Help with landplane choices for land leveling and road/drive maintenance.

[Piston]

Thanks Brian,
That's a huge help! After looking at these for the last 6 hrs on TBN and other websites (google image works wonders too) I've decided they really are very straightforward to build from the looks of things. they seem very basic.

I emailed a guy on craigslist that is selling some scrap steel and I'll see what he has.

It seems like the hard part will be finding some plate steel for the sides. What thickness would you recommend? As well as what height?

12" height seems standard for the 7' size, but some are 18" and some are even 24". I'm sure 24" is too much for my tractor but would 18" work?

I might be able to scrounge up some 4"x4" box tubing for the cross bars. The only part that seems a little tricky would be making the blade angles adjustable. I looked at the Dura Grader website on their adjustable models but their pics aren't too good.

 

[jenkinsph]

I agree that longer skids are better for road grading the longer straight edge yields a more planar surface. That said I use mine primarily to plane lawn and landscape areas in this case if I run the plane perpendicular to the first pass I get the benefit of the full eight foot width to average everything. That would be hard to do with a driveway.

Piston I am building the small plane to work with my garden tractor, it will be usefull smoothing the tight spots the larger tractors can't fit in. Great for touching up new lawn areas. Sure beats shoveling and raking.

 

[4105deere]

I recently got a 6ft king kutter from everything attachments about a month ago. Pulling this with 40 hp 4wd jd. Beats my BB all day long. 500ft drive i've been building up and grading, landplane really helped. Still have BB for now but later this year may let it go.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

Thanks Brian,
That's a huge help! After looking at these for the last 6 hrs on TBN and other websites (google image works wonders too) I've decided they really are very straightforward to build from the looks of things. they seem very basic.

I emailed a guy on craigslist that is selling some scrap steel and I'll see what he has.

It seems like the hard part will be finding some plate steel for the sides. What thickness would you recommend? As well as what height?

12" height seems standard for the 7' size, but some are 18" and some are even 24". I'm sure 24" is too much for my tractor but would 18" work?

I might be able to scrounge up some 4"x4" box tubing for the cross bars. The only part that seems a little tricky would be making the blade angles adjustable. I looked at the Dura Grader website on their adjustable models but their pics aren't too good.

3/8" for the sides will work good, 18" sides would be good IMO. Don't use anything thinner than 3/8" on the whole unit. Build it out of 3/8" flat plate & 1/2" angle and 3/8" or 1/2" tube and you will have some weight there and the LPGB will hold up to about anything that you can put it through. Good luck, I've been trying to rebuild my landscape rake for over a year, just can't find enough time to get it done though.

 

[bcp]

Priefert's 6ft and 8ft graders are both 90.5 inches long. Some companies have graders less than 4ft long. Some for big spaces, some for little spaces, I guess.

Road Graders

Bruce

 

[Piston]

I'd basically like to copy the design of the Road Boss but incorporate the adjustable blades of the Dura Grader into it, using the thicknesses recommended in the above post.

Do you think the toothed front blades on the GradeMaster add any value?

 

[Piston]

Do you think the toothed front blades on the GradeMaster add any value?

I think it's actually the Road Boss with the toothed blade.

I imagine I could buy just the blades from any of the manufacturers depending on price of course.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

The toothed blades are suppose to help out a lot on hard surfaces. I think that it would only be on the front blade though.

 

[Furu]

Look at Cammond Industries. Link URL below
http://cammond.com/Cammond Grading Scrapers.htm
I have the industrial version 935 lbs for the 7 ft wide, 62.5" long and 23" high. $2000 including shipping halfway across the US.
A very nice unit that is built strong with replaceable skid plates.

 

[oldtoyboyd]

How much better are these grades for smothing large areas than using a boxblade? I have looked at these a couple times to smooth out my 1/4 mile road and smooth out the 4 to 5 acres of pasture that my house is on now.