Driveway SCRAPER or Driveway GRADER ?

[jenkinsph]

Regarding angled vs. straight blades, i can see what Brian means about it not really moving the material all that far. However, do you think an angled blade would slice through the ground easier than straight blades would? Theoretically this seems to be the case, but practically, I wonder if it really makes any difference from one to another.

A LPGB is on my shortlist of implements to build.

I think most of the time what I have seen Brian work with is sand or fines for the most part, hard to make sand roll along the blade. Larger rocks can drift farther down the blades. I agree that in most cases the drift is minimal because the angle is minimal. I think you would be hard pressed to tell much difference between straight and angled blades where the angle is so minimal. With a rear blade the angles can be much steeper and the shearing action is much more plausible.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

I think most of the time what I have seen Brian work with is sand or fines for the most part, hard to make sand roll along the blade. Larger rocks can drift farther down the blades. I agree that in most cases the drift is minimal because the angle is minimal. I think you would be hard pressed to tell much difference between straight and angled blades where the angle is so minimal. With a rear blade the angles can be much steeper and the shearing action is much more plausible.

That's because that's pretty much all we have, well maybe a few rocks that maaaaaaaaaaaaybe a D11 might be able to move, with a little bit of work.

 

[crazyal]

Most of the time I'm grading I'm filling in low spots so the gravel never gets too high or travels too far along the blade.

 

[Dozernut]

IC Smoke I have the Landpride 60" it is a good grader but the others are most likely just as good. One thing I will bring up, unless you have a larger tractor than you have listed, you will not be able to pull a 60" grader blade in wet or damp material. The grader will load up and you will lose traction quickly and grind to a stop. You will have a full load that you will have to spread out (unless you want a speed bump). My B2630 will not pull my 60" grader if it is wet. No problem tho I just hook it up to my L4610 which handles it easily. My point is with your smaller tractors get the 4' grader or you will be sorely disappointed.

 

[Piston]

I think most of the time what I have seen Brian work with is sand or fines for the most part, hard to make sand roll along the blade. Larger rocks can drift farther down the blades. I agree that in most cases the drift is minimal because the angle is minimal. I think you would be hard pressed to tell much difference between straight and angled blades where the angle is so minimal. With a rear blade the angles can be much steeper and the shearing action is much more plausible.

Steve,
Is your larger Landplane that you built an 8'er? I tried looking for your build thread but couldn't find it. When I build a Landplane I'm going to make it 7' wide and most likely go with straight blades. I figure I will go with 24" sides just because the plate steel comes in 4x8 sheets, so 2' tall and 8' long sides should give me quite a bit of weight, probably just over 200lbs per foot....I just hope I can pull it

 

[Recoveryhill]

Here is a pic with the grader loaded up with about a yard of material and you can see that not all that much is left.

I'm envious of your road dirt. My mile of mountain dirt road is a lovely material called rotten rock. It's a firm roadbed but tough to work. I use a grader blade to keep the ditch lines and bounce over the roadbed dislodging rocks of various size followed by a York rake to collect the debris and spread what dirt there is, into the pock marks.

 

[jenkinsph]

Steve,
Is your larger Landplane that you built an 8'er? I tried looking for your build thread but couldn't find it. When I build a Landplane I'm going to make it 7' wide and most likely go with straight blades. I figure I will go with 24" sides just because the plate steel comes in 4x8 sheets, so 2' tall and 8' long sides should give me quite a bit of weight, probably just over 200lbs per foot....I just hope I can pull it

You might be building it too big for an L4610, I would consider 1,000 to 1.200 lbs to be about the maximum weight. My 8 footer is about 950 lbs and is a good load for my 4520 with weights. In your case I would build the skids about 6' long and 12 to 18" height for a 7' grader, I would consider using a 5x5 or 6x6x1/2" angle iron for the blade mountings. Make the skid wear strips about 4"s wide so that the plane will not dig in too deep.

Like most of us I used what I had when building my plane, I had some 8" wide flatbar (5/8" thick) and some assorted box tubing on hand. I bought the wide flange beam drops from my steel supplier to make the skids that were 8" ht x 4" wide flange, which works well but would build them with taller sides if starting over. I should add that I never see materials spilling over the side skids though but a little more clearance between the frame and blades would be the reason for the increase in height

How much dirt you carry along with you in one pass should depend on what you are trying to do. If you are just mixing the top layer bring the gravel to the top then having alll the material flowing over the top of the blades works well. If you are trying to pull a close grade which is what I wan't in most cases I am more interested in having the material flow under the blades in the low spots. So my blades are set flush with the skids, I pick up the high materials and deposit in the low spots. If the ground is perfectly level (never is) I can slide over it without moving much material and there is no need to do it anyway. If I tilt the plane forwards it will dig in and cut agressively though.

In the pictures below I used the plane to smooth for a building pad. Used the fel to spread the engineered fill along with the boxblade to rough it in. Layed down about 4 inches at a time and rolled it in with a vibratory roller. then used the plane to pull a grade +- 1/4" with out shovels or rakes. If the plane had the blades set below the skids it would not have worked.

 

[RDrancher]

In my opinion the multi-bladed thing looks a bit gimmicky.

After using a landplane for awhile, the jury's still out for me on the whole idea in general. Although the landplane requires less operator input, I can run box blade and get the same results. Actually, I think a landplane would work fine with just one centered / angled blade.

Here's a couple landplane photos for you.

Arena ready for a rock picking party


Graded flex-base


A better angle

 

[Piston]

It seems like some of the landplanes with multiple blades (most of them?) are also relying on the blades as structural members. There is no other support on the bottom portion of the landplane, towards the back, aside from the blades.

 

[RDrancher]

It seems like some of the landplanes with multiple blades (most of them?) are also relying on the blades as structural members. There is no other support on the bottom portion of the landplane, towards the back, aside from the blades.

Yes, they are.

I actually like the idea of an asphalt float better. Pic from a TBN members previous post..