Box Scraper Box scraper for driveway maintenance?

   / Box scraper for driveway maintenance? #1  

BeauGeste

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Oct 21, 2004
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I have a Kubota B7800 and almost a quarter mile of dirt/gravel/rocky driveway to maintain. In the winter I use a front mounted 60" snowblower. But, I need to do the maintenance during the summer/fall to get the driveway into reasonably level shape so it is passable and I can keep it cleared in the winter. I've attached a picture of the driveway. You can see I'm behind on my maintenance!

Are there suggestions for a box scraper to use? Would a Woods GBC48 be too small? Make more sense to go to a GB60? I plan to bring in crushed base type of stone, then spread it with the box scraper. Beyond that, what is the best way to pack it? I've done various things in the past and nothing is really best. Looking for any/all advice for what to bring in, but especially what blade/scraper to use.
 

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   / Box scraper for driveway maintenance? #2  
I have a Kubota B7800 and almost a quarter mile of dirt/gravel/rocky driveway to maintain. In the winter I use a front mounted 60" snowblower. But, I need to do the maintenance during the summer/fall to get the driveway into reasonably level shape so it is passable and I can keep it cleared in the winter. I've attached a picture of the driveway. You can see I'm behind on my maintenance!

Are there suggestions for a box scraper to use? Would a Woods GBC48 be too small? Make more sense to go to a GB60? I plan to bring in crushed base type of stone, then spread it with the box scraper. Beyond that, what is the best way to pack it? I've done various things in the past and nothing is really best. Looking for any/all advice for what to bring in, but especially what blade/scraper to use.

Funny, I have exactly a 1/4 mile gravel drive into my farm and I use a box blade and do not have hydraulic...just a plain box blade with and go over the whole road with the box blade and scarificers down and tear it up real good and then angle the blade and pull the scarificers up and smooth it out...works great. After you rough it up all over then angle your blade and go down one way and back up the other and if you do it right it will leave you with a nice crown in the middle of the road and fill in all your low spots.
 
   / Box scraper for driveway maintenance? #3  
I have a boxblade and a rear blade. Ive noticed that the boxblade is excelent for pulling loose gravel but the rear blade is better at the smoothing part. My boxblade likes to leave little mounds on either side after going over an area with a full load of gravel to pull. The rear blade will pull the loose gravel off the sides of the driveway and put into the middle of the road. Then you angle the blade backwards and use the edge to pull the loose gravel onto the ruts and rough parts. It will leave a nice finsh when your done. The boxblade works great for pulling material over longer distances but for the level outcome I turn to my rear blade. Im pretty sure that your tractor can handle the larger boxblade as my little 40" wide Yanmar can pull a 48" boxblade and 5' rear blade with ease. i atleast dont have to worry about covering my tracks with these implements. If you think about it, a rear blade is also useful for snow removal since you can angle it to the left or right to push smaller amounts of snow. I know that the conditions i work in may be different since my boxblade teeth dont dig at all into the driveway. It also depends on the tractor you use to grade since my 169D yanmar can pull more than my grandpa's JohnDeere 2210 even though it has less horse power. Basically, it comes down to tranny and tires for me.
 
   / Box scraper for driveway maintenance? #4  
Are there suggestions for a box scraper to use? Would a Woods GBC48 be too small? Make more sense to go to a GB60? I plan to bring in crushed base type of stone, then spread it with the box scraper. Beyond that, what is the best way to pack it? I've done various things in the past and nothing is really best. Looking for any/all advice for what to bring in, but especially what blade/scraper to use.

I'd go with the 5' over the 4 foot as your tractor won't have any difficulty with that and would likely be fine with a 6' box. I've been using a 5 foot with a 25hp Massey GC2600 on gravel roads with no issues. I do my 1/4 mile private lane and another half mile private road with about 15 homes on it using the same method as brin and it works great. Using the scarifiers first with the box angled down as far as it will go so the teeth dig in better (the roads are hard packed so I might be digging in an inch or two and often less) I first tear up the surface a bit. I then flip the scarifiers, level the and fine tune as necessary the box to reshape/fill in holes and smooth the road. Key is drainage, take some time to determine the high and low spots, gravel roads develop subtle berms at the edges quickly which prevent drainage, knock those down. For packing I just run the tractor over it a few times to determine what holes require more work and refill as needed.

My tractor is very new to me (a few months) as is grading and my first box scraper road job was the 1/2 mile road and the residents were literally shocked at the end result of the box scraper. They've for decades been hiring a grader and operator for road maitenance purposes and probably a little sceptical of the job this lightweight gear could do but by all acounts the results using this little tractor and box, taking a little time to do it well, at worst equals the former.
 
   / Box scraper for driveway maintenance? #6  
I think you could handle the 60" no problem. A box blade, in my opinion, would work great for what you describe.
 
   / Box scraper for driveway maintenance? #7  
I vote for the box scraper also, get the widest you can, it will do a better job at finishing just due to it being wider and floating more.

You would want a smaller one if you wanted to dig a drain ditch or swale, but for finishing you want a wider almost "raking" action.

I have not had good experience with my rear blade, the only thing I use it for now is clearing snow from hard surfaces.

As far as packing the gravel before it gets rained on and packs itself, you need some kind of roller, the heaviest you tractor can pull. Maybe a section of large diameter pipe you can fill with concrete with an axle thru the middle. Or even a large water filled roller, I've got one about 20" in dia and 3' wide that I pull with a garden tractor and it does a good job at stabilizing freshly laid process.

JB.
 
   / Box scraper for driveway maintenance? #8  
With whatever you decide to go with, be sure that you have drainage along the sides of the road to prevent any water pooling or else your new rock will disappear at those places. Looking at the picture, in some spots the land slopes onto the road. You might want to cut a small ditch along those spots to route the run-off to places where the land on side of the road is lower than the road itself.
 
   / Box scraper for driveway maintenance? #9  
The suggestions of preparing your drive properly for water run off is especially important.
Ditching along both sides leading to a culvert or cutting an ext to a low area is a good idea. I've seen some drives that have very little crown but are tilted slightly to allow runoff to one side ... then to a culvert or exit. Whatever method to get the water off your drive.

As far as selection of implement, there are many that will suit your need.
Each has it's strong points, but with a little patience you can get terrific results on your drive. Personally, I don't own a back blade but do have 2 box blades. I them for just about everything from drive maintenance to creating new roads and trails and even gutter cutting. My drive is not gravel ... it's a 1/2 mile long dirt road. This creates a need to maintain it more frequently since the rains can really screw it up. I pull a 7' footer behind my 55hp Kama and a 5-1/2 footer behind the 28hp Jinma. Both are wide enough to cover the tracks. They stick out about 4" to each side of the rear wheels with the wheels set at their widest position. I've found that a wider boxblade really makes sense. Plus when you tilt it sideways to cut a gutter, it still sticks out slightly to each side. Once the gutters are cut, it's just a matter of smoothing the rest of the road to your liking... whichever implement you like best.
Here are some photos of using the boxblade to maintain or prep my drive.

 
   / Box scraper for driveway maintenance? #10  
It's amazing we all have 1/4 mile driveways! For spreading fine material, i find the most control with a box blade. When the driveway needs "resurfacing" I use my Harley power rake. It "digs" down about 2" and lays it out butter smooth on the back side. I use it for my driveway and several commercial parking lots.
 
 
 
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