Befco grader/land plane WOW !!

[crazyal]

I made a few modifications to my BEFCO grading scraper. The first was to drill a second set of holes so you can raise the blades higher than the skids. The second was to make an easy way of raising the blades. In the future I may use a hydraulic cylinder so I can adjust it on the fly. I actually look forward to rain so I can repair the drive. It's worked so well that the neighbors got together and each put $200 in to the pot to buy gravel for the spots that the fabric was showing (until now they just lived with a potted rutted road).

 

[crazyal]

Looks like a great implement, but wouldn't it work better if it had a hinged gate, on the very back, to grade the material. Take a look at the one Guild built on the last page of the "today's seat time" thread. I think a combination of these two implements would be perfect.

I have been itching to build one, but the price of steel up here in NYC is insane, along with most everything else.

It smooths the gravel fine on it's own. If you want highway smooth you can always use it in reverse so the blades push the gravel down. I priced it out and I couldn't buy all the parts needed to build one for the price of the BEFCO.

 

[jenkinsph]

Carl,
I have had the extra pieces of 5/8"x8" flatbar to make my hinged gate for about three years, just haven't thought to pickup the short pipe for the sleeves. Never seem to remember when at the steel yard. I do think the hinged gate is a good way to grab material close to a wall, would make that sort of reach easier to do. I have also considered having a roller on the back to pack with, just haven't done the math yet to determine if it is feasible. Might just stack the correct amount of weight back there and see if the tractor can handle it.


As mentioned above using the plane in reverse does give you a very smooth finish.

 

[Scooby074]

Id love to see an "in use" video :thumbsup:

Can you get in there and really cut a crown with one? Ive tried using my BB to crown, but find i dig in and drag more material with me than crown in place, if that makes sense. It would seem that land plane would lift the gravel and put a crown in on the fly as it were, without taking any gravel along for the ride.

 

[Gordon Gould]

The tailgate on my grader does very little to help spread the gravel. By the time the gravel comes over the second blade it will be spread pretty evenly across. So there wouldn't much difference between a road graded with the nice Befco unit or mine.
The tail gate was my attemp at giving the grader a boxblade like ability, if you will. Just something I tried.
If you have sod in the road the tail gate helps alot. It collects it. Then you can use it as a blade to push it off the road. So you can make a very nice cut along the edge of the road. Here is a parking area that I desodded with it.
It also helps spreading uneven fresh gravel because you can hold material in the box.
If I built another grader I would put a tail gate on it.

 

[jenkinsph]

Nice work Gordon, good info about the sod collecting. I will keep that in mind for sure.

 

[lilranch2001]

I just purchased a new Land Pride Land Plane, it looks much like that Befco.
I have not had the chance to use it yet and I have a lot of # 3's right at the surface, and I want to have 5-6 loads of 73 hauled in to surface the driveway first so I do not disturb the the # 3's.
I have worked all summer trying to keep the grass in the driveway roundup'ed
Now I just need to find a good dump truck company.

I was going to build one as well, but it seems I have less time than money right now

 

[LouieJunior]

What is the difference between a land plane / grader and a box blade? Is one more versatile than the other? My primary application would be gravel & dirt road maintenance.

 

[lilranch2001]

What is the difference between a land plane / grader and a box blade? Is one more versatile than the other? My primary application would be gravel & dirt road maintenance.

Land Plane body is longer, so it smooths better than a back box
A Land plane does not have a closed in back so it is incapable of moving a large quantity of dirt

They are both important tools for their own set of jobs.
I have both for that reason, I was finding I was not getting the quality of work I wanted to get refinishing my driveway with my back box so I purchased the land plane

 

[RDrancher]

Congrats on your purchase.

After reading all of the praises for the land plane here on TBN, I figured I must be missing something so I finally bought one. I was impressed when I first used it on gravel, but then realized that it wasn't doing anything that I can't do with a BB. I will say though that I haven't had much time to experiment with blade settings yet or use it on landscape grading, so the jury is still out. For my purposes I'm thinking that I should have purchased a Thomas asphalt float instead.