EA Land Shark Land Leveler

[Cabin Dweller]

I have 10+ acres with ~800' of easement road to maintain as well as another 600+' of on-property roads. My box scraper is a great tool but not the ideal road maintenance implement w/o T&T. After doing some research I decided to add a land leveler for routine smoothing duty. I searched a good bit and there are several folks offering similar tools. I chose the EA Land Shark 60" unit for my B7800. Travis was confident in his recommendation.

I had it drop shipped to my local builder's supply and brought it home today. First impressions are that it is solidly built and seems well-matched to my 7800.

Hoping to give it a test this weekend if things dry out a little more. Feedback to follow.

 

[Phillip w]

Congrats on the new implement. I know a couple guys that have something similar. They are great for dressing up the drive way. I don't know how good they would be at putting a crown back in a drive. I just got a 3 pt blade. I just blade it up to the center to keep my crown and then back drag it with the loader. Any way it looks like you got a nice compliment to your tractor and it should do you a good job.

 

[Cabin Dweller]

Spent a couple of hours working the road this afternoon. Lots of cobbles and not much gravel anymore. Took more than a few passes but am really pleased with the results.

4-6" of gravel overlay will have this in good shape.

 

[Tractorable]

Looks great. I'm also looking at a landplane for my 1/3mi gravel drive. Thinking I'll start out ripping it with the scarfiers, use the rear blade to bring the gravel in from the edges, then hit it with the landplane, scarfiers up.

 

[fried1765]

Looks great. I'm also looking at a landplane for my 1/3mi gravel drive. Thinking I'll start out ripping it with the scarfiers, use the rear blade to bring the gravel in from the edges, then hit it with the landplane, scarfiers up.

How does one pull the gravel back in that migrates to the edges, with a land plane?
How does one create, and maintain, a meaningful crown with a land plane?
Check out how Counties maintain their gravel roads (with a BLADE...under a motor grader).
I keep looking for photos of County owned landplanes in use.
Haven't seen one in my 77 years.

 

[Tractorable]

To re-word, I envision using a combination of a rear blade and a land plane, rear blade to bring the gravel in from the edges and to make a crown, landplane on each side of the crown to maintain it.

Most land planes have scarfiers to loosen the material first, then can be raised for finish work.

 

[fried1765]

To re-word, I envision using a combination of a rear blade and a land plane, rear blade to bring the gravel in from the edges and to make a crown, landplane on each side of the crown to maintain it.

Most land planes have scarfiers to loosen the material first, then can be raised for finish work.

I probably should not have addressed my response to you.
You clearly DO seem to have the big picture!
Many others do not!
A landplane as the ONLY driveway maintenance tool, is simply a flat surface puddle maintainer.

 

[Cabin Dweller]

I probably should not have addressed my response to you.
You clearly DO seem to have the big picture!
Many others do not!
A landplane as the ONLY driveway maintenance tool, is simply a flat surface puddle maintainer.

Thanks for the comments fried. I realize more implements make a better road and I'm adding them as the budget allows. I also have a box blade which did a pretty decent job working the road initially after many years of neglect prior to my stewardship. With my limited experience I found that the land plane w/ rippers worked the hard surface and cobbles to a more acceptable finish in much less time (ideal crown notwithstanding). I also lack rear hydraulics on my B7800 so I have to use manual 3PT adjustments to achieve tilt. But so far with conscious effort that's doing an OK job of maintaining what crown remains on the road. I have I'll look to adding a rear blade as finances allow. But its a slippery slope as next I may discover the limits of my relatively lightweight 30hp machine to drag a wide enough blade for proper resurfacing. :thumbsup:

 

[fried1765]

Thanks for the comments fried. I realize more implements make a better road and I'm adding them as the budget allows. I also have a box blade which did a pretty decent job working the road initially after many years of neglect prior to my stewardship. With my limited experience I found that the land plane w/ rippers worked the hard surface and cobbles to a more acceptable finish in much less time (ideal crown notwithstanding). I also lack rear hydraulics on my B7800 so I have to use manual 3PT adjustments to achieve tilt. But so far with conscious effort that's doing an OK job of maintaining what crown remains on the road. I have I'll look to adding a rear blade as finances allow. But its a slippery slope as next I may discover the limits of my relatively lightweight 30hp machine to drag a wide enough blade for proper resurfacing. :thumbsup:

I have a 4x4 Ford with 32 HP, with wheel width set at 60"
I maintain my 2100' driveway in near perfect condition (OCD) with JUST a rear blade.
I use an 84" KK rear blade usually angled at 30 degrees, and offset to one side by 16".
You will get comments here about getting the heaviest blade possible, but a huge amount of weight should not be necessary.
My KK blade only weighs about 400+ lbs.
A lot depends on the type of material you have on your driveway surface.
You may occasionally need to use a box blade, with scarifiers, to loosen the material.
A MAJOR consideration also, is how much moisture you have in the top few inches.
Best time to grade is after a rainstorm, but NOT if there any puddles.
You will have a significant learning curve with the blade, but you will be able to create and maintain a nice crown, so rain water will not puddle.

 

[crazyal]

If you want to make a crown you simply adjust the side link on your 3pt arm to lower one side. It's the same as the tilt function would do if you had top and tilt you just have to manually adjust the link. The land plane will just dig down on the low side (the edge of your driveway) and deposit it on the high side. I do it all the time. The only reason for a blade would be for dragging gravel that's in a ditch back onto the road. But since it's usually mixed in with soil I don't bother as it makes the gravel slippery when it gets wet.