Finished installing the ripper

[Welder Dave]

My mechanic friend came out and took the old wiring and control box for the snow wing off. The wires at each end were in terrible shape. Surprised nothing shorted out. There were a couple extra power wires so he used one to power the switch and then used a couple wires coming out of the cab that were used for the snow wing. Just had to add about a 2' foot section of 2 wire cable to reach the solenoids. Zip tied the cable to 1 of the hydraulic hoses to keep it from flopping around and coming apart. Works good and isn't overly fast where it slams the ripper hard up to the stops. The 2 cylinders have a lot of power. Tried it out with just 1 tooth and I think it will work good for ripping the hard packed clay on my MX track so the water will drain better. Two pins for the ripper teeth are the wrong size so I'll make some new ones.

 

[cuttin edge]

A note on ripping in a hard pack material. The ripper teeth will be the same as pot holes in the road. If you don't cut deep enough with the blade after, the teeth marks will leave grooves in your material. Probably something you won't want on a race track.

 

[Welder Dave]

Ripping the track is mostly to open up the hard pack so water will soak in rather than sit in a puddle. The top surface gets harrowed or rototilled. I usually need to pull harrows after cultivating too. I tried a little bit with just 1 shank and it didn't disturb the soil too much but I did notice some areas where a groove was left in the ground. That wouldn't be good to get a tire in.