Travels With Terry:Economical greens roller

Eric Kulaas, equipment manager, at the Renaissance Vinoy Resort & Golf Club in St. Petersburg, Fla., mounted an EastHof Roller (with an angle iron roller scraper mounted on hinges) on the back of a Toro Sand Pro. EastHof Rollers are manufactured by Liquid Ed Inc. The roller is mounted where the cultivator bar or spiker is normally attached with four bolts and one pin for the hydraulic cylinder, which produces down pressure as needed while still keeping the tires on the ground. Since the roller is used primarily on greens to increase the speed and to smooth them out, Kulaas mounted 12-inch diameter wheels and turf tires from a Club Car Carryall so the turfgrass surface would not be adversely disturbed. The roller also features a separately installed brush attachment, including two 5-foot-long brushes, one coarse bristle brush that floats for working in topdressing and a fine bristle brush for overseeding with adjustable hydraulic down-pressure. Kulaas, who recently received the 2008 Edwin Budding Award from the International Golf Course Equipment Managers Association (IGCEMA) during BIGGA’s Harrogate Week 2009, can add up to 300 pounds of additional “tractor-type weights” to the roller framework for additional down-pressure if needed. The roller costs $2,790; the separate brush unit costs about $595 and the labor to attach the roller and to mount the wheels and tires was less than an hour and a half.

Alternative greens roller

The TurfAce Alloy with its Giliberti Roller/Brush Lifting System is normally mounted on an electric Club Car Carryall Turf 1. Eric Kulaas, equipment manager, at the Renaissance Vinoy Resort & Golf Club in St. Petersburg, Fla., removed the entire roller assembly and mounted it on a gasoline engine version of the same model turf vehicle after the engine exhaust and hydraulic hitch mount were modified. This roller has a friction drive system where the rear roller is lowered by flipping a switch to activate the 12-volt electric linear actuator, incrementally, and then the turf vehicles drive wheels are raised off of the ground to move the vehicle forward with the tires rubbing against the roller. The rear roller is made of a hard HDPE-type plastic and strips of a non-slip adhesive tape were added to control slippage against the turf tires. By raising the rear wheels off the ground, additional weight can be placed in the turf vehicle’s bed for more down-pressure as needed. A dual topdressing brush assembly with a unique brush-lifting system is included. It took Kulaas about eight hours to remove and remount the roller/brush attachment and to make the modifications. A new roller/brush assembly mounted on the electric turf vehicle by the manufacturer cost about $13,500. A new bolt-on roller/brush attachment for an existing turf vehicle costs about $8,000. GCI