I'm going to make a video: "This guy spent $50, I don't want to spend $50! So I nailed two pallets together and tied my dog's leash to it. Cost $2. And my dog is out of breath, not me".

I scrolled through the comments for a few more seconds than expected to see a comment regarding your helper (son). Including your son or daughter, even if it slows you down, is time well spent. They won't forget it. My son is 4 years old and he and I have shoveled 15 tons of sandy loam for 2 days. I can honestly say, he's truly helping speed up the process. I apparently can't take any breaks to rest or will be asked why I'm not digging.

Also just to clarify, his design is better than just using a pallet, as it won’t gather dirt. The reason I stumbled across this video was because of that exact reason. My pallet idea went to sheeet, and was looking for an alternative to spending loads at the store. So thank you sir, I may have a new project for tomorrow.

I need to level my yard and I was wondering what to do. Turns out I have a pallet sitting in my backyard that I was about to send to the landfill. Fantastic idea.

The time lapse with your son following you is to cute! 🤣 I plan on doing something very similar,you gave me the idea to use a long pallet we have but add weight on ends with 4x4's and I need big spike nails because I'm using it to spread horse manure and hay. Thank you for the video

Thanks so much for posting this!!! I built one just like yours and it worked incredibly well. Very happy with the results. Once again...thanks so much for sharing your idea 👍😁

I needed exactly that! Thank you for this inspiration i was thinking build something maybe PVC pipe then bricks ontop or whatever but hey i gotta pallet out back which will work perfect!

Well done and well said. I agree too many so called DIY videos use too much fancy kit and can put people off because ‘if I can’t afford that I can’t do it’ mentality. Great build and a great result. Perfect is the enemy of good in my view and you’ve done a really good job. It’s a hard not a pro-golf putting greeen. Hats off to you. Cheers

Great idea! I just made my own out of old chain link fencing. Chained it to my riding mower and threw on some plate weights - worked like a charm!

Awesome job building and showing how it worked. Thanks for making the video.

You are a breathless inspiration. :-) . I'll follow you in your footsteps. More or less. With the help of our hired handyman, that is. Thanks for showing us this handy tool you built.

This is perfect for me. I have a neglected 60 x 20 feet area which was filled with 8-foot high brambles, top to bottom, and I'm currently having to dig out everything to the roots, so will definitely need to level it all once I'm done. I uncovered some scrap wood from raised beds, which I was going to just burn, but after seeing this I'll give it one more job to do and make a drag like this. You are bookmarked under 'garden' for my future reference, so thanks for this excellent and valuable video!

Looks great, nice work! Always nice to have a helper too!

Awesome job! You just inspired me. Thank you for the great tip.

Years ago we used old pallets for this purpose. They weren't as wide as this design but they worked in the much the same way. We pulled one behind a riding mower and it worked like a champ. At times we would toss a few blocks on top of it for some additional downforce and it got the job done. I suppose you could fasten two pallets together for a wider version or if you're lucky you could find one of those long pallets and it would do about the same. Considering how often someone might actually use something like this, wood is probably a great choice as it is inexpensive and it is easy to repurpose or dispose of when the job is done.

This thing is sweet. When I do my back yard I will be making one of these for sure! Great idea and video. Subscribed!

I have an old wooden trundle bed that is twin bed length. I’m about to use it pulled behind my golf cart. Thanks for saving me a ton of money!

Thanks Jason....I will use a pallet and a tractor.....you saved me enough to at least make one tractor payment...my wife is smiling

You, my friend, are a champion! We have a tractor, and a commercial zero turn finish mower, and I am here watching your video to actually see results. While the heavy duty pulling machines would make it far easier to do (we also have a larger patch of lawn! LOL!)... seeing this effort working so well is quite satisfying! Like you video, and hit the big red button of love... excellent work!

Dude! Shots fired from the get-go...lol. I love it man! I knew what you meant though, and didn’t take it the wrong way.

Thank you for this idea!!! I constructed this and used it yesterday to smooth out 6 yards of sand that was delivered. Cost about $50! Worked beautifully and I got a good workout as well! 😃

Great idea. I was on the verge of going and buying the metal and find someone who welds to make me a drag. Turns out I already have all the lumber available at the house. It should work well for me as well.

I like your easy style. Back in the day when I was a kid my dad had a roll down metal gate he grabbed from the salvage yard for a few bucks. 10 x 12 ft and he would let us stand on it for weight. Your rig remind me of some good times.

So simple and yet Brilliant. Thank you for sharing this. I'll put some extra wood to use :)

Good job you’ve done there👍

Pretty good job buddy! Thanks for demonstrating! 👍

You need to give your supervisor a raise. He worked almost as hard as you did.

So funny. I had an idea to build a drag out of scrap wood at my house and then this shows up in my feed a couple days later. Quit spying on me KZfaq! Nice video. Thanks for sharing.

Hi brilliant Idea I am going to use a pallet inspired by your build thanks from Scotland

Perfect, good vid...enjoyed that. Funny too..Mickey from England UK 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

Great idea, thank you Jason!

Thank you thank you thank you bro for this insightful video you had given me the idea to just take a pallet and drag that across my lawn Instead of buying one of those lawn rakes You save me 50 bucks thank you for giving me the answer I did hit the subscribe button looking forward to more of your videos

Awesome job. Keep up the good work.

Awesome job man 👍

Price for the lawn level rake is absurd, indeed. I have been surfing the KZfaq in search of some diy inspiration to make my own rake and found your video. Your idea looks great, works well and will take only a short time to assemble. Thumbs up!

Pallet and remove all but two or three boards on one side. But awesome project. I made a dual purpose drag from old sign posts. One side I welded old bolts too on a row about two inches apart like a rake or harrow. The other side is just a smooth bar. It’s 4 ft wide. I pull with small lawn mower or by hand. I use it smooth and break up clods one garden or to dethatch the yard.

Nice ill be making mine out of a 4x4s i have laying around. I rented a skid steer ill probably tow it around though. Thanks for a great idea

This worked out well, I would suggest adding two 10lbs flat stones on each other so it digs up a little bit because the the surface begins to level after each rainstorm you will see small roots and whatnot creep up so its best to compact it down a littlebit

I was looking for a video on leveling the yard after I tiller it I stubble on your video great tool I will do the same and try to see if it works for me instead of spending $200 on a tool that’s ridiculous I go the cheaper route thanks 🙏 to you sir Ps Great Helper your Son 👍

Great idea. I used a 6' x 8' chain link fence section with some added weight when I leveled my 2k sq ft front lawn before laying sod in 08. Oh you have been subbed by Striperman too lol :)

Thank you for the inspiration..I am going to try this for mine 👍

My brother in law in Cali saw this video and made the exact same drag...didn't know at the time you were close by :)

Excellent Video Man! We Make These On A Larger Scale To Help Level The Ball fields we work on. Keep The Vids Coming.... I Subscribed!

Thank you. Really enjoyed your. Video.

Like seeing your little helper! Mine is always around me and, she really wants to help! Great job! After having your grass grow and still have the same issue, use a rubber mat. It helps.

This is a great idea. Thanks

The beginning was great your earned a sub

Nice work!

Nice team work

Great idea, thanks!

Great idea!

Bro. This is amazing! I was just contemplating buying a $130 drag mat. I’ll be doing this instead except half the size.

what a sinple but clever idea. Excellent.

Great idea bro. Just about 1000 subs. Congrats!! 🥳🎉🎊

This is exactly the type idea I was looking for. Thank you! Thankfully I will be pulling mine with a tractor tho 😅😅😅

Excellent. Thank You!!! Yes, those selling it for over $100 are ridiculous

Great idea! I think I’m going to screw two pallets together and duplicate your idea. Thanks for the idea!

Good stuff for the average man. I'm going to build one of these, only thing I might do different is put slim pieces of plywood between the 4x4s and the middle 2x4s so that they're very slightly higher than the front and back 2x4s to let more dirt/sand/soil or whatever flow better. Then looking to reinforce an area so I can plop cinder blocks on top for weight

Great exercise also!!!

This worked great, I already had the wood laying around from a deck build so it cost the price of the fittings and the rope. The changes I made were to use nylon rope and bicycle handgrips for comfort and I put the rope on both ends so I didn't have to turn it around.

I just found this video amd now I'm#subbed thanks for the idea. I have plenty of pallets. #Thanksforsharing #Keepupthegreatwork

I just drag a roll of Chainlink fence with a few concrete blocks behind my lawn tractor. What's great is after I'm done I can still use the fence! Dragging by hand is just too hard for anyone, especially one my age! You should have put your little larvae on it for extra weight, plus he would have fun!

You built a pallet! ahahahaha!!! good idea for leveling using a pallet though!

Found you through princess cut !!! Awesome channel

It's really a great idea! I want to use a sheet of 5/8 plywood to move (via dragging) about 20 cubic feet of sandy soil about 60' using my 4 cylinder van rated at 1500lb towing. In all I want to move about 2400 cubic feet so 120 trips! wondering if it will work?

bro I love this dude haha! it's hilarious hahaha from the beginning in the video I knew this wanna be a good video hahaha

Nice. Thanks for sharing. Was thinking to build something too. Putting a bunch of nails thru boards will probably help loosing up compacted dirt huh

I did the same. Get one of those extra large pallets and out some weights on it. I drag it with a tractor. Because I have to move it by hand to store it a pine pallet is best. If you want something more substantial get two hardwood pallets and bolt them side by side to make a long one. You do not need weights for that to work. I have a large amount of fill in a paddock so need the tractor. On sensitive areas I keep the tractor off it and use a long rope so the tractor does not sink into the fill. Put a pulley at the start and you can keep the tractor at one end and pull the pallet back using the pulley. Beats paying someone to come in with a rake and a Posi drive tractor.

GOOD IDEA!

Heck yah man thats why god gave us a brain use it people. Good job dude.

Excellent.

Brilliance!!!

Nice 👍 thanks 😎

I am going to seed & top dress my lawn , then make a ONE 4x4 post about 36 -40 inches long with eye hooks to attach a rope to so I can drag it....nothing fancy or heavy like your pallet style leveling drag rake .....I may put in a few short screws on the bottom of the 4x4 for some added draggability ....

Thanks for sharing. I would put some concrete bags on it to make it more heavier!

Hey, I bounced from the video that you were referring to, because I sure don't know a welder or have any of those fancy things they used either. No point in even finishing the video. I do have a heavy picket fence that I cut off my deck, and I think it should do.

Thank you

A hardwood pallet also works well. It is heavier and if you have a tractor a patio stone on it gibes it more weight. Either way it is one hell of a workout.

$50 bucks then - now it’s worth $7,895! Lumber was a great investment 😂

honestly you could've made it for 10$ for rope even less because i know alot on place who give away shipping pallets might as well use old wood to drag it in dirt but really good idea thanks

I did this same thing by tying string to a pallet, completely free haha

This a good method for leveling and more important as Dr Eric Berg did made a video regarding knee pain and this is a very good workout for those has knee pain.

thank you very nice!!!!

nice man when u done you can reuse the wood. better than Conner trying to hide it in the backyard. lol

Great idea. I bet it would be even more effective if weighted down with something heavy like bricks.

You built a pallet that Home Depot would have given you if you had asked ha!! Looks like it works pretty good though. Anytime you need metal work or welding done you should check with your local machine shop.

Just to clarify as it's come up a couple times, I was not intending to come off as criticizing Connor or the Lawn Tools. What they did is a better design than this. However, if you or a friend can't weld, this is a good alternative.

You could also easily add 50lb bags of play sand if you need more weight.; could even just do 2x4s and sand for weight.

This guy is smart.

I have now found a use for my ATV

I built this thing and it is heavy as heck. Definitely good if you need move a bit of earth though.

Good job. Does this method help flatten an already existing level ground or does it help with off level ground?

If you attach the chains to the second row of timber or nearer to the centre (front to back) it might stop the front from wanting to pull up/lift as you start to drag, to help keep it all flatter as you work?

good DIY solution... can you pull it with a walk behind mower without blades engaged.. like I have a toro timemaster.. thinking it can be pulled behind a mower like that.. it has a good amount of HP?

You should have built a seat for your son to ride on it with you😊

Come on over to my house central Pa. I need about 40 feet of a slip smoothed over! Bring your invention and make some cash! I’m not joking!

Thanks for sharing, Jason. Do you think it might be improved by putting washers (or some other spacers) in the leading and trailing edges like those other guys did with their welded versions ? I have a really bumpy yard and will need to do some leveling with sand or sand/soil mix before I shake my teeth loose this mowing season. I have about 12,000 sq ft so will be dragging it with my tractor.

Think that would be okay over grass as well? I need to do this but over my existing grass, sometime in early September.

How do you know when it done and that low spot you have do you keep going over and over until it fills? The dirt that’s at the end of pallet means what

I'm thinking a pallet with lag screws and cinder blocks on top, 90% of which can be gotten for free