Need some ideas on building a land grader

[lzicc]

I am looking for something to grade my limestone driveway and was looking at a land grader. I think this would work well. Has anyone built one? It looks pretty basic to build, just trying to get some ideas. The blades look like they are curved, not sure if this is just the way the pics look or if they need to be curved. I'm am also trying to find out how far the blades go below the sides.

 

[DRL]

This is also on my too-do list. The ones I have looked at the blade was 3/4"-1" below skids. I was figuring on using blades off a box blade or similar.

DRL

 

[jimmysisson]

There's 178 threads under grader in Search - grab some coffee!
Jim

 

[Gordon Gould]

I built one. Used lots of ideas I found here. My blades are down 3/4". Good, bad, I don't know. It works is all I know. There are lots of opinions. I kept mine simple for lack of fabrication tools. The best advice I can give is make it heavy and make the space between the blades as big a practible for you. Do the search and read all the pros and cons.

 

[lzicc]

Golden Gould, nice job. I see your blades go straight across instead of at an angle, I wonder if that makes a difference.

 

[Gordon Gould]

Golden Gould, nice job. I see your blades go straight across instead of at an angle, I wonder if that makes a difference.

Me too
From what I've read people say they build a crown with the slanted blades. I use a rear blade to shape my road with crowns and pitches. Usually once a year or less. My grader does not alter the basic road contour that I set with the blade.
If I was going to do one thing different with mine it would be to make the blade depth adjustable. I wore 1/4" off my blades last year. With a rear blade you don't notice this but with the grader everything is relative to the skids. My blades are only 3/8" thick. I am going to get some 1/2" ones for it.

 

[Taylortractornut]

Ihave one with straight blades I built from mobile home trailer frames and grader blades. We have a larger one we had mad e by our friend William built for us copying a dura grader with angled blades. It works good but the angle blades are supposed to pull materials from the loaw side and moves them back into the road. One of our workers used ours and bladed the haul road with the blades pulling the material off the crown and put it on the shoulders. I had to go back over it with the blades angle the right way.

 

[smiley]

The angled blades not only move the material back up to the crown but the material moving across the blade fills any ruts and depressions a straight blade may miss. I built a drag type one years ago, from about 3" angle iron that had the front blade angled one way, part way across the 6' wide square frame, a second blade behind it to move the material back the other way and a third straight blade in back to level any windrows out.
I also posted here before about a boxblade modified for spreading blacktop as below.
If anyone already owns a boxblade, you can achieve the basicly same bridging affect by adding 4-6 ft angle irons with the fronts turned up, to the sides of your boxblade. I anchored mine at the front of the box and slotted the box at the rear so the runners could be adjusted up and down, to adjust the height of the cutting edge to lay a specific depth if you're working with loose material.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

With the blades angled, not only does the material move side ways a bit better, but this is the best way to remove wash boarding in a road. Most people just don't believe how well they work until either they see one in use in person or until they take the plunge and buy or build one.

Seems like for the most part, guys that make them are the only ones with the blades straight. From what I've seen all the ones that you buy that have fixed blades have them at an angle about 2' apart. Some company has them adjustable, but I don't remember who. Big money though. I agree with having the blades as far apart as you can get them. I know that on my bigger grader there is room to move the rear blade back some and I am going to do that someday.

I would like to emphasize that the heavier that any grading implement is, the better that it will work. I know that this has been said before, but if you can build a unit that weighs 150-200 pounds per foot of width you will have an implement that will work much better than one that is lighter and less money to build.

 

[AGGIE00]

For a smooth surface that doesn't hop, you need angled blades. This allows the box to bridge anything uneven and also cut out knots in the road. Most you will find have the cutting edge 3/4" below the skids. I would use any cutting edge that has a good bit of curve to it that helps the egde to cut. I would also make it as heavy as your tractor can handle. Grader blades would work well, but they are not reversible and would need replacing as they wear ever so slightly. Having said that, you would have to do a lot of work to wear a grader blade on a 1000 lb implement that is typically on a 50,000 lb machine.

 

[Taylortractornut]

I made mine straight as most of my work is landsacpe grading and didnt need to favor sides. We had a contractor in the area that had a local shop build one for planing yards. He built in a hydraulic fold out back so it could push backwards and drag a load. they pulled it with a 4440 JD with duals.

 

[brucewj]

I made one from scraps that I had in my scrap pile and grader blades. I had the blades sticking down 1/2 inch.

If I had it to do over again, I would definitely angle the front blade a little. Being straight, the drag wants to "jump" instead of dig in. I also would have made it much heavier , but I was using what I had on hand.

If I could figure out how to do it, I would also make the blades' depth adjustable.

 

[Gordon Gould]

I would hazard a guess that not many of us have used graders with both straight and angled blades. Including me. It is natural to think what you have is better than the other way. I think it is like any other tool - Sometimes angled blades are better and sometimes straight would be better. In any case I think the difference between the two is being over emphasized here. Independant of blade orientation: If the unit is heavy it will cut and not jump; If the unit is heavy the blades will be full of material all the way across and it will fill ruts; If the unit is heavy it will flatten wash board like a dream. My blades are straight - it does a good job, not better. I can go in either direction on either side of a crowned road without worrying about material flow direction. I can maintain a flat road with a pitch running to one side without worrying about material build up on one side. (Crowns are not always desireable.) On the other hand angled blade units can also do those things because there is not that much difference. You just learn to use what you have. Thats my rant and 2 cents worth.
This is the kind of results I get.

 

[Taylortractornut]

Thats a great looking blade Gordon. I like the tailgate on your blade. THat was handy on the contractor blad e I used before.


I did use a land plane one time that had was built similarly to a grader box and it had removable blades thaey could be set on angles. For working feilds and long gravel roads we ran the 4 front blade angles to the right and left and then back again and the 2 back ones straight. We pulled this with a Stieger Panther. On packed gravel the blades working the material left and right mixed the courses and fines better.

It was amazing to watch the material run back and forth.

 

[Gordon Gould]

Thats a great looking blade Gordon. I like the tailgate on your blade. THat was handy on the contractor blad e I used before.


I did use a land plane one time that had was built similarly to a grader box and it had removable blades thaey could be set on angles. For working feilds and long gravel roads we ran the 4 front blade angles to the right and left and then back again and the 2 back ones straight. We pulled this with a Stieger Panther. On packed gravel the blades working the material left and right mixed the courses and fines better.

It was amazing to watch the material run back and forth.

That sounds like a great set up, Front blades angled each way and the back blades straight. I like that.
I have a couple stop pins that the tailgate works against. If I swing the tailgate up and over so it hangs inside it traps material like a box blade. If I swing it to hang on the outside it swings free going forward but if I back against a pile it acts as a blade and I can push stuff off the road. I find it handy.

 

[smiley]

That sounds like a great set up, Front blades angled each way and the back blades straight. I like that.
I have a couple stop pins that the tailgate works against. If I swing the tailgate up and over so it hangs inside it traps material like a box blade. If I swing it to hang on the outside it swings free going forward but if I back against a pile it acts as a blade and I can push stuff off the road. I find it handy.

The one Taylortractornut is talking about sounds just about like the one I built, only mine had only 2 angled blades in front, straight in back and it still worked good. It finally wound up as parts for another project. Yours appears to be just about the same size as mine and the swinging tailgate sounds like a good idea too.

 

[Taylortractornut]

The land plane I was using was 22 feet long and trailed but it hade 3 sets of the blades. I thought about when I built another one I d build in a mix of angled and straight blades. I wished I had also built my sides a little longer and my cross members a bit higher. I clean up alot of old driveways that have a lot of sod comming up in the center. Also reclaiming shoulders. Mine clogs up some times. I built one for a friend and made it like the Soilmover brand and It handled the grass and gravel mix better.

 

[Gordon Gould]

If I get to much sod mine clogs up to. I made sure that I didn't put a cross member over a blade so I would have good clearance. If I get a little sod at a time like on the road edge it rolls around in front of the tailgate and gets chewed up. If it does clog so that it impedes the gravel flow I lift the grader, pull forward a little, then drop the grader and back into the sod pile to push it of the road with the tail gate. I have no trouble with gravel but would definately like it taller if I had a lot of sod.

 

[Jay4200]

I am looking for something to grade my limestone driveway and was looking at a land grader.

What are you trying to achieve? A landscape rake with gauge wheels will provide a perfectly flat result on a gravel drive after a few passes.

JayC

 

[Jay4200]

Thats my rant and 2 cents worth.
This is the kind of results I get.

Is that your driveway? Nitpack (aka hardpack) Gravel, I assume? That's what I used for my driveway. I am impressed by how clean and straight the edges are, more than the flatness of the grade. You must've got the wife out there swinging a shovel to clean up those edges so nice.

JayC