GRADEMASTER BLADE

[lschultz]

Anybody have one of these are know anything about them? They are suppose to be the ultimate in maintaing gravel roads or other type of roads. Says the simple spreading and grading implement outperforms larg expensive motorized graders. Ford dealer in La Grange sells them and the model I have been looking at UI-7A sells for 1235.00 seems like quite a bit of money for it when there is not much to it,bascially a box blade with dual blades.They say the result is better leveling,smoothing and filling;better bonding of materials without any windows or piling:better performance on compaction test;and roadways that are left in better condition so that they need less maintenance.I been thinking about getting one to maintain the road to our house better.I use a boxblade,grader blade now or drag the bucket on the tractor over now.I am pondering on getting one.Sure I could always find other uses for it too.

 

[gabby]

Hey Ischultz,

I have one by made Eagle Products. It does what you say. I bought it hoping to maintain my horse arena footing with it but the footing is too soft and sandy. It does work extremely well on firm surfaces like dirt and gravel roads.

I need to sell mine. It's 7 feet wide, heavily built, and I paid about $900 for it two years ago. It's only been used a couple of hours. Too bad you aren't closer to me.

That's a steep price you've been quoted.
Gabby

 

[lschultz]

Yep this is suppose to be a medium duty model. There 7AU which is a utility model is 982. I gonna keep looking around and see what I can find. I know there is somebody else that makes one I saw it in some magazine or farm flyer but I can not remember right now. Everytime I leave something laying around which I will evenutally go back to my wife throws it away. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[ns_in_tex]

I ran across them on Carver Equipments site.
They listed a lot of models & prices.
http://www.carverequipment.com/Grademaster/grademaster_order_form.htm

 

[Taylortractornut]

I just built a similar type blade it does a great job But its still doesnt do as good as a good heavy motor grader. When I get time to resize my pics they will be posted on the Build it yourself section. I made mine a little lighter because the materils were free and its mainly a soil tool. It does a good job on my shops parking lot and does cut out alot of the potholes. It mixes good because instead of the boxblade that drags material it lets the coarse and fines mix together and spill out of the back. I need to build me a roller for the tractor now to compact the drive. Have you thought of buying a copy of the same blade? I know here one implement manufacturer sells one thats 6 feet wide for 650 dollars and its a good heavy implement.

 

[ns_in_tex]

Hi Taylor,

Now that you have had some experience with one and let's say you were going to build another one and had your choice of using 12" Jr I beam or 16"x4" heavy I beam for the sides, which do you think you would use?

I am thinking the weight of the heavier I beam would make it cut better and maybe smoother.

Also I am thinking it should have vertical adjustable blades to regulate the depth of cut under the slides. Your comments?

Can you offer any other features that might be useful

 

[lschultz]

Well I bought it. They sold it far less than what I put on here cause I picked it up. The fellow that quoted me the price is the owner and he wasn't there when I picked it up so this fellow sold it far less. It does what they say my road is now smooth no more waves in it. I had some high spots in it where the dump truck driver dump his loads that I had not been able smooth out. I like a smooth road like a highway. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gifI had limestone dumped on it about 10 yrs ago and had it pretty smooth but I wanted it better. Road is about .3 mile long from the highway and I went down it about 4 times. They cost quite a bit of money but they work. You can also replace the blades on these if you ever have too. He said you get about 3000 hrs use from them so they should last me forever. I called the factory and talked to them about it and got the # of some other dealers close and this dealer in La Grange had the best price. Should of bought one years ago.

 

[Taylortractornut]

Neal for the tractor at work Im gonna go with the 16x4 inch Ibeam. I m also going to use 4 by 6 by 3/8ths angle for myblade mounts well at least the front. That will help it cut weedier and bushy ground better. At least use that on the front blade. It will also help provide a down force. On mine i used 3 by 3 by1/4 angle that came to me in the landfill. Weight was a an issue with this one because i wanted to use it on dads 750 JD and be stout enought to handle his YM3000 Yanmar. I used house trailer 12 inch from rail material out of the old trailer plant i used to operate a landfill for. It was used as a pport in the side shed and one end was bent so i used the straight ends of the beams and got my 3 feet sides. I uses heavy angle for the hitch and tubing for the cross menbers the main members on the tops of the side plates were 4 inch channel also chunked at the house trailer plant. My graders arent adjustable as the free grader blades had been worn on one side a bit more thant the other so my adjustment slots wouldnt have enought meat to grab. One side had never been used so I welded some stops to it to hold it on the angle with the blade hanging1/2 inch below skids. I welded it to the blade in a few spots for easy gouging off later.. The back blade comes down flush with the bottoms of the the skids just to smooth out the now skimmed and mixed gravel. My blades were of unknown age and the first time i weled them with a 9018 the cracked right down the center of the weld. It was one of my best looking welds to. It had a clean pronounced crack in it. I was kinda tired at the time and aggravated so i cranked the welder up to about 300 amps and smoked it into the blades and havent had a problem yet. It also works great on red clay and sand. I had it in the old gaden on some 2 year old compacted furrows it took a few passes to take off the tall grass and fill in the deeper valleys but when i got to where the dirst road was it would hit a highspot between the skids and peel it up and spread it nicely. On my skids I didnt bring the metal all the way around them, I noticed on the counties tractor the back fold of metal on the skids caught alot of trash and did leave windrows. Idid notice mine made little to no windrows and it doesnt cathc the grss as mumch. I saw a 16 foot wide one a friend of ours had built for his big dual wheeled Deere Ith is a dual edged blade he uses to smooth out lawns on the building he builds. He later had a hydraulic tailgate made to fit it so he can carry a load like a box blade. His technique is to run the blade over it with the gate up to cut the sod. Then he lets the gate down to drag the grass to a topsoil pile. He uses the blade with the gate up to cut off the knots and fill in the little ruts in the under lying topsoil for sod placement. He uses the old grass and tosoil mixes for compost and other landscaping areas. He says is saves on lot clean up from his motor grader and dozer on some jobs for quick dress up. I may ad the gate to mine next weekend. Im trying to get up with my brother to take a few pics in action. All in all after rods welding and cuttin i have a whole 35 dollars invested into it. I need to scrounge a half gallon of paint from the cabinet to paint it to. I dont get too picky on paint till i know something works. I hope i didnt confuse you with my ramblings lol.

 

[drm]

Larry,

Can you provide the mfg name and contact info. I have a new gravel drive that is .25 miles long and it is constantly wash boarding. I even paid to have it graded and compacted which lasted a few weeks since the base course was not put in properly (by previous owner) and I can not start over.

Thanks.

 

[lschultz]

I will get the info when I get home this evening. I started to bring the paper to work but I left it at home. Going down the road this morning with the truck lights on I see I need to go over it a few more times,there are still some high spots you can see with the headlights I can knock down. But I might have to wait till we get some rain cause that limeston is hard. I was surprised it did what it did yesterday. No way my box blade or grader blade would of done what the grademaster blade did.