturers we were working with. So we like our final product. We will be coming up with the five and the six foot later, because it just gets into such a weight issue on shipping. Everything will be available soon. Just give us a call or an email and we'll be happy to help you fit the right plugger for your tractor.
