Front-End Loader Box Blade VS. rear angle blade VS. FEL for dirt driveway

[AchingBack]

for those of you in the box blade camp.

Does the county road dept maintain there roads with a earth moving scraper?

or with a (angle) road grader?


when it came to road/driveway maintance, you couldnt give me a box blade to use over my RB3572 rear blade. Makeing crown, pulling loose material from the edge back to the center, cutting ditches.

Shure some of that can be down with a box blade, but youll have a h3ll of a time pulling loose material from the edge back to the center with a box.

In the winter its much more effective at moving snow than a box blade is.

The grade master blades my be great for smoothing a road. but suffers all the same draw backs that a box blade do.

I couldn't agree more about the superior results with an angle blade. Every once in a while my neighbor, with a Kubota Grand 3130, hooks up his 5' box blade and ruins part of his driveway by grading it flat. It has no angle adjustment , and he is severely limited in his ability to do anything but make the road worse. Using a box blade with no angle adjustment makes it quite difficult to crown a road.

My angle blade does not have gauge wheels, but if you pay attention to what the implement is doing, I don't feel they are a necessity. If I had a lot of crushed rock on my road, I would prefer a 7 ft. landscape rake, set on an angle.

[browns40]

Box blades reposition dirt very well by adjusting the angle with your link arms... just not as far over as an unboxed blade does. You cannot get good results if you use it level on anything but your final smoothing over on a road... level the whole time and you just eat up your crown... have to give running water a fast exit off the road.

Scarifiers are something which is essential to dig the compacted base out your potholes to allow drainage to resume there--usually 1-4 softball to volleyball sized rocks under every one as well... we have lots of rocks in Maine Also they raise substrate when the surface has compacted super-hard to redistribute over the surface.

I feel your pain trying to do that work with a FEL--man, I would never even attempt that!

Just by virtue of versatility, great ballast on the back as a counterweight in a compact form, I would make the boxblade the first purchase.

[3RRL]

I've used a boxblade for 3 years exclusively maintaining my 1/2 mile long road. It can be done if used properly. You might want to check out this thread Various Boxblade Uses. That said, there's a difference between maintaining and building or repairing a dirt road. I chose the boxblade because of it's versatility for many other uses, but it is not necessarily the best or only implement to use on a dirt road. At the time, I could only afford one implement of that kind.

For smoothing an existing road, I think that implement Brian (MtnViewRanch) suggested is one heck of a road grader. I can see the inherent advantage of getting a really smooth surface on an existing road with a decent crown and in fairly good shape with little or no trouble, providing excellent results without gauge wheels I can see that the design has some limitations trying to use it to do other tasks with it. It is appropriately named as a road grader because that's what it does best.

A rear blade gives the advantage to windrow or move material from one side to the other by angling and tilting the blade. I would consider this more of a shaping and moving implement. A lot of guys choose this implement in snow country for it's advantages there. It is very versatile and can be used for many other applications as well, but again, not necessarily the best for some applications. I have a good friend who swears by his. Used with gauge wheels, I can see excellent results in getting a smooth surface once the road is ready for smoothing.

The boxblade, IMHO, is the most versatile of all, but not necessarily the best for some applications. But like I said, it can be done. I've used mine not only for maintenance, but also to make new roads and trails. It can also move dirt and shape the road using various techniques. I use mine to cut deep gutters along both sides of my long dirt road and then to crown the road too. There are lots of photos in that link I posted above. I've got my road now to where just dragging it to smooth the road is all I need to do. If you needed to get it smooth from the start, gauge wheels on the boxblade gives excellent results like with the other blades.

They all have their advantages and drawbacks, with each one excelling in its specific design use, but some are more versatile than others. There might be other things you want that tool to do? That is why I chose the boxblade. It's sort of like having 3 sizes of screwdrivers. I guess that's not a very good analogy and hopefully someone will post a better one, but you get the picture.

[MtnViewRanch]

They all have their advantages and drawbacks, with each one excelling in its specific design use, but some are more versatile than others. There might be other things you want that tool to do? That is why I chose the boxblade. It's sort of like having 3 sizes of screwdrivers. I guess that's not a very good analogy and hopefully someone will post a better one, but you get the picture.

You sent a picture? I didn't get the picture. I'm bummed that I don't get the picture.

[3RRL]

Wise guy.
Do you still have that grader for sale Brian?
I'll bet you could sell that to someone here after they see some of your finish grading on your road.

[bjcsc]

Do you still have that grader for sale Brian?
I'll bet you could sell that to someone here after they see some of your finish grading on your road.

I'd like to know more about how it works...how does it work better than a box blade? Got any other pictures of it? Say... with dimensions and angles?

[MtnViewRanch]

Wise guy.
Do you still have that grader for sale Brian?
I'll bet you could sell that to someone here after they see some of your finish grading on your road.

Odd that you ask that question. Just today I bought the 2 that a local dealer has had for, well since time began. I felt bad for them, they are in the industrial end of equipment and have no one to sell them to. (except me) I have tried to help sell them for them with no luck, so I bought them to help them out and will try to sell them myself. I have a 5' and 7'. I think that you should buy the 5' for Loretta and let her finish grade your road. I'll even paint it black and Honeybee Yellow.

[MtnViewRanch]

I'd like to know more about how it works...how does it work better than a box blade? Got any other pictures of it? Say... with dimensions and angles?

Here ya go. Mine is considered a 7 footer. Actual width is 89". 24" sides. 84" long. Two blades extend 1" below sides at about a 20-25 degree angle side-side. Weighs in around 1400-1500lbs. I pull it with my 75 horse 7520 Mahindra that weighs just under 14000lbs with the loader and road scraper. A couple of reasons that it works better than a box blade is that it has 2 blades on an angle, long sides to help keep the blades from moving up and down as much as a 2' box blade will. The angled blades work great for removing wash boarding. This thing is like pulling a 7' square down the road, instead of a 7' x 2' rectangle. Shear size helps smooth better.

I currently have a 5' and 7' for sale.

[djradz]

Whether you use a box blade or rear angle blade or your FEL (probably last choice), to build or perform rough grading of a driveway, I believe that the best tool without a doubt to MAINTAIN one is a landscape rake fitted with gage wheels. As you indicate you have a stone/gravel mix, it will work excellent. In fact, I believe you will like the results so well that you'll be out there frequently, just because it is so easy and fun to do a good job. Get one that allows you to angle the rake so that you can maintain a crown.

[schmism]

That said, there's a difference between maintaining and building or repairing a dirt road.

i will conceed that for building or repairing a heavily damaged (read washed out, or sever pot holes etc) a box blade is going to do the work quicker.

but i still stick to my "rear blade is best for maintaining a gravel drive"