land plane / leveler

[bdog]

I have a 7' box blade but I just bought a bigger tractor and it will no longer cover my tracks which are 8'. I have a little over a mile I am guessing of dirt roads on my property that I want to maintain as well as a 1 acre or so gravel equipment lot.

I was thinking of buying something 8 -12' wide.

I was looking at something like this Recover your gravel road with the Everything Attachments Land Leveler, Land Plane, utility grader

or this http://www.tractorhouse.com/listingsdetail/detail.aspx?OHID=6448603

I have used 3 point box blade a ton but never either one of these style implements. The land plane looks like it would work great but then again the pull type leveler with the gauge wheels on the box should work pretty good also.

Anybody have any feedback on these style of implements?

 

[coobie]

I have a 7' box blade but I just bought a bigger tractor and it will no longer cover my tracks which are 8'. I have a little over a mile I am guessing of dirt roads on my property that I want to maintain as well as a 1 acre or so gravel equipment lot.

I was thinking of buying something 8 -12' wide.

I was looking at something like this Recover your gravel road with the Everything Attachments Land Leveler, Land Plane, utility grader

or this http://www.tractorhouse.com/listingsdetail/detail.aspx?OHID=6448603

I have used 3 point box blade a ton but never either one of these style implements. The land plane looks like it would work great but then again the pull type leveler with the gauge wheels on the box should work pretty good also.

Anybody have any feedback on these style of implements?

Not every landplane is created equal,LOL.Do your research.I ended up buying a 7ft befco landplane weighs 703 lbs. from my local dealer Michigan Iron & equipment after some research.Buy the most heavy duty one you can afford IMHO.Weight is your friend while grading roads.I grade over a 2 mile road with mine.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

For maintaining a road, very difficult to beat a LPGS in my opinion. Just like most grading implements, weight is your friend. I have found that to be able to work well the implement needs to weigh between 125-200lbs per foot of width. A lot of people are satisfied with less, but to work best you really do need that weight. If I had your machine, I would not go any wider than an 8-9 footer. I have a 7 footer that weighs 1400lbs, and if I don't pay attention and the conditions are right it will stop my 75hp 12,000lb tractor.

 

[bdog]

If I had your machine, I would not go any wider than an 8-9 footer. I have a 7 footer that weighs 1400lbs, and if I don't pay attention and the conditions are right it will stop my 75hp 12,000lb tractor.

Thanks for info. I forgot to update my profile / signature. I just traded tractors I now have 130hp and about 15,000 lbs. I definitely will look into the heavier units. The bulk of my dirt roads are about 10' wide so if I got a 10' unit I could cover the whole road in one pass.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

Unless your roads are perfectly flat, that is not what you want and even with a 15,000lb tractor, it is only 2WD, so you have at best around 10 - 11,000lbs of tractive effort. With the roads that you have, even a 7 footer may be to wide.

Maybe someone else will have a different outlook, I can only give advise based on my own experiences.

 

[Gordon Gould]

The bulk of my dirt roads are about 10' wide so if I got a 10' unit I could cover the whole road in one pass.

That would be great if you keep all your roads flat w/o any crown on them for drainage.

 

[jcummins]

That would be great if you keep all your roads flat w/o any crown on them for drainage.

That seems counter to what I've read....and that is you want a crown. Can you explain.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

That seems counter to what I've read....and that is you want a crown. Can you explain.

Maybe Gordon should have had one of these at the end of his statement. In most cases, and Gordon agrees, you would not want to be able to grade a road in a single pass.

 

[TomSeller]

Maybe Gordon should have had one of these at the end of his statement. In most cases, and Gordon agrees, you would not want to be able to grade a road in a single pass.

Agree, you need a crown. Two passes sloped away from center.

 

[bdog]

Unless your roads are perfectly flat, that is not what you want and even with a 15,000lb tractor, it is only 2WD, so you have at best around 10 - 11,000lbs of tractive effort. With the roads that you have, even a 7 footer may be to wide.

Maybe someone else will have a different outlook, I can only give advise based on my own experiences.

Do these levelers draft harder than a box blade? I have pulled my 7' box blade plum full of dirt with a 45 horse tractor. I had a 10' box blade I used to pull full with a 4430. I think it was 125hp.