Grading a long driveway

[MtnViewRanch]

Brian,

I cannot get your link to work?


JLC in Colorado Springs
PS: I also need to figure out how to post pics on this site!

Sorry about that, I thought it worked in the preview post. Anyway, do a search for (road maintenance grader) and you will get a lot of ideas and opinions.

I am sold on the road grader implements myself. Don't get me wrong, they will all work, and all have there intended purpose. But for maintaining a road, I feel that the deadicated road scraper implements work the best. I have and use a road scraper blade, a rear blade, a box blade, and a landscape rake. For all around road maintenance, the road grader blade works the best for me.

Here are a few links for blades.
Road Boss Grader - Road and Landscape Grading, Surfacing and Leveling, and Material Spreading and Reclamation

GradeMaster Grader Blades

There are many more also.

 

[3RRL]

I agree with Brian that once your road is where you want it, the Road Grader is a great tool that easily maintains it.
On the other hand, a box blade can also be used to maintain the road. Not only that, if you are rebuilding it or have to add ditches or do a lot of re-construction, the box blade will do a better job. Then there are about a hundred other things you can do with your boxblade besides the road maintenance.
Here is a thread that shows several uses.
Various Box Blade Uses
It has many posts in it (including ones from Brian).

I do have Top and Tilt which makes using my box blade a lot easier and more productive. I also added a hydraulic system for using the rippers on mine. That further helped making for more production and easier use.
Here is the thread on that.
Gear Driven Hydraulic Rippers
I did that about 3 years ago and was happy I did. I've gotten hundreds of hours of use out of my modified box blade and still to this day smooth my 1/2 mile long dirt road. Just yesterday my neighbors asked me to do their 1,000 ft long gravel driveway. I did it in 3 passes since it has never been done before. I tilted the side links to grab gravel from the ditch side going both ways to form a decent "crown". The last pass was over the center with the 7fit box blade. That distributed the gravel evenly giving them a nice "fresh" new drive.
I should have taken some photos...

 

[EddieWalker]

After reading Brian and Rob's posts, I wanted to clarify mine. If you are working soil or a rocky type native ground, then that's totally different. In those conditions, the soil is always there and you don't have to worry about losing it when you move it around.

I really like those graders and know two people with them. They are just amazing at how easy and hoe nice a job they do. I've thought about getting one for my dirty roads, but since I'm planning on paving them eventually, I'll just stick to dragging them to make them semi smooth.

I can also attest to Rob's skill with a box blade. When I drove up his road, it was like it had been done professionally with a motor grader. Of course, Rob is a perfectionist and is extremely skilled at it. I've been to other places where the road was a roller coaster of whoop D doos, and moguls that would be better on a slope for snow skiing.

Eddie

 

[3RRL]

Wow Eddie,
Thank you for the Great compliment! You are very kind.
Rob-