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

[MtnViewRanch]

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.

Nothing is better for maintaining a road IMO. By far better than a box blade. There are 4 common implements that work good for road maintenance. A land scape rake, a box blade, a rear blade and a land plane grader blade (LPGB) Each has it's intended purpose where they excel better than the others and each will perform multiple tasks. But none excel at maintaining a road as well as a LPGB. The LPGB is also used by many to level and smooth out large areas as you have described with your 4-5 acres. jenkinsph uses his provisionally to do just as you are asking about.

 

[jenkinsph]

Make sure the blade mountings are super heavy duty too, not just the sidepans (skids). My blade mounts are 5/8" thick x 8" wide flatbar set at a 45 degree slope that the grader blades are bolted to. There is a 3x3x3/8 angle on top edge and another same size on the bottom side close to the bottom side. I allowed for enough space to get to the plow bolt nuts though. On a long length blade you want it to be very ridgid.

If your primary use is just road grading then you can have the blades set lower, most set them about 1" below the skids. If you want to finish plane gnats azz flat and planar for a building slab you need to be able to set the blades at zero. This amounts to two different trains of thought, the roadway needs to be stirred up enough to bring the rocks back to the surface. The other finish grading needs to skim any rises or mounds off and deposit the spoils in the low spots. In the second scenario you can't achieve the desired results if you are always cutting below the sidepans or skids.

A picture is worth a thousand words about this second scenario, heres the pad I built for my new shop, the landplane along with a roller to pack produced this +-1/4" grade.

 

[jenkinsph]

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.

I smoothed out my lawn with the one pictured above and it started out pretty rough.

 

[Piston]

Steve,
If I could EVER get my yard to look like that, I would be in absolute HEAVEN!

That looks great. I really like how you didn't mow down all the trees, it breaks up the landscape nicely.

I need to keep that in mind when clearing my land, I have to try not to just cut down every tree in sight within a few acre area, I do still want some shade trees but I hate raking!

I'll keep your picture in mind when I'm choosing what trees to cut/leave :thumbsup:

 

[Piston]

Look at Cammond Industries. Link URL below
Back to Photo Gallery
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.

Trovenn,
That seems like a pretty decent price for a heavy duty unit, including shipping.

The main problem with building something like this for me, is finding the steel for a decent price. Although, I think I'm pretty much making up my mind that I will try building one at this point.

Do you use the scarifiers much on yours?

 

[Furu]

Trovenn,
That seems like a pretty decent price for a heavy duty unit, including shipping.

The main problem with building something like this for me, is finding the steel for a decent price. Although, I think I'm pretty much making up my mind that I will try building one at this point.

Do you use the scarifiers much on yours?

I have not yet had the need for the scarifiers. I could have bought it without them and saved a little but wanted them in case I ever had the need. I would NEVER put them down on my road as they would dig up way too much of the large ballast rocks that form the base. If I was starting from nothing to build a road then I would use them or if I was trying to level a piece of ground that was not packed with ballast. The price I listed did not include the 9.5% sales tax we have here.

 

[crazyal]

I'm toying with the idea of building one myself. I'll probably use snow plow blades since they are harden steel. Not having any scrap to build it with and not being able to find any steel companies that stock thicker than 1/4" wall tube makes it hard to build one and save much money.

 

[RFB]

FYI, I bought one 2 years ago based upon MtnViewRanch posts.

RGM Manufacturing Road Boss Grader in Mandan ND is the parent mfr of the Road Boss.

They put me in touch with FHM Equipment in Mandan, ND, and Fred Myers (the owner) brought me a 7 foot with 24 inch sides (weight about 1100) to Idaho for 2850 including the delivery.

(FHM Welcome to FHM Equipment LLC rebrands the Road Boss with their logo per RGM).

 

[MtnViewRanch]

FYI, I bought one 2 years ago based upon MtnViewRanch posts.

RGM Manufacturing Road Boss Grader in Mandan ND is the parent mfr of the Road Boss.

They put me in touch with FHM Equipment in Mandan, ND, and Fred Myers (the owner) brought me a 7 foot with 24 inch sides (weight about 1100) to Idaho for 2850 including the delivery.

(FHM Welcome to FHM Equipment LLC rebrands the Road Boss with their logo per RGM).

RFB, I assume that you are either happy with your grader, :thumbsup: or trying to let people know not to listen to me because I steered you wrong. I sure hope that it is the first.

 

[RFB]

Very happy!