Land Clean Up

[NhTreeFarm]

I currently have four projects I am stalled on because I can not figure the best attachment(s) to complete the work. I currently only have a FEL and landscape rake.

1. I have a 750 ft driveway that needs regrading and new gravel spread.
2. I want to covert and use some skidder trails in the woods. The trails look like a "W" , with ruts on the sides from the tires and a high spot in the middle.
3. During logging, I had a 2 acre meadow stumped and grubbed. This was the fall of 2012. I want to clean up the rest of the debris, smooth out the dirt so it will be easier to bushhog twice a year, remove the smaller rocks, spread lime and plant clover.
4. I have about 2.5 miles of logging trails that I need to maintain. For the original 1 mile trail I have just used my landscape rake to keep it clean. The remaining new trails need a little bit of side to side dirt leveling.

Landplane with scarifiers, Landpride's SF25 scarifier in conjunction with my rake, a rear blade, a disc harrow? Obviously the driveway/trail maintenance will be more frequent than the establishment and continuation of the meadow. I am open to suggestions?

Thanks

 

[oosik]

Welcome to TBN. IMO - for the driveway I would consider a grading scraper/land plane with scarifiers. This might also "do" the trails in the woods. You would probably find a box blade with scarifiers handy for the meadow and maybe even the logging trails. I did it this way - I have a rear blade / it worked great for winter snow removal on my mile long gravel driveway. Try as I would - I could not get the rear blade to do any good in the summer. I then purchased a Land Pride GS2584 grading scraper. That is an excellent tool for maintaining my drive in the summer. I wanted to create some trails out thru the property. The grading scraper worked fairly well but wouldn't hold and move large volumes of soil well. I then got a roll over box blade - it worked great for moving large amounts of soil and finalizing the creation of the trails. So I have a rear blade, roll over box blade and grading scraper to create & maintain all the driveway and trails on the property. If your two acre meadow needs more that these three implements then perhaps a small disk harrow. I have a small one and to get it to cut through the HEAVY sod I have a 400# cement casting I place on it. I suggest starting with one or two implements and branching out from there. As you gain experience with the use of the implements you will get a better idea of what they can and can not do and in what direction you need to go. Have fun with your projects.

 

[TerryR]

If you need to move dirt from side to side there's nothing like a rear blade - that's what it's designed to do. It works well for driveway maintenance to, but takes a bit of practice to get it right. I've found no need scarifiers if I want until a couple of days after a good rain. See for example http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/299055-grading-interesting-driveway.html

Terry

 

[oosik]

I agree with TerryR - a rear blade usually does well on a driveway. However, my driveway is mainly silt, sand and gravel and in the summer it hardens like cement. It probably rains 3 or 4 times during our summers which is insufficient for adequate driveway maintenance. If I were dealing with a drive that was closer to 100% gravel then my rear blade would do the trick. In my case the grading scraper does the trick in the summer. Dragging my rear blade down the summer driveway simply sharpens its cutting edge.

 

[NhTreeFarm]

Thanks for the replies.

TerryR: the rear blade makes perfect sense for side to side leveling of the trails. I think it may also be the most effective way to cut the center hump down on some of the skid trails and then finish off with the land plane.

oosik: after reading more on the land plane it seems to be the best tool for the driveway, and it should do fine for the final grading of trails cut in with a blade. After a quick check of craigslist, would a 7ft befco land plane be too large for the tractor? I think 6ft would be perfect.

 

[jeff9366]

If you have an FEL and bucket, a Ratchet Rake would be perfect for the work in your meadow and useful for all the other tasks you have enumerated.

LINK:

Ratchet Rake, LLC - Rip and Dig, All Terrain Rake, Snow Edge, Tractor attachment, Bucket attachment, Loader, Skid loader, Kubota, Skid steer, Landscape rake, Brush remover, York Rake, Harley Rake, Rock Rake, Tractor rake attachment, Construction attac

 

[jenkinsph]

Thanks for the replies.

TerryR: the rear blade makes perfect sense for side to side leveling of the trails. I think it may also be the most effective way to cut the center hump down on some of the skid trails and then finish off with the land plane.

oosik: after reading more on the land plane it seems to be the best tool for the driveway, and it should do fine for the final grading of trails cut in with a blade. After a quick check of craigslist, would a 7ft befco land plane be too large for the tractor? I think 6ft would be perfect.

My experience with a land plane is it will cut the center hump down by itself with no problem and smooth up the trails. I use the rear grader blade where I need to cut in a ditch and move the spoils to the center of the drive to help elevate it for drainage.

For a 4310 a heavy built 5' land plane would be a good size imo.

 

[NhTreeFarm]

Thanks again to all for the information.

jenkinsph: what would be considered a heavy built land plane? Unfortunately I don't possess the fabrication skills many of you have, so I will have to find something commercially available. Should I just go by weight?

 

[brin]

Welcome to TBN. IMO - for the driveway I would consider a grading scraper/land plane with scarifiers. This might also "do" the trails in the woods. You would probably find a box blade with scarifiers handy for the meadow and maybe even the logging trails. I did it this way - I have a rear blade / it worked great for winter snow removal on my mile long gravel driveway. Try as I would - I could not get the rear blade to do any good in the summer. I then purchased a Land Pride GS2584 grading scraper. That is an excellent tool for maintaining my drive in the summer. I wanted to create some trails out thru the property. The grading scraper worked fairly well but wouldn't hold and move large volumes of soil well. I then got a roll over box blade - it worked great for moving large amounts of soil and finalizing the creation of the trails. So I have a rear blade, roll over box blade and grading scraper to create & maintain all the driveway and trails on the property. If your two acre meadow needs more that these three implements then perhaps a small disk harrow. I have a small one and to get it to cut through the HEAVY sod I have a 400# cement casting I place on it. I suggest starting with one or two implements and branching out from there. As you gain experience with the use of the implements you will get a better idea of what they can and can not do and in what direction you need to go. Have fun with your projects.

Contact Jake...He is a member here..he manufactures the Jake rake...sounds like what you need...

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/185508-jake-rake.html

 

[nc redneck]

You may want to consider a 4 in 1 bucket, by far a better and easier way to move dirt or gravel into low spots. Most construction guys run them so the can keep backhoe on machine. I have a box blade but rarely use it because 4 in 1 is much faster. Box blade only works better on final grade of lose dirt or gravel less than 1/4 inch. There is a steep learning curve for 4 in 1. Watch some commercial landscapers or paving crews run a 4 in 1 bucket on Bobcat or backhoe where final grade has to be 1/4 or less. It looks easy watching them but much harder to do in real life.
Thanks
Scott