Box Scraper Box scraper for driveway maintenance?

[BeauGeste]

I have a Kubota B7800 and almost a quarter mile of dirt/gravel/rocky driveway to maintain. In the winter I use a front mounted 60" snowblower. But, I need to do the maintenance during the summer/fall to get the driveway into reasonably level shape so it is passable and I can keep it cleared in the winter. I've attached a picture of the driveway. You can see I'm behind on my maintenance!

Are there suggestions for a box scraper to use? Would a Woods GBC48 be too small? Make more sense to go to a GB60? I plan to bring in crushed base type of stone, then spread it with the box scraper. Beyond that, what is the best way to pack it? I've done various things in the past and nothing is really best. Looking for any/all advice for what to bring in, but especially what blade/scraper to use.

 

[brin]

I have a Kubota B7800 and almost a quarter mile of dirt/gravel/rocky driveway to maintain. In the winter I use a front mounted 60" snowblower. But, I need to do the maintenance during the summer/fall to get the driveway into reasonably level shape so it is passable and I can keep it cleared in the winter. I've attached a picture of the driveway. You can see I'm behind on my maintenance!

Are there suggestions for a box scraper to use? Would a Woods GBC48 be too small? Make more sense to go to a GB60? I plan to bring in crushed base type of stone, then spread it with the box scraper. Beyond that, what is the best way to pack it? I've done various things in the past and nothing is really best. Looking for any/all advice for what to bring in, but especially what blade/scraper to use.

Funny, I have exactly a 1/4 mile gravel drive into my farm and I use a box blade and do not have hydraulic...just a plain box blade with and go over the whole road with the box blade and scarificers down and tear it up real good and then angle the blade and pull the scarificers up and smooth it out...works great. After you rough it up all over then angle your blade and go down one way and back up the other and if you do it right it will leave you with a nice crown in the middle of the road and fill in all your low spots.

 

[Johndeere3720]

I have a boxblade and a rear blade. Ive noticed that the boxblade is excelent for pulling loose gravel but the rear blade is better at the smoothing part. My boxblade likes to leave little mounds on either side after going over an area with a full load of gravel to pull. The rear blade will pull the loose gravel off the sides of the driveway and put into the middle of the road. Then you angle the blade backwards and use the edge to pull the loose gravel onto the ruts and rough parts. It will leave a nice finsh when your done. The boxblade works great for pulling material over longer distances but for the level outcome I turn to my rear blade. Im pretty sure that your tractor can handle the larger boxblade as my little 40" wide Yanmar can pull a 48" boxblade and 5' rear blade with ease. i atleast dont have to worry about covering my tracks with these implements. If you think about it, a rear blade is also useful for snow removal since you can angle it to the left or right to push smaller amounts of snow. I know that the conditions i work in may be different since my boxblade teeth dont dig at all into the driveway. It also depends on the tractor you use to grade since my 169D yanmar can pull more than my grandpa's JohnDeere 2210 even though it has less horse power. Basically, it comes down to tranny and tires for me.

 

[Jaylegger]

Are there suggestions for a box scraper to use? Would a Woods GBC48 be too small? Make more sense to go to a GB60? I plan to bring in crushed base type of stone, then spread it with the box scraper. Beyond that, what is the best way to pack it? I've done various things in the past and nothing is really best. Looking for any/all advice for what to bring in, but especially what blade/scraper to use.

I'd go with the 5' over the 4 foot as your tractor won't have any difficulty with that and would likely be fine with a 6' box. I've been using a 5 foot with a 25hp Massey GC2600 on gravel roads with no issues. I do my 1/4 mile private lane and another half mile private road with about 15 homes on it using the same method as brin and it works great. Using the scarifiers first with the box angled down as far as it will go so the teeth dig in better (the roads are hard packed so I might be digging in an inch or two and often less) I first tear up the surface a bit. I then flip the scarifiers, level the and fine tune as necessary the box to reshape/fill in holes and smooth the road. Key is drainage, take some time to determine the high and low spots, gravel roads develop subtle berms at the edges quickly which prevent drainage, knock those down. For packing I just run the tractor over it a few times to determine what holes require more work and refill as needed.

My tractor is very new to me (a few months) as is grading and my first box scraper road job was the 1/2 mile road and the residents were literally shocked at the end result of the box scraper. They've for decades been hiring a grader and operator for road maitenance purposes and probably a little sceptical of the job this lightweight gear could do but by all acounts the results using this little tractor and box, taking a little time to do it well, at worst equals the former.

 

[jenkinsph]

John Deere products for homeowners: Features for Attachment Frontier LP11 Series Land Planes


I use a landplane for this work with good results. The blades are angled to aid in crowning the road. Here is one example from Frontier but there are lots of others out there.



Steve

 

[wny770]

I think you could handle the 60" no problem. A box blade, in my opinion, would work great for what you describe.

 

[JB4310]

I vote for the box scraper also, get the widest you can, it will do a better job at finishing just due to it being wider and floating more.

You would want a smaller one if you wanted to dig a drain ditch or swale, but for finishing you want a wider almost "raking" action.

I have not had good experience with my rear blade, the only thing I use it for now is clearing snow from hard surfaces.

As far as packing the gravel before it gets rained on and packs itself, you need some kind of roller, the heaviest you tractor can pull. Maybe a section of large diameter pipe you can fill with concrete with an axle thru the middle. Or even a large water filled roller, I've got one about 20" in dia and 3' wide that I pull with a garden tractor and it does a good job at stabilizing freshly laid process.

JB.

 

[jnjpream]

With whatever you decide to go with, be sure that you have drainage along the sides of the road to prevent any water pooling or else your new rock will disappear at those places. Looking at the picture, in some spots the land slopes onto the road. You might want to cut a small ditch along those spots to route the run-off to places where the land on side of the road is lower than the road itself.

 

[3RRL]

The suggestions of preparing your drive properly for water run off is especially important.
Ditching along both sides leading to a culvert or cutting an ext to a low area is a good idea. I've seen some drives that have very little crown but are tilted slightly to allow runoff to one side ... then to a culvert or exit. Whatever method to get the water off your drive.

As far as selection of implement, there are many that will suit your need.
Each has it's strong points, but with a little patience you can get terrific results on your drive. Personally, I don't own a back blade but do have 2 box blades. I them for just about everything from drive maintenance to creating new roads and trails and even gutter cutting. My drive is not gravel ... it's a 1/2 mile long dirt road. This creates a need to maintain it more frequently since the rains can really screw it up. I pull a 7' footer behind my 55hp Kama and a 5-1/2 footer behind the 28hp Jinma. Both are wide enough to cover the tracks. They stick out about 4" to each side of the rear wheels with the wheels set at their widest position. I've found that a wider boxblade really makes sense. Plus when you tilt it sideways to cut a gutter, it still sticks out slightly to each side. Once the gutters are cut, it's just a matter of smoothing the rest of the road to your liking... whichever implement you like best.
Here are some photos of using the boxblade to maintain or prep my drive.

 

[tractorski]

It's amazing we all have 1/4 mile driveways! For spreading fine material, i find the most control with a box blade. When the driveway needs "resurfacing" I use my Harley power rake. It "digs" down about 2" and lays it out butter smooth on the back side. I use it for my driveway and several commercial parking lots.

 

[Jaylegger]

It's amazing we all have 1/4 mile driveways! For spreading fine material, i find the most control with a box blade. When the driveway needs "resurfacing" I use my Harley power rake. It "digs" down about 2" and lays it out butter smooth on the back side. I use it for my driveway and several commercial parking lots.

The power rakes seem to be the ideal attachment for chewing up and smoothing. I see you're in Vermont, I've been wondering lately if power rakes would be an appropriate tool for chewing up the upper surface of ice that builds up on roads (gravel) during winter especially after quick rains. I'm thinking their use may be a sanding substitute. Have you ever used your rake on ice?

 

[tractorski]

I have never tried it on ice. I use a truck mounted snowplow for the driveway for clearing snow. i use a fertilizer spreader to put down sand on the driveway after an ice storm. I would be afraid the harley rake would remove or destroy the thin layer of snow I like to let build up on the driveway. That thin lyer of snow(and alittle bit of ice) makes a nice plowing surface. Also all of our vehicles have awd or 4wd. If you scrape down to the gravel, it is much harder on the plow.

 

[zzvyb6]

I have a little less than a 1/4 mile driveway. It used to be crushed 21aa limestone, but last year I added 2" of crushed asphalt. Much better. No more dust. No more stone migration onto the lawn. I also routinely used my 5' Yanmar tiller on the driveway, going down an inch or two just to loosen up the material. I just bought a 6' box blade and added a hydraulic top link based on a need to also maintain the county road at my end. But, when all is said and done, once you have a bit of loose material, my 8' landscape rake on gauge wheels and a chain for the top link does the best job of combing the material away from the edges, crowning the surface and presenting a smooth, level, bump-free roadbed. No kidding, the landscape rake does the best job for me. At high angle (45deg) the thing digs in to extract some loose working material, and at 10 - 15 degrees, the rake moves the stone around just perfectly for me. No powered equipment, no hydraulic levers, no scarifiers, just a lot of tines. The key ingredient in this setup is the guage wheels and the chain. Otherwise you will get some waves in it.

 

[jenkinsph]

With top and tilt hitch on a 4520 I use a 7' rear blade to cut my ditches, then use a landplane to smooth everything out. If I were to need to cut and fill or move alot of material I would use my heavy duty boxblade with hydraulic teeth (1250 lbs and 7' wide).

From the picture on pg 1 it looks to me like ditching is the main issue to address first and then smoothing the surfaces afterwards. Definately want a crown or slope with drainage and make sure there is some where for the run off to go to. If and when I added rock to the top surface it would be a thin layer (maybe one rock high). Too much gravel and the car tires just plow through it and can get stuck.

At the risk of being considered arrogant I will say that most posters here prefer the boxblade for the work you describe above and yes you can do it with one but a landplane will do a better job at finishing the drive without waves. I have both tools, a Frontier BB1284 boxblade (about $4,000 in todays dollars, too much!) and a custom built landplane with 2 96" grader blades that weighs about 950 lbs. Both of these tools have their place as well as the landscape rake which would do a good job of pulling gravel back up on the road without making a mess. Having a wide variety of implements to choose from allows you to really see what works best, and a good motorgrader with a seasoned operator would be my first choice.


Steve

 

[Charlesaf3]

The power rakes seem to be the ideal attachment for chewing up and smoothing. I see you're in Vermont, I've been wondering lately if power rakes would be an appropriate tool for chewing up the upper surface of ice that builds up on roads (gravel) during winter especially after quick rains. I'm thinking their use may be a sanding substitute. Have you ever used your rake on ice?

Believe it or not a rototiller is perfect for that.

I'll have to try the harley rake on the dirt road again. So far I've preferred the landscape rake to the rear blade, haven't tried the box yet.

Bet a road grader/landplane type would be best, but can't really justify that currently.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

With top and tilt hitch on a 4520 I use a 7' rear blade to cut my ditches, then use a landplane to smooth everything out. If I were to need to cut and fill or move alot of material I would use my heavy duty boxblade with hydraulic teeth (1250 lbs and 7' wide).

From the picture on pg 1 it looks to me like ditching is the main issue to address first and then smoothing the surfaces afterwards. Definately want a crown or slope with drainage and make sure there is some where for the run off to go to. If and when I added rock to the top surface it would be a thin layer (maybe one rock high). Too much gravel and the car tires just plow through it and can get stuck.

At the risk of being considered arrogant I will say that most posters here prefer the boxblade for the work you describe above and yes you can do it with one but a landplane will do a better job at finishing the drive without waves. I have both tools, a Frontier BB1284 boxblade (about $4,000 in todays dollars, too much!) and a custom built landplane with 2 96" grader blades that weighs about 950 lbs. Both of these tools have their place as well as the landscape rake which would do a good job of pulling gravel back up on the road without making a mess. Having a wide variety of implements to choose from allows you to really see hat works best, and a good motorgrader with a seasoned operator would be my first choice.


Steve

Steve, it looks like you have a lot of implements as I do. There are times that I have seen a motorgrader leave the surface with a wash board finish. In the conditions that cause that, I would prefer my landplane type grader blade over the motorgrader.

Just my opinion

 

[LBrown59]

I would be afraid the harley rake would remove or destroy the thin layer of snow I like to let build up on the driveway.
That thin lyer of snow(and a little bit of ice) makes a nice plowing surface .

You can't do that here because it don't get cold enough and stay that cold long enough.

 

[smfcpacfp]

My tractor is the same size as your and I have the Woods GB60 Box scraper pictured below. I have used it to maintain my gravel driveway and to prepare a couple of sites for building projects. I find it works very well for both tasks:

​

 

[Jaylegger]

I have never tried it on ice. I use a truck mounted snowplow for the driveway for clearing snow. i use a fertilizer spreader to put down sand on the driveway after an ice storm. I would be afraid the harley rake would remove or destroy the thin layer of snow I like to let build up on the driveway. That thin lyer of snow(and alittle bit of ice) makes a nice plowing surface. Also all of our vehicles have awd or 4wd. If you scrape down to the gravel, it is much harder on the plow.

Thanks for the reply. With a fairly long drive to keep clear and limited space and inclination to manage dry sand I'm just thinking about what implements may be able to provide a "traction on ice" substitute for sand.

 

[tractorski]

studded tires, we have them on all of our vehicles.