box blade or scraper blade

[puckgrinder85]

Im pretty impressed with our new box blade. So far we've leveled our back shop lot and ended up leveling friends/ familys gravel driveways for the upcoming winter (helps when plowing a smooth driveway!) and plan on using it for snow clean up in the winter (should cut to the asphalt really well). So far its been a nice tool to have.

 

[Rara Avis]

my drive way is gravel (actually more mud and pot holes right now).....is there any advantage of one other the other? I have never owned either but do need something to help get my drive way back in order....any and all help is needed.....thank you Chris.

Even better choice...would be one of these...TR-3
TR3 Rake? Arena Drag by ABI Equine? >>> Best Selling Arena Equipment
YouTube - absoluteinnovations's Channel

 

[Cuban8]

Anybody try or use a landplane attachment for this type of work?

 

[Johndeere3720]

Never used a landplane, but i have a boxblade, rear blade and a landscape rake. I have to say that the box blade does a great job with pot holes and the rear blade is great for leveling washboard. The landscape rake leaves a perfect finish in the end. 3 implements is probably out of range but i can say that the boxblade works the best. Saying this, i have added gauge wheels to my rear blade which graetly improved the level that the blade provided but i have found so many more uses for my boxblade that it is one of my most used implements. With the teeth, i have had some trouble with them really digging in since i operate in some really packed grounds so I removed them. There are many with a better experience with the teeth, they just arent nessecery in my uses. i have graded numerous roads, yards, horse riding arenas, and made trails out in the back of the property. A word of experience, I was leveling an area for an extension to our garden. While leveling and filling holes, i found a buried stump which caught on the blade. Once that caught, my tractor popped a wheelie and started to hop almost as the tires grabbed and slippecd on the ground. This event can and will bend teeth, luckly mine were off but be careful. Safety is a huge factor, it is better safe than sorry.

 

[clemsonfor]

Never used a landplane, but i have a boxblade, rear blade and a landscape rake. I have to say that the box blade does a great job with pot holes and the rear blade is great for leveling washboard. The landscape rake leaves a perfect finish in the end. 3 implements is probably out of range but i can say that the boxblade works the best. Saying this, i have added gauge wheels to my rear blade which graetly improved the level that the blade provided but i have found so many more uses for my boxblade that it is one of my most used implements. With the teeth, i have had some trouble with them really digging in since i operate in some really packed grounds so I removed them. There are many with a better experience with the teeth, they just arent nessecery in my uses. i have graded numerous roads, yards, horse riding arenas, and made trails out in the back of the property. A word of experience, I was leveling an area for an extension to our garden. While leveling and filling holes, i found a buried stump which caught on the blade. Once that caught, my tractor popped a wheelie and started to hop almost as the tires grabbed and slippecd on the ground. This event can and will bend teeth, luckly mine were off but be careful. Safety is a huge factor, it is better safe than sorry.

I have a fairly light duty box blade. Its weighs 200 lbs or so, its 4 ft. wide. I pile 80lbs or so on top to help it dig in, but i have found that its not near as useful or fast without the teeth lowered.

Like said earlier it depends on your soil type and blade construction.

 

[crazyal]

One thing to keep in mind with a box blade is if your road has fabric underneath the gravel the teeth can rip it up. Not sure how much they use fabric down south but up north it's the difference between spring mud deeper than an axle and a passable driveway.

Of course if you don't have fabric and you really want to fix them pot holes you can take your box blade and pull 6 inches or so of dirt off the bad area, lay down some fabric, and then cover it back up (maybe even getting a load of gravel dumped on top of it) and put a little slope so the water sheds off to the sides.

 

[Redneck in training]

We have BB and landscape rake. I use the BB for about 90% of all dirt and road work. Then I use the LR for smoothing things up. The combination of BB and LR works for me.

BB is also great rear weight if you have FEL.

I use the BB for snow cleaning too. The BB has an attachment points for "side wing" that makes it about 9' wide for snow.

 

[Gordon Gould]

Anybody try or use a landplane attachment for this type of work?

Yes I do and it is a great road tool. Still use the rear blade to reset the contour or crown but for routine maintainance and smoothing the grader scraper cant be beat ( IMO ). I use mine alot on my one mile road.

 

[Cuban8]

Yes I do and it is a great road tool. Still use the rear blade to reset the contour or crown but for routine maintainance and smoothing the grader scraper cant be beat ( IMO ). I use mine alot on my one mile road.

Very nice. Looks like a work of art........the road. I've got to have one.

 

[jenkinsph]

All the tools mentioned thus far can be beneficial, just depends on the particular problem at hand. I would consider looking for good used or faded implements for this work as mentioned above. For most smoothing I use a landplane and rearblade, but agree that potholes need to be cut down with a heavy boxblade. If I only had one of these implements to start with it would be the landplane, this should help smooth up the road enough to buy you the time to add the other implements. I think it is safe to say that most of us on the forum started out with zero attachments and add them as time and money permits. There isn't one tool that does it all in my opinion.