Grade Beam

   / Grade Beam #1  

hosejockey2002

Gold Member
Joined
Mar 11, 2002
Messages
403
Location
Auburn, WA
Tractor
Kioti CK20 HST
Anyone ever use a grade beam? Today I was working on a small grading job that turned into a literal mud bog that was about impossible to work in. To smooth it out, I clamped a piece of channel iron into my BH bucket with the thumb and it worked better than expected. I could change the beam angle by adjusting the outriggers, and it was a matter of slowly and carefully adjusting the dipper height as I pulled the boom toward me. It worked well in the moist, soft ground I was working but I doubt it would have been effective in hard, undisturbed soil.
 

Attachments

  • grade beam.JPG
    grade beam.JPG
    176 KB · Views: 600
   / Grade Beam #2  
hosejockey, I used to own a Cat 935 trackloader. I had a heavy I beam with square holes cut in the beam so the teeth on the bucket would got thru them. Then a ran a 3/8ths chain thru the gussets on the back of the bucket and to each end of the beam. By using a chain binder I could tighten the chain up and hold the beam on the bucket. The beam was 12 feet long. It did a tremedous job of grading large areas. It worked especially well for fine grading roads.

Sincerely, Dirt
 
   / Grade Beam #3  
It looks like a giant mechanized bull float, but that makes me think of long hot days working concrete by hand. You need a pretty good touch with the BH to get good results don't you?
 
   / Grade Beam
  • Thread Starter
#4  
DaTeacha said:
You need a pretty good touch with the BH to get good results don't you?

It requires some concentration but it wasn't as difficult as you may think since you're only dealing with two functions at once instead of all four. You have to consciously NOT use the bucket curl function because if you do you drop the beam into the mud and mess up your work. (don't ask me how I know... :) )
 
   / Grade Beam #5  
Would something like that on the SIDE of the bucket work very well for backfilling? Has anybody tried something like that? My attempts at using the bucket for backfilling usually either results in leaving lots of dirt in the grass or tearing it up.:eek:
 
   / Grade Beam
  • Thread Starter
#6  
It would probably work OK but I've found that there is not much available force when pushing the boom to one side or the other, compared with pulling the boom toward the machine. For backfilling, I keep the bucket surface flat against the ground and use the side of the bucket to crowd the material into the ditch. You can use the bottom of the bucket to lightly compact the material into the ditch, although you probably can't provide enough down pressure to get any real meaningful compaction.

Now, if you set up perpendicular to the ditch and used the grade beam it would probably work well for backfilling, although the beam I have is probably too narrow to pull a large volume of material.
 
 
Top