how to smooth rough ground?

[streamin]

On my property I have a lot of "rough" ground that I wanted to smooth out but it has weeds/grass all over.After brush cutting I tried to use the boxblade to dig it up and smooth it out. But the grass seems to clog up on the scarifers so the blade just rides on top. I am no farmer so I was curious if I need a disc or what else to make it "workable" to smooth it out.

 

[Duffster]

On my property I have a lot of "rough" ground that I wanted to smooth out but it has weeds/grass all over.After brush cutting I tried to use the boxblade to dig it up and smooth it out. But the grass seems to clog up on the scarifers so the blade just rides on top. I am no farmer so I was curious if I need a disc or what else to make it "workable" to smooth it out.

Dozer, plow, disk, fire, any combination including one or more

 

[Builder]

On my property I have a lot of "rough" ground that I wanted to smooth out but it has weeds/grass all over.After brush cutting I tried to use the boxblade to dig it up and smooth it out. But the grass seems to clog up on the scarifers so the blade just rides on top. I am no farmer so I was curious if I need a disc or what else to make it "workable" to smooth it out.

You don't have a heavy enough implement to pull the junk off.

Is it your desire to use your tractor to do this or rent a piece of machinery?

If you rent, consider a medium sized dozer. It will remain stable while grubbing out the roots and smoothing out the bumps. Or you could rent a backhoe and use the hoe to grubb out the trash.

Then you could use a landscape rake to clean up the trash.

I guess you could use a disc or large rototiller, but I don't know the lay of your land, if it's farmland, woods, etc.

 

[EddieWalker]

Pictures would sure help to understand what you are dealing with. How many acres are you trying to smooth out?

Not knowing the type of soil or grass that you are dealing with, there are two ways to go about making dirt smooth. One is along the lines you've already tried. Tear up the ground and then smooth it out. Depending on your grass or ground cover/soil, this might be quite challenging. Even with heavy equipment, the degree of how hard the surface is, will decide on how big that equipment needs to be. I've had some success with running a disk over the ground first, but in some areas, that hasn't worked either. I have a dozer, and it works good on some areas, but not in every area. If it's just sort of rough, then it's almost impossible to make it nice with the dozer. I need to really tear it up first in order to have enough material to work with.

The other way is to add material and smooth it out. For small areas, this is by far easiest way to go. Getting that material is the only challenge. If you have a way to move it, and a source of getting it, then you are all set. If not, then having a dump truck bring it in can get expensive, but it might be the best option. Spreading it and smoothing it with my loader bucket works the best for me. Then after I'm done, I pull my drag around with my small tractor. The drag makes it all nice and pretty. It moves around a little dirt, but not enough to change anything other then fine tuning. It's awesome for taking out bumps and filling in small holes.

Good luck,
Eddie

 

[gordyy]

As one who just recently got a Boxblade and I might add if it wasnt that it was thrown in at the end of the deal I might not have one never thought they would do much on a little tractor like mine.
however after reading Rob from 3RRR 's threads on using a box blade I did some playing
after doing a few miles of roads with it I have to ask have you played with the top link??
the angle of the dangle is what makes these lil steel boxes work.
shorten the link and those scarificers should stab in deep
lengthen it and it will tilt the other way and you can use the backside of the rear blade to smooth the land like a baby's bottom

look for the 3RRR threads on boxblading Rob's bb instructions should be printed out and sent with every boxblade made
like some before said its now my favorite tool
I even used it to pull out some little 8" tree stumps

 

[streamin]

Thanks for the replies, I do have top/tilt now which makes a lot of difference.The boxblade is a landpride and it is fairly heavy.It works for almost everything but I think Eddie has the best thought about bringing in material to fill in the holes. The grass just creates such a problem .I have 26 acres, some woods,some open areas, and a little hilly.I wanted to create trails through a third of it. Everytime I drive the tractor around, I hit "potholes/dips so I have to slow down to a crawl.
Since the grass holds the dirt so well , I never thought a dozer would have a issue with it.However, cost wise ,I don't think I want to go that route.
I do plan on digging a pond soon, That would be a good way to get some material to make it work.
I thought a disc would break it up enough to boxblade it. I will also check out the other thread on that.

This is the best pic I could find..

 

[JoelD]

Pictures would sure help to understand what you are dealing with. How many acres are you trying to smooth out?

Not knowing the type of soil or grass that you are dealing with, there are two ways to go about making dirt smooth. One is along the lines you've already tried. Tear up the ground and then smooth it out. Depending on your grass or ground cover/soil, this might be quite challenging. Even with heavy equipment, the degree of how hard the surface is, will decide on how big that equipment needs to be. I've had some success with running a disk over the ground first, but in some areas, that hasn't worked either. I have a dozer, and it works good on some areas, but not in every area. If it's just sort of rough, then it's almost impossible to make it nice with the dozer. I need to really tear it up first in order to have enough material to work with.

The other way is to add material and smooth it out. For small areas, this is by far easiest way to go. Getting that material is the only challenge. If you have a way to move it, and a source of getting it, then you are all set. If not, then having a dump truck bring it in can get expensive, but it might be the best option. Spreading it and smoothing it with my loader bucket works the best for me. Then after I'm done, I pull my drag around with my small tractor. The drag makes it all nice and pretty. It moves around a little dirt, but not enough to change anything other then fine tuning. It's awesome for taking out bumps and filling in small holes.

Good luck,
Eddie

Eddie speaks from experience, as a former dozer owner myself they don't always operate as a non-dozer operator would think. They don't simply plow everything smooth. The tracks will follow the terain and unless you are mozart on the six-way I don't think there is any real way to get the ground super smooth with that approach.

I've found nothing better than a box blade and then rake for getting nice and smooth, the box blade with rippers works wonders, but on 26 acres of vegitation, I get your dillema.

Either big dozer and a ripper on the back to just tear the snot out of everything and then grade over, or fill.

In my neck of the woods rocks are the other equalizer.

Good luck, will look terrific I bet when complete.

Joel

 

[cisco]

26 acres???? May the "Force" be with you. I've 7.5 and it's quite enough on which to attempt a surface tuning. The pond source of dirt will be a major help (assuming it's reasonable dirt, and not thick clay or rocks) for filling depressions. You can soften the surface with a tiller (better than anything, but if lots of rocks ......), or rippers on a heavy box after trimming the vegetation quite short with a rotary cutter. If you cut back the vegetation every few months, the surface soil will be easier to work on next winter - where I am; if you've snow cover, then spring. As to smoothing, a box blade follows to a large degree tractor tilt, so it's real hard to get it trimmed level with the raise/lower control. Blading in a reverse direction works, sort of, like a light weight dozer, not perfect (and neither is a dozer) and HARD on the neck/back, but for short distances is OK. A dozer is easy, and the blade usually heavier, but it's not perfect, per prior post. A drag is useful for smoothing fine surface irregularities, and is cheap to make (mine is old heavy duty chain link fencing with old 4X4's weighting it every few feet). A landscape rake fills the gap between what needs to be done with a box blade, and what can be done with a drag. I've about a zillion truck loads of fill, then a few inches of topsoil, over the major depressions on my property, most from the pond site except the topsoil.
Oh yeah, pace yourself - it's taken me years to smooth things out, get it planted with shade/fruit/ornamental trees, stock fish, and such, but it can be a healthy diversion.

 

[streamin]

That's some good input, thanks everyone.
I am only concerned with the 1st 8-10 acres or so. I will keep you posted...

 

[iplumb]

As one who just recently got a Boxblade and I might add if it wasnt that it was thrown in at the end of the deal I might not have one never thought they would do much on a little tractor like mine.
however after reading Rob from 3RRR 's threads on using a box blade I did some playing
after doing a few miles of roads with it I have to ask have you played with the top link??
the angle of the dangle is what makes these lil steel boxes work.
shorten the link and those scarificers should stab in deep
lengthen it and it will tilt the other way and you can use the backside of the rear blade to smooth the land like a baby's bottom

look for the 3RRR threads on boxblading Rob's bb instructions should be printed out and sent with every boxblade made
like some before said its now my favorite tool
I even used it to pull out some little 8" tree stumps

Will you find and post that thread? I cant seem to find it..Thanks