Rear Blade Anybody have a Land Pride RBT55 Grader Blade

[MtnViewRanch]

I am a little confused.

Firstly by the picture of your grader blade in the picture above which looks huge compared to the size of your tractor, does the blade only weigh 1166 lbs (529 kg) as it says in the catalogue?

Secondly everybody has told me and what I have read is, you get the best grading result the heavier your blade is. That is why I was looking at the RBT55 at 1753 lbs (795 kg) although I think the consensus is that an 8' blade would be better than a 10' blade which was my original thinking as well. Wouldn't I be better with a heavier blade provided the tractor can handle it?

At the weight that you posted, your tractor is not going to be heavy enough to warrant the 55 series blade in my opinion. Converting my 12,000lb tractor over it weighs 5454 kg. You posted that your tractor is going to weigh 4010 kg or 8822lbs. At that total weight I would not even get the 45 series blade, but the 40 series. That is why I asked you if you were going to ballast the tractor. If you are, then go with the RBT45108. Forget about the 10' blade, the tractor will not handle it well at all. The problem with an 8 footer is that it is to narrow when the blade is angled over, that is why I keep suggesting the 9 footer. Yes the weight is a good thing, but you should look at reality and the tractor just does not warrant the 55 series in my opinion. You can get the 55 series, it won't hurt other than in the wallet. There is no 8 foot 55 series blade, it is either 9' or 10'.

Here's a couple of other pics, don't know if they give a better perspective or not.

 

[jenkinsph]

Robert,
Don't know anything about your area in NSW so could you post some pictures or elaborate on the soil and road bed materials? Really think for some long runs having the landplane in addition to the rearblade makes a lot of sense. Lots of wide open spaces where these tools could be used quite a bit.

 

[Robert M]

Interested in what your tractor is as 12,000 lbs seems very heavy.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

Interested in what your tractor is as 12,000 lbs seems very heavy.

It is a 2005 Mahindra 7520. Base tractor is 7300lbs, loader is 2000lbs, wheel weights total 876lbs, 1600lbs of liquid in the tires. There's 11,776lbs and then throw on the weight of whatever implement that is being used, that adds to the tractive force also. Most of my implements are 1000lbs and up. So yes it sounds heavy for what it is, but that is what I had to do to be able to get the maximum work capacity out of the tractor.

 

[Robert M]

It is a 2005 Mahindra 7520. Base tractor is 7300lbs, loader is 2000lbs, wheel weights total 876lbs, 1600lbs of liquid in the tires. There's 11,776lbs and then throw on the weight of whatever implement that is being used, that adds to the tractive force also. Most of my implements are 1000lbs and up. So yes it sounds heavy for what it is, but that is what I had to do to be able to get the maximum work capacity out of the tractor.

Now that makes sense. The weight that I sent you was from the tractor specs is the basic tractor. My tractor will have loaderand liquid in tyres that should add a fair bit, I will have to work these out.

 

[JoeL4330]

rear blade doesn't add to "tractive force" when it's down--it subtracts, if anything. Heavier blade weight merely helps the blade cut in tough surface rather than kicking up. You can always add weight by welding on a few stout upright rods and using your/somebod's old weight set. By adjusting your toplink you can make the blade more "aggressive" to cut better, if need be. If cutting action is required you can change the cutting edge to a serrated edge as used on some road graders. I actually think you will come to prefer a box blade or grader implement for repair and maintenance. I have a spiffy one and, indeed, I have a serrated cutting edge that works fine on some shale we have. (and, my grader has a hydraulic roller setup behind the box that acts much like the tail wheel you discussed, as well as packing down the material.

I have a landpride 8 footer with the hydraulic tail wheel option and, as stated by others, lengthens the "wheelbase" to smooth out minor irregularities--which is exactly what you want, I believe--so I would go for it. As for length, once you have covered your tire track width at full angle, any additional length can improve efficiency and may be useful if you have to cut ditches...although my landpride has 30" of offset and tilts, to which I can add the tilt from my Top-and-Tilt. As trick-out as my blade is, it is most useful for initial road-building and much less desirable for subsequent road maintenance.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

rear blade doesn't add to "tractive force" when it's down--it subtracts, if anything. Heavier blade weight merely helps the blade cut in tough surface rather than kicking up. You can always add weight by welding on a few stout upright rods and using your/somebod's old weight set. By adjusting your toplink you can make the blade more "aggressive" to cut better, if need be. If cutting action is required you can change the cutting edge to a serrated edge as used on some road graders. I actually think you will come to prefer a box blade or grader implement for repair and maintenance. I have a spiffy one and, indeed, I have a serrated cutting edge that works fine on some shale we have. (and, my grader has a hydraulic roller setup behind the box that acts much like the tail wheel you discussed, as well as packing down the material.

I have a landpride 8 footer with the hydraulic tail wheel option and, as stated by others, lengthens the "wheelbase" to smooth out minor irregularities--which is exactly what you want, I believe--so I would go for it. As for length, once you have covered your tire track width at full angle, any additional length can improve efficiency and may be useful if you have to cut ditches...although my landpride has 30" of offset and tilts, to which I can add the tilt from my Top-and-Tilt. As trick-out as my blade is, it is most useful for initial road-building and much less desirable for subsequent road maintenance.

Why do you think that a rear blade lightens the load? Take off your top link and see where the blade goes when you go forward. It will pivot forward, If anything it actually puts down pressure on the rear of the tractor.

As far as the rear blade only being good for building the road, I disagree. While a land plane grader blade is easier and faster to use for maintainence and what I normally use, I anyway can get just as good if not a better finish with my rear blade.

 

[JoeL4330]

If the tractor is stopped with the blade on the ground and the toplink is removed (or left to float), then there is downward pressure on the 3ph and it will sink, as you say, ... if it hasn't already bottomed out ...but, then, move forward and it will want to rise. In fact, given that I have a hydraulic tail wheel, I use a swinging link to attach to my toplink. As for the "subtraction" I mentioned, consider what happens as the blade digs in, say, to an immoveable rock...wheelspin, and loss of traction. In fact wheelspin is desirable in this case rather than put undue strain on either the tractor or the blade. (for just such instances, I have cushion valves in my hydraulic angle circuit on my blade)

If, however, the blade is raised then, indeed it improves traction by weighting the rears.

As for the issue of which is better for maintenance, I merely stated my opinion given my skills. If you can get a better finish with your blade than with your grader, you are clearly a better operator than I. We do, however, seem to agree that "a land plane grader blade is easier and faster to use for maintenance" and, like you, that is what I normally use.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

If the tractor is stopped with the blade on the ground and the toplink is removed (or left to float), then there is downward pressure on the 3ph and it will sink, as you say, ... if it hasn't already bottomed out ...but, then, move forward and it will want to rise. In fact, given that I have a hydraulic tail wheel, I use a swinging link to attach to my toplink. As for the "subtraction" I mentioned, consider what happens as the blade digs in, say, to an immoveable rock...wheelspin, and loss of traction. In fact wheelspin is desirable in this case rather than put undue strain on either the tractor or the blade. (for just such instances, I have cushion valves in my hydraulic angle circuit on my blade)

If, however, the blade is raised then, indeed it improves traction by weighting the rears.

As for the issue of which is better for maintenance, I merely stated my opinion given my skills. If you can get a better finish with your blade than with your grader, you are clearly a better operator than I. We do, however, seem to agree that "a land plane grader blade is easier and faster to use for maintenance" and, like you, that is what I normally use.

Well, I am going to be using my rear blade this weekend, so now I am going to have to check this out, and I will report back to confirm or admit that I am right or wrong. :confused2: But like you say, we do agree that a LPGB is the way to go for road maintenance. :thumbsup:

 

[JoeL4330]

An addendum: my comment about the 3ph wanting to rise as the blade digs in as you move forward (let's say with no toplink) was based on the assumption that when the blade was resting the "strongback" was sagging ...how to say? the strongback was not level, but pitched down toward the tractor ...if it was level then the 3ph would neither want to rise nor fall. If, instead, it pitched up, then the 3ph would want to lower. That is, as you move forward with the blade digging, it wants to "straighten out" (and thereby shorten) the connection. Does that accord with your mental picture?

I have attached a picture (where the strongback is level) that I've used before to discuss some of these dynamics...and, as I look at my previous analysis, I note that although the 3ph may WANT to rise if strongback pitches down toward tractor, it can't (without lifting the tractor) because the 3ph doesn't float up, only down.

So permit me a correction ...it wants to lift (but can't) when the strongback is pitched down toward the tractor...still, the pressure is up in this case; in the other two cases it will lower or remain level, depending. This is all assuming no (no) rigid toplink; if the toplink is rigid, then the blade wants to fight the rigid toplink as described in the picture annotation ...which, in my case, I use a swinging link in the toplink connection.

but, I could be wrong. Let me know what your experiment reveals.