Road maintenance - Tuffline v. Grademaster v. Roadboss

[JoeL4330]

I have a 7' roadboss WITH ROLLER on my KubL4330 ...43 horses and it does well on my long, steep gravel drive. It is a hard pull but 4wd low works fine. The roller has a hydraulic adjust and works like a tail wheel or gauge wheel during grading. When rolling, the whole weight of the roadboss is on the roller (a lot of weight) which means the roller works quite well.

I also have the toothed cutting blade, which works well for the shale I have in places. One drawback to the toothed blade is that sticks (and occasionally stones) get caught and gouge the driveway. While my tractor might be happier with a 6'er, it would not cover my turfs. I have top n tilt, and sith such a heavy load the they want to sag (leak down) a little over time.

[cschlaps]

This is an excellent thread, and I hope that others weigh in with their thoughts. I am currently maintaining the 1/2 mile private road that I live on, and set up a "loose" agreement with the neighbors that is helping to pay for my tractor "investment". Currently, I've made it work with a 6' box blade, but am very interested in a heavier grader blade.

The Roadboss has a great reputation that has been discussed at great length here, but the cost is scary...does anyone have any comments on the other brands out there?

[LoneCowboy]

Originally Posted by JoeL4330

I have a 7' roadboss WITH ROLLER on my KubL4330 ...43 horses and it does well on my long, steep gravel drive. It is a hard pull but 4wd low works fine. The roller has a hydraulic adjust and works like a tail wheel or gauge wheel during grading. When rolling, the whole weight of the roadboss is on the roller (a lot of weight) which means the roller works quite well.
.

roller?
do you have a picture of this roller?????

[JoeL4330]

Yes, picture attached ...but first, I have to apologize for my faulty memory ...what I have is "roadrunner" not "roadboss" ... you can find it at Roadrunner Construction Equipment - Grader/Spreader/Maintainer - Built Heavy!

As I said, I have the hydraulic roller, as shown, and the serrated blade ...and now, I have to wonder if mine isn't 8' ...more details, if you like.

[Kubota L5030]

Originally Posted by MtnViewRanch

1/2 mile of the over 2 miles of road that I maintain is shared with 4 other homes. The grader blade that I have is very similar to the Roadboss, just a bit longer and heaver. I usually grade the road 3-4 times a year. The road is decomposed granite with only a very slight crown to it. These graders work very well in removing wash boarding, filling potholes, all around maintenance of a dirt road. I would think that one could be purchased for what you might be paying to have your road graded by a contractor. Plus once you have the grader blade, the road can get graded when it needs to be graded, not just when everybody has chipped in to pay for it to get regraded. I highly recommend them, just be sure to get the right size and weight for your application.

Thanks MtnViewRanch,
I noticed you have the hydraulic top link. Does your grader blade or tractor also have hydraulic side tilt? And if it does, are they really necessary, or nice to have? I think my neighborhood could save a fortune if I setup my tractor and purchase a grader implement. We average $2,000 per year in payments to contractors to grade and roll. I currently do not have any rear hydraulic remotes, but I could add them for approximately $2,500.

[Kubota L5030]

Originally Posted by JoeL4330

Yes, picture attached ...but first, I have to apologize for my faulty memory ...what I have is "roadrunner" not "roadboss" ... you can find it at [url=http://www.roadrunnerblade.com/motorgraders.html]Roadrunner

As I said, I have the hydraulic roller, as shown, and the serrated blade ...and now, I have to wonder if mine isn't 8' ...more details, if you like.

Joel4330,
Did you go up to Bel Air to get the roadrunner, or did they demo? I like the idea of the roller. You are about an hour from me (I'm in Bluemont, VA), and Bel Air is about 2 hours away. Overall, are you pleased with the Roadrunner?

[JoeL4330]

we talked back and forth on the phone...I was pretty sure that was what I wanted. They (he) came down and I tried it out on my tractor and my drive. The deal was, he would take it away if I wasn't satisfied, but I was and it's been here ever since. If you are interested, come by and I will demonstrate ...or, you can do a little grading for me (Tom Sawyer?).

Getting it off his trailer was an event. In anticipation of attaching it to my tractor I had removed my rear mower. Big mistake. Without that counterweight on my rear, I really couldn't lift it off his trailer (but I could raise my tractor off its rear wheels) ...but we managed to slide it down his beavertail.

[Charlesaf3]

wow, great stuff in here, thanks everyone. Still love to see some opinions of the lightweight stuff if anyone has it.

Thanks for posting about the roadrunner Joe. Amazing how many variations of these things are out there for an implement people don't talk about often. (I'd never heard of one before MtnViewRanch put up his great posts)

[MtnViewRanch]

Originally Posted by Kubota L5030

Thanks MtnViewRanch,
I noticed you have the hydraulic top link. Does your grader blade or tractor also have hydraulic side tilt? And if it does, are they really necessary, or nice to have? I think my neighborhood could save a fortune if I setup my tractor and purchase a grader implement. We average $2,000 per year in payments to contractors to grade and roll. I currently do not have any rear hydraulic remotes, but I could add them for approximately $2,500 .

Top and tilt from day one. I usually only use the top link with the road blade. You could use tilt to help out with making a crown, but I have not had to do that yet. I use both the top and the tilt cylinders all the time when I am using either my rear blade or my roll over box blade. I can not imagine what a pain it must be to have to make adjustments manually. My guess is that most people don't make manual adjustments frequently.

[MtnViewRanch]

I was going through some more pictures that I had taken last weekend and I noticed a few things on my grader blade that I guess that I had never paid attention to before. There are holes on the sides so that the blades can be adjusted to cut a crown in the road I guess. And there are a whole other set of holes to lower the cutting edges after they have worn down. The Road Boss guy had said that his graders were the only ones to have the extra set of blade holes, guess that he was wrong.

If anybody wants a 5 foot medium duty or a 7 foot heavy duty, I have one of each.