Rear Blade Rear blade+box blade +landscape rake is there any additionla beneift to a landplane?

[jenkinsph]

Gordon is right about maintaining the roads befroe they get bad, much easier to dress your road up than to wait and have to rework it. Most of my drive work is repairing someone elses mess so often I have to rebuild and reshape working from scratch. For these jobs what is needed can vary greatly and may include a vibratory roller too. What materials you have and the amount of rain you have in your locale can make a big difference in what you need to maintain your roads.

[woodyacres]

I have only a rake and scraper blade and have maintained my 2500 foot driveway for almost 5 years now. The rake is really what I use he most. It pulls stone back, it shapes, and it grooms. If you keep on top of it, the rake should do a good enough job for you. My neighbor has a box blade and I have never used it on driveway, but we use it on the main sub road then I finish it off with the rake.

[wreckedit]

Thanks again for the replies. Since I have the box and rake, looks like a LPGS may be the next best step, given that it pays to learn to use the first two properly. With that said, should I go for 5 or 6 footer? The L3130 is 6 feet wide, and has a heavy frame and can handle the weight of a 6 foot unit. However, it is only 30 HP and I have read these things are hard to pull, especially if they have rippers like some do. This would point me to the 5 foot ones, but then I do not "cover my tracks" and have to make more passes anyway since the drive is 12 feet wide.
Any thought s on the 5 vs 6 feet?
Also, when you use a rake to brign in the gravel from the edges, doesn't it tear up the grass?
Thanks
Rich

[MtnViewRanch]

Thanks again for the replies. Since I have the box and rake, looks like a LPGS may be the next best step, given that it pays to learn to use the first two properly. With that said, should I go for 5 or 6 footer? The L3130 is 6 feet wide, and has a heavy frame and can handle the weight of a 6 foot unit. However, it is only 30 HP and I have read these things are hard to pull, especially if they have rippers like some do. This would point me to the 5 foot ones, but then I do not "cover my tracks" and have to make more passes anyway since the drive is 12 feet wide.
Any thought s on the 5 vs 6 feet?
Also, when you use a rake to brign in the gravel from the edges, doesn't it tear up the grass?
Thanks
Rich

For sure get a 6 footer. Just look for a unit that weighs 600-800lbs and you should be good to go. You can always lift the unit so that it doesn't cut so much at a time if you start to bog down. Can't help you out with the rake question, I don't have any grass to worry about.

[jenkinsph]

About the raking, you will find that maintaining a nice clean edge between the road and grass to be difficult to do using only your tractor. What I do in most cases is raise my mower deck slightly and cut the grass on the edge of the road to keep it trimmed down. Some will say to use a herbicide to keep the border clean but I try to use chemicals as sparingly as possible. A landscape rake is aggresive enough to tear up the grass in one pass. You can use it to rake a clean line if careful.

[joshuabardwell]

I maintain my gravel driveway with a box blade. It's a relatively short gravel drive. I don't think a box blade is very good at putting a crown on a road, but fortunately, my drive is on a hill-side, so it just has a side-slope all the way across. The box blade will be very good at reconditioning the road if there are ever bad ruts or pot-holes. If you lengthen the top link so the blade is riding on the back cutting edge, it will be okay at dressing out minor problems. The rake is going to be the only thing that will pull gravel in from the grass on the side.

It may help to understand the difference in how the box blade is used vs. how the rake is used. The box blade, you are always working "back and forth". It prevents the dirt and gravel from spilling out the side. Dirt and gravel can only spill out the back of a box blade. So you can move material forwards and backwards, but you can't easily move it side-to-side. When working a large area, this is addressed by making passes at the area from multiple directions, but with a driveway that's not an option. With a back blade or landscape rake, you can angle it, and you will "windrow" material that falls out the side to which the blade is angled. Once the material is windrowed in the center of the road, you can then reverse the process to spread it back out again and leave a crown. Crowning is much harder (or maybe impossible) to do with a box blade for that reason. However the box blade's ability to dig in and drag a large amount of material makes it much more suited for big repairs, although I also use mine for daily maintenance, given that it's all I have.

If I had a box blade and a landscape rake, I would think hard about getting a land plane next. I know there are places where a grader blade shines and places where a box blade shines, but there is a lot of overlap between them, and if you have one, there may not be as much incentive to run and get another. That's especially true if you also have a landscape rake, which fills in some of the jobs that a grader blade would do, such as windrowing and crowning the drive.

A land plane is the simplest and easiest way to get an excellent finish on your gravel drive. It has the least learning curve and the least interaction when you're working with it (compared to a box blade where you're constantly changing the top link length). With a drive as long as yours, I would seriously consider getting one. However, you may find that you can do most everything you need to do with the tools you have, in which case spend your money on something else.

[ironpen]

I found a land plane in the back of my barn someone had given me several years ago. I went on this forum to find out any tricks to use it. I spend a lot of time on the tractor, but had no idea how to use it. Basically, all you do is level it with the top link and drag it. I was absolutely amazed at how easy it was to use and what a great job it did. It fills in the potholes nicely and leaves a really rejuvenated gravel base. I could not recommend it any higher. I did the church parking lots with my tc33 (33hp) New Holland. It is a six foot Grade Master. I then put it on my trailer and took it to the farm and did the roads there with a 75hp tractor. The 33hp was not overworked at all....I would definitely recommend at least a six foot unit. If you get a land plane, you will never look back and I can almost guarantee you you will be very pleased with the result!!

[Gordon Gould]

If you want to pull loose gravel back on to the road and you have a rake get your self a piece of angle iron. Set the tines in it so one edge is in front of the tines and the other is on the ground. Drill some hole and get some large washers or short straps and bolt the angle to the tines. Now you have a very non-aggressive blade. You could use a piece of plywood above the angle if you want it to hold more gravel. May not last long but cheap.
I use my rear blade turned backwards to do the same thing.

Edit: I have heard the best tool is on of those power brooms.

[woodyacres]

If you want to pull loose gravel back on to the road and you have a rake get your self a piece of angle iron. Set the tines in it so one edge is in front of the tines and the other is on the ground. Drill some hole and get some large washers or short straps and bolt the angle to the tines. Now you have a very non-aggressive blade. You could use a piece of plywood above the angle if you want it to hold more gravel. May not last long but cheap.
I use my rear blade turned backwards to do the same thing.

Edit: I have heard the best tool is on of those power brooms.

Do you have a picture you could post?

[Gordon Gould]

Do you have a picture you could post?

No picture available because my clever brother is the one who made this thing and he lives 200 miles from here. But here is a drawing from my memory. I am no artist as you can see. If you turn the rake backwards you get a scraper. If you turn it normal you get a drag. It is for lightish work depending on the size angle you use.