D3.5

After researching several DIY/home owner options (ABI, DR Power, etc.) to fix severe ruts and potholes in our 1/4 mile gravel driveway, I came across the Handozer drag online. I was initially going to purchase the DR Power, but had read recent reviews that the quality had started to decline. The Handozer had excellent online reviews and I decided to purchase a few weeks ago. After putting it together and making some minor adjustments (probably a total of 30-40 mins), we hooked it up to our basic Husqvarna 18hp lawn tractor and it took care of all of our ruts and potholes! As other users stated, it does take many passes and different patterns to get a nice smooth surface and to spread out the gravel, but I was impressed. I would say that we spent about 3 hrs between two days and the driveway was good as new! We've filled the potholes the last couple of years, but we knew that was a short term fix. While this is by no means a contractor/professional grade machine, it appears to be well made and works wonders at a good price for the normal homeowner/DIYer. I would highly recommend to anyone looking for a grader for their gravel driveway!

Had I known about this sooner, I'd have bought quite a while ago. This type of implement was brought to my attention by an ad in a magazine for a DR brand groomer. It was twice the price, or triple if you wanted motorized lift. Was skeptical it would scarify like some more aggressive and again, more expensive (x3), yet this little dynamo really did the trick!. I had a sorely neglected driveway when we purchased the property 2 yrs ago. My first gravel drive. Potholes and ruts 6-8" deep from rain storm drainage. This will not go so far as to introduce a crown on the drive, but with repeated passes, even the deep ruts were filling in and leveling. If you own a lawn tractor and have a gravel drive, do yourself a favor - get one of these and enjoy a much smoother, well groomed driveway. Sounds corny as I've heard the phrase often, but I honestly have had people ask when the fresh gravel was dumped. It really works that well. ONLY drawbacks are very minor: - Watch for bolts. I had to re-tighten spikes shortly into my initial run, as I was sheepish about over-tightening. You really need to see those V-bolts cranking down hard and distorting to fit the shape. - Had one of the lock-nuts on the rear rake that needed replacement- was loose in box, and did not like to stay put. - TRICK: I was using a rock that was just about the right size to fit where cinder block goes. It just didn't want to stay in place. Wrapped a bungee cord on it and solved that. Cinder block or rocks, you will want to have that weight for a hard packed gravel drive. - Could use a better lift method than hanging onto a rope, but it does work. It's not enough of an issue to push me to spend an additional grand on another brand Again, for the price, this is a great big bang for your buck. MUCH heavier frame/thicker steel than I thought it would be. You'll be shocked at how fun it is to refresh your driveway now and again. I'm sure with regular use the trouble spots will be kept to a minimum.

I have a very long gravel driveway that winds its way up a hill with my house at the top and I waited way too long to get something like this to maintain it. DR Power wanted over $200 to ship me one of their graders (I'm in Alaska) so the Handozer was much more reasonable. This drag did a very good job of getting the ruts out and I'm overall satisfied with it. The Handozer is a heavy and solid piece of equipment - I think it should last. Assembly is a bit tedious with manually installing each tooth, but not difficult. Really could use space to set two cinder blocks on top, as one isn't quite enough weight for parts of my driveway. Other than that, it works well. The teeth are designed to pop up, rather than break, when they encounter something like a large rock :). So carry a wrench, because you'll need to hop off your lawn tractor from time to time to re-set a tooth. It tends to float over deeper holes, so you'll still need to get a shovel and fill those in yourself. But if you use this drag every so often before your driveway gets too rough you shouldn't get very many of those in the future.

Overall was very impressed with the performance of this implement. It took my 4 year old, pot-holed SB2 gravel drive and after 6 passes transformed it into basically a brand new driveway. I didn't even have to add any new gravel! Very good build quality and adjustability. It's nice to be able to drag, then just pull the rope to lift the implement over areas you don't want to drag. EDIT 6/21/26: Going on 8 years, my Handozer D3.5 hasn’t missed a lick. I haven’t had to do anything at this point other than keep it clean after use, and tine maintenance. It’s made pass after pass over our SB2 driveway over the years, and has even been used over fresh, dry dirt without issue. EDIT 7/21/24: It's now been 6 years, and the Handozer is still going just like when it was new. The only thing I've done at this point is sharpen and adjust the tines a bit, that is all. Still consider this one of the best outdoor equipment purchases I've made. EDIT 8/21/22: Still using this thing 4 years later, every 3 months or so to keep my gravel drive looking great. Due to this implement, I STILL have not had to add any gravel, as it keeps my driveway churned and fresh looking. Have had ZERO issues with it thus far. Looking forward to many more years of service.

Starting out I received the item with some slight paint damage (pictured) and some missing bolts, no big deal, easy items to get at the hardware store and the seller compensated me for the parts and the inconvenience. Assembly was really straightforward, with an impact driver it should take you about 20 mins or so, most of my time was spent just opening the packaging. I pulled this behind my dinky Craftsman YT4000 22HP with a K46 hydrostatic transmission to grade about 350' of my driveway. Construction crews have been coming in and out and they had really done a number on my gravel drive. The driveway was horribly bumpy, some areas were starting to wash out and there were some large ruts in it from heavy trucks. With a cinderblock strapped to it, the Handozer made smoothing out and reviving my tired looking driveway child's play. Getting a completely smooth drive takes many passes, which is not a big deal since your lawn tractor is doing most of the work. After about 2 hours of passing over my driveway in varying patterns to distribute the gravel evenly, my driveway looks better than new (see before and after photos). Things to consider: - If your lawn tractor has turf tires it may struggle to keep traction while pulling this, I found grading to be doable with my set of turf tires but they definitely made the process more tedious than it should have been. I am considering upgrading to AG tires in the future. - Tractors with weak hydrostatic transmissions be warned - Weaker hydrostatic transmissions, like the K46, will be able to pull the Handozer, however this is basically ground engaging equipment so it's putting quite a bit of stress on the transmission. If you've been putting off changing your trans oil, you may want to consider doing so before you start grading with this to reduce some stress on your transmission. - Make sure to ratchet strap your cinderblock down. The first 5 mins I was using it, the cinderblock had bounced out and I had no idea until I turned around and saw it laying in my driveway. - It does take a bit of arm strength to pull the string to raise the handozer, my arm and shoulder were a bit sore after grading. It's definitely doable though.

This thing is a little beast. My driveway is 400ft long and it hadnt been touched in years. It was a mess and this saved it. I saw that some people were having issues getting concrete blocks to fit in the tray but I put a piece of plywood in the tray and added a 50lb bag of concrete on top with 2 ratchet straps and wow! I’m impressed. Before I got this I was sure that I’d have to get a big load of gravel dropped to fill in the potholes in my driveway but after using this it worked wonders to revive and then grade and smooth everything out. After a couple hours of work It looks like it’s a brand new driveway again! I did have to adjust the angle a few times with the turnbuckle but in the end I adjusted the angle so that the front spikes scored the gravel deeply to loosen it up and then Once the rocks were nice and loose I adjusted the angle so the back box/blade “smoothed” everything out to get the driveway nice and even.

I was very impressed with this gravel Drag. The price is very good for this, it works great and my driveway looks like I wanted it to. It made the gravel even and it spread the gravel evenly and did a great job.

I have a 20 year old 1/4 mile drive. I had some pot holes that could bottom out a car. I was skeptical at first. But this little guy does a good job. I found it best to scrape the really packed lane a few hours after a rain really helped with breaking it up and filling the holes. Deffinitly need a cement block filled with concret. No block or just a hollow one doesnt do enough. You wont fix the drive in a couple of passes... heck im on like 20. But im almost smooth now. Now that i have this i can maintain a perfect drive it i do it a couple times a month. ts also holding up well to the punishment my drive is giving it.