Buying Advice what attachment do I need?

[albert]

I have a 1/4 mile driveway to maintain (dirt and creek rock from 1"-3" in size) with drainage ditches on both sides. Parts of driveway have a significant grade so maintaining a good crown is important. Need to maintain the road 1-3 times a year. I have a 5600 turbo and a combo bucket. Considering a tilt tach to use with my combo bucket for the job vs. a soil conditioner. Would appreciate any suggestions regarding best attachments for this kind of job. Rent vs. buy? If buy, reasonable prices new or used. If used, anybody have something for sale close to middle Tn.?

 

[hardhat]

The tilt tach is for non hydraulic front implements. I guess you could open the combo bucket, unhook hydraulics, install tilt tach and then use the combo bucket as a tilt dozer blade. The bobcat dozer blade could be an option as could a grader if it has tilt function. Surely all of this is expensive, but if you are have to rent over and over...... Might find some stuff on ebay, machinery trader, equipment trader or craigslist.

 

[albert]

Anybody have experience with using a soil conditioner implement for this kind of road maintenance?

 

[SSdoxie]

I would look at a Tilt Tach with box blade combination. Soil conditioner will work but expect increased tooth wear. These carbide teeth are not replaceable, after worn down or most gone you would need to replace the outer shell of the drum.

 

[boggen]

90% of the time, you will see the following.

box blade, rear blade, and *duh* forgot name (land pride)

box blade = using rippers/scaficers to loosen up dirt and rock. when needed.
box blade = itself to help fill in low spots to bring everything up to a finish smooth grade.

rear blade, able to angle it and scrape rock / dirt / snow back and forth.

land pride. digs the rock up and kinda sifts out the rock and dirt. so the dirt goes down and brings the sunk in rocks back up on top of the gravel road base.

the 3pt hitch, lift arms, normally have an adjustor you can angle all of above to some degree. from (side to side) and adjusting top link on 3pt hitch can give you some adjustment (forward and back) on the implements.
or if you want hyd get a TOP N Tilt setup.

 

[Jim Abrams]

You have gotten some good advice. I use a tilt tach with a wide bucket, 80 inch. The bucket is a light bucket with out the extra plating. This helps me to cut down the number of passes needed for the grading. Shop on the internet and you will find bucket makers that can make buckets to your specks. I have also used a box blade hooked to a 3-point adapter and the tilt tach. This is a bit tricky to learn but when you get used to it can be very effective. The soil conditioner is a very good tool. I use mine a lot for final grade before sod laying. The teeth are made to cut hard dirt but are expensive to replace. Here again there are some makers that have replaceable teeth. To be really effective you need to have hydraulic angle and that requires an extra hydraulic control kit. In my opinion the tilt tach and bucket would be the least expensive. The soil conditioner the most. If you are pulling material out of a ditch to put back on the road, bucket or boxblade with a tilt tach would be best.

 

[samtip]

I have used my soil conditioner for my 500 ft driveway. I have used it on dry gravel and wet gravel. Easier with wet. Plus less dust. It really smooths out the bumps. Plus I can shape the driveway or cut it down. It also works great for getting rocks out of the yard after a season of moving snow. I use it twice a year and the teeth still look like new.

 

[Jim Abrams]

I have used my soil conditioner for my 500 ft driveway. I have used it on dry gravel and wet gravel. Easier with wet. Plus less dust. It really smooths out the bumps. Plus I can shape the driveway or cut it down. It also works great for getting rocks out of the yard after a season of moving snow. I use it twice a year and the teeth still look like new.

I have noticed some wear on the softer steel on the two most outer teeth. The carbide tips are showing no wear at this point. I use it in sandy conditions and have been using it for almost 3 years for final grading and for spreading dirt that has a lot of grass stripping s mixed in, which is too lumpy to grade flat. It is also handy for striping sod because the top soil is shaken out and there is less material to haul away. We have also used it for beach grooming because it tends to mix the sand and sea weed together causing less sea weed piles that seem to upset the people that do not want the beach touched. The teeth can be replaced by grinding the old weld off and rewelding new teeth in the hole that is exposed. I think that my unit will last a couple of more years before the teeth will need to be replaced and only these two teeth.