Leveling sand pile
- Thread starter sewells
- Start date
Henro
Super Member
- Joined
- Jul 4, 2003
- Messages
- 5,977
- Location
- Few miles north of Pgh, PA
- Tractor
- Kubota B2910, BX2200, KX41-2V mini EX
Generally, a 3PH only lifts but doesn't apply down pressure. When you set the position all the way down, then it is, by the nature of the beast, a float position...
Try it and see what happens...works good for me. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
Try it and see what happens...works good for me. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
Reminds me of long ago experience
About 40 yrs ago, my uncle rented a D2 size cat to build a dike for a rention pond. He drove it to get us started, then turned it over to me--the goofy 15 year old!
It was pure sand, so the little cat pushed it well, except for the operator error (mine!). I'd lower the blade and push, then it would slip, so I'd raise the blade. This led to the obvious ripple effect! My uncle sat in the shade and watch as I made progressively deeper and bigger ripples while pushing the sand. Within 30 minutes, I had mini-berms everywhere. The more I tried compensating for the ups and downs, the worse it got.
My uncle was laughing his A$$ off! Finally, out of my desperation, he came to the rescue: He started at the back, set the blade about 2 inches off the ground, and pushed all my berms level again....
It was a real head slapper for me and a great laugh for him!
Best wishes to you. (I just bought a box blade today, so hopefully, some of the experiences will be better this time.).
ron
About 40 yrs ago, my uncle rented a D2 size cat to build a dike for a rention pond. He drove it to get us started, then turned it over to me--the goofy 15 year old!
It was pure sand, so the little cat pushed it well, except for the operator error (mine!). I'd lower the blade and push, then it would slip, so I'd raise the blade. This led to the obvious ripple effect! My uncle sat in the shade and watch as I made progressively deeper and bigger ripples while pushing the sand. Within 30 minutes, I had mini-berms everywhere. The more I tried compensating for the ups and downs, the worse it got.
My uncle was laughing his A$$ off! Finally, out of my desperation, he came to the rescue: He started at the back, set the blade about 2 inches off the ground, and pushed all my berms level again....
It was a real head slapper for me and a great laugh for him!
Best wishes to you. (I just bought a box blade today, so hopefully, some of the experiences will be better this time.).
ron
Put your FEL in float with bucket level or slightly curled and back drag. When you get near the end of the sand, slowly raise your bucket to spread what gathered behind it. Works great for me as my whole 6.5 acres is sand.
chim
Elite Member
No horses here, but this is something cobbled together for driveway repair. Since the main driveway has been blacktopped, and the other is solid as concrete, it didn't see much use except when adding loads of sand to the kid's volleyball court............................chim
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CTyler
Veteran Member
If you can get a flat spot to start off on your ahead of the game. Back up to one of the high spots and do like RonR said and and start backing up. You can do the same thing with the FEL going forward but it is less forgiving.
Here's something I learned to help smooth those piles when dumping. Put the bucket in float, dump and back up at the same time. This usually makes a pretty flat pile.
Also when floating the bucket to flatten out existing piles don't stop short. That little bity pile you leave will cause a dip the next time you go back to refloat what you just did. This is because the rear tires will go up dropping the FEL. You start getting nice gentle waves everywhere.
Your a harrow would probably flatten it out eventually. You may want to build a drag then pull the drag at angle to help clip high spots.
Here's something I learned to help smooth those piles when dumping. Put the bucket in float, dump and back up at the same time. This usually makes a pretty flat pile.
Also when floating the bucket to flatten out existing piles don't stop short. That little bity pile you leave will cause a dip the next time you go back to refloat what you just did. This is because the rear tires will go up dropping the FEL. You start getting nice gentle waves everywhere.
Your a harrow would probably flatten it out eventually. You may want to build a drag then pull the drag at angle to help clip high spots.
msuttner
Member
I am in the process of building a horse arena so that my wife can enjoy riding on a flat fenced area. In reading through the posts one thing that was not mentioned was to do figure eights with the box blade on. I have found this to work very well.
Michael
Michael
david43a
Bronze Member
I would also suggest you try some kind of a drag a harrow or chain link fence. I leveled or at least smoothed out the bottom of my lot by using a drag and driving around in circles until everything was smooth. I am still learning to use the box blade and the front end loader back dragging to level I have 31 hrs on my new tractor. I had a lot more hours on my small craftsman trator. I have a drag that looks like something you see gardners use to level out baseball diamons. I put a pallet and some rocks on top of it for weight and I drove around in curcles, eventually all of the gravel was smoothed out. have fun Daivd. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif