Is there an implement that can smooth roads and not load up?
- Thread starter bdog
- Start date
jenkinsph
Super Star Member
You may find it works better to make long passes, travel as far as you can and collect all the grass and weeds. Then separate the weeds, fork them into the loader bucket to remove them. A six tine pitch fork works good for this. Leave the dirt and gravel to smooth out.
Skip the above if the initial appearance is not a concern. Make long passes with the lpgs with the blades set flush or slightly above grade. Adjusting the front to rear pitch of a lpgs is very important to get the right results, this is a fine adjustment. Drive forward slowly and watch both ends of the skids, if either end is plowing into the road much you need to adjust the angle of attack. Adjust this to the point that the plane will slide on the skids with the least amount of plowing and disturbance. This way when you come to a depression it can drop a little dirt to fill in and still shave off high spots.
I see a lot of people run a lpgs with the blades set deep to cut the surface continuously. While this aggressive cutting will help with mixing the gravel and fines it is not the best way to finish plane the surface. To finish plane and to get the smoothest and flat surface requires the blades to be set high enough to cut only the material that is too high and allow the dirt to flow under the blades in the spots that are low. If you are always gathering too much dirt then raise the blades, if you are constantly running out of dirt then lower the blades. There is a sweet spot in between you will need to find.
I mention the above because with your assortment of equipment you can relegate the lpgs to fine finish work. You have other equipment to make aggressive cut and fill work to rough in the roads or pastures.
Skip the above if the initial appearance is not a concern. Make long passes with the lpgs with the blades set flush or slightly above grade. Adjusting the front to rear pitch of a lpgs is very important to get the right results, this is a fine adjustment. Drive forward slowly and watch both ends of the skids, if either end is plowing into the road much you need to adjust the angle of attack. Adjust this to the point that the plane will slide on the skids with the least amount of plowing and disturbance. This way when you come to a depression it can drop a little dirt to fill in and still shave off high spots.
I see a lot of people run a lpgs with the blades set deep to cut the surface continuously. While this aggressive cutting will help with mixing the gravel and fines it is not the best way to finish plane the surface. To finish plane and to get the smoothest and flat surface requires the blades to be set high enough to cut only the material that is too high and allow the dirt to flow under the blades in the spots that are low. If you are always gathering too much dirt then raise the blades, if you are constantly running out of dirt then lower the blades. There is a sweet spot in between you will need to find.
I mention the above because with your assortment of equipment you can relegate the lpgs to fine finish work. You have other equipment to make aggressive cut and fill work to rough in the roads or pastures.
I wish I would have taken some before and after pics.
My road very rarely gets rutted up or damaged. It just goes through a back pasture and I really have no need to go out there when it is muddy. The problem is I travel a lot and when I come back weeds have taken it over. I mow them first and then blade it to get back to bare dirt. I have tried spraying it some but have to be very careful as the road follows my fence line and is right beside it and I don't want collateral damage on my neighbors property. One of them has very nice grass almost like a golf course that he is constantly working on that goes right up to my fence.
A disk or a plow with sweeps would probably be best for getting rid of the weeds but the road is packed pretty good and solid and I don't want to break up any more than I have to in order to get the weeds.
I got it the way like after about 6 passes the other day. It is about a mile around there and it requires two passes to cover the width of the road so that was 12 miles of blading.
Lifting the LPGS helps some with the buildup. I may try and modify my scrapers though. They are set on the highest position and are still too aggressive I think. For my purposes I think it would be so much better if I could set my position control in float and let the skids follow the ground and have the blades just barely dig in.
My road very rarely gets rutted up or damaged. It just goes through a back pasture and I really have no need to go out there when it is muddy. The problem is I travel a lot and when I come back weeds have taken it over. I mow them first and then blade it to get back to bare dirt. I have tried spraying it some but have to be very careful as the road follows my fence line and is right beside it and I don't want collateral damage on my neighbors property. One of them has very nice grass almost like a golf course that he is constantly working on that goes right up to my fence.
A disk or a plow with sweeps would probably be best for getting rid of the weeds but the road is packed pretty good and solid and I don't want to break up any more than I have to in order to get the weeds.
I got it the way like after about 6 passes the other day. It is about a mile around there and it requires two passes to cover the width of the road so that was 12 miles of blading.
Lifting the LPGS helps some with the buildup. I may try and modify my scrapers though. They are set on the highest position and are still too aggressive I think. For my purposes I think it would be so much better if I could set my position control in float and let the skids follow the ground and have the blades just barely dig in.
jenkinsph
Super Star Member
You may find adding flat bar to the bottom of the skids that is wider than what you have will raise the blades and help with floatation too. I would definitely want the skids on the ground not suspended. On my 8' land plane the skid flanges are 4" wide. For dirt and or pasture smoothing I may go with 6" x 3/8" flat bar.
On my LandPride, if I set the blades all the way "up", they are about 3/4" or more above the skids. So the blades would cut/grade almost nothing since the skids would hold them up too high.
I do have the problem that my 6ft scraper (GS-1572) is really too wide for my roads that average about 10ft. (That's why I have it listed for sale in the classifieds on here). So with a little crown in the surface and the right side skid at the very edge/ditch on the right side of the road, the LEFT skid is a foot too far past the top of the crown. If I'm not careful, I wind up cutting off the top of the crown AND all the grass that grows there. The grass DOES bunch up in a heap inside the scraper. As mentioned, a hay fork is handy to occasionally pitch out the excess. Using the tilt/side link adjust takes care of most of this. Then I just completely drop the 3pt and let the right side skid do all the work.
It really should be the other way around. I should scrape with the left skid exactly in the center of the road on the top of the crown.
I do have the problem that my 6ft scraper (GS-1572) is really too wide for my roads that average about 10ft. (That's why I have it listed for sale in the classifieds on here). So with a little crown in the surface and the right side skid at the very edge/ditch on the right side of the road, the LEFT skid is a foot too far past the top of the crown. If I'm not careful, I wind up cutting off the top of the crown AND all the grass that grows there. The grass DOES bunch up in a heap inside the scraper. As mentioned, a hay fork is handy to occasionally pitch out the excess. Using the tilt/side link adjust takes care of most of this. Then I just completely drop the 3pt and let the right side skid do all the work.
It really should be the other way around. I should scrape with the left skid exactly in the center of the road on the top of the crown.
Egon
Epic Contributor
If you want to keep vegetation at bay change the PH of the road. Add whatever it takes to go above or below the growing range of the grass. Adding an excess of nitrogen fertilizer will also work. Salt will too but it may take a long time to get rid of it if so required.
As to equipment to use any device that has a blade that can angle, tilt and have the horizontal angle changed will work.
Most of the fixed drag type blades look good but do not work for proper road shaping and finishing. They will provide the user a sense of satisfication as it will seem they are doing something but that's about all.
Dart Board Provided!
As to equipment to use any device that has a blade that can angle, tilt and have the horizontal angle changed will work.
Most of the fixed drag type blades look good but do not work for proper road shaping and finishing. They will provide the user a sense of satisfication as it will seem they are doing something but that's about all.
Dart Board Provided!
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jenkinsph
Super Star Member
Where are the darts?
I agree that rear blades are needed to shape the road.
The fixed blade land plane grader scrapers are very beneficial for smoothing and maintenance after proper shaping.
Egon
Epic Contributor
Darts?? Figured heavier items like axes would be used!
oosik
Super Star Member
The only time I have any buildup pulling my LPGS is when that area of my driveway is too wet. My driveway is loooong - one mile - and will have very dry dusty areas while at the same time there are two areas that can still be muddy. The LPGS works well in the dry areas and never gets too big of a build up.
Generally speaking it works the way its supposed to - excess material flows over the cutting blades and more or less lays down flat.
Over the 35+ years I've been here - I've changed the way I maintain my driveway. In the beginning, it was important to have it flat & smooth like a pool table. I quickly got tired of all the dust from visitors driving 35-45 down my driveway. Now I leave most of the "natural features" in the driveway and surprise, surprise - very little dust. Everybody drives around 10 mph now - including me. No need for unnoticed speed signs - speed bumps come naturally and provide fantastic control.
Generally speaking it works the way its supposed to - excess material flows over the cutting blades and more or less lays down flat.
Over the 35+ years I've been here - I've changed the way I maintain my driveway. In the beginning, it was important to have it flat & smooth like a pool table. I quickly got tired of all the dust from visitors driving 35-45 down my driveway. Now I leave most of the "natural features" in the driveway and surprise, surprise - very little dust. Everybody drives around 10 mph now - including me. No need for unnoticed speed signs - speed bumps come naturally and provide fantastic control.