Best attachment to fix skid ruts in logging roads?

[Rmart30]

If its had log trucks running over it , its probably going to be packed pretty hard and will need to be loosed up somehow. I would use a 8 ft box blade with rippers to loosen it up. Then come back with a blade to pull the ditches and crown it.
If you do buy a blade you will want one with a swinging offset, and not just a angling blade. That way it will stick out past the tires into the ditches.

 

[EddieWalker]

Most logging jobs I follow touch up the roads before they move out. Those roads are mainly just flat, no crown, or for the logging roads that run up hill, they are sloped to the inside to funnel water to the inside with "weeps" cut across every so often to get the water off the road out into the woods. This helps keep the water from building up so it doesn't wash or erode much. There is no "crowns" put on "logging" roads that I have ever seen. Just bulldozed flat with weeps as needed.

Now after I skid a lot of tops, there are some ruts that form from parts of the tops that dig in a bit. Each skid loosens up some dirt more and more. Most of this loosened dirt gets pushed to the sides of the logging road with small ruts left in the middle. I have used my loader before to fix these ruts, but I thought a rear blade that I could angle, thus gathering the loose dirt previously pushed to the edges of the logging roads, and pull that dirt across the road instead of just pushing it straight ahead like the loader does. I thought that the action of angling the blade, pulling the dirt across and into those ruts would go quicker then with the loader. I guess if I went both ways pulling the loose dirt to the center, I could create a crown like a road grader does for dirt township roads, but I just want to put the roads back to the way the logging crew left it when they finish. Usually, once they have a little time to settle, they don't wash out/erode even if they are flat with no crown.

This sounds exactly like what happens on my roads and trails. I put a grapple on my tractor to stop as much of this from happening as I can, but for the longer, bigger logs, I drag them to the burn pile or firewood pile or save for later pile. Dragging them digs out the road in the middle and creates a ditch. Once started, the logs follow it every time and dig it out deeper and deeper. By the time I'm done working in that area of my land, the ditch is just about impossible to drive across. I have to straddle it, or create another ditch off to the side.

Since this takes months to happen, every time it rains, the loos soil gets washed away. For me, there is very little material on the sides of the ditch to move back into the ditch. The only way that I can get it all flat again is to bring dirt there and fill up the ditch. Sometimes I get lucky and there is a slop that I can change a little with my dozer to fix the ditches, but that's fairly rare.

Not knowing what you are dealing with, I would be sure that there is enough material there to fill in the ditch before buying an implement to try and do this. In my experience, a box blade is very hard to move material with. My neighbor has a back blade with hydraulics on it that he can adjust while using it and he's able to get some decent results, but for anything substantial, he hires a guy to come out with a D4 dozer. Then he goes over what the dozer did to smooth it out and make it just a little nicer looking.

 

[Gordon Gould]

I have several miles of hilly skid trails I maintain. Now these are skid trails not roads so they are made up of 'woods dirt' and have roots, rocks, and uneven surfaces. These may be very different from yours. But to maintain them (ie control erosion by controlling water drainage) I used a rear blade before I got a dozer. I could not simply grade them with a road implement except for shot sections at a time because of the roots, rocks, and the basic lack of material. I controlled run off mostly with water bars and wide based dips placed in strategic locations that the natural topography allowed. With the rear blade I could make water bars where needed, slope the road surface, and fill in ruts if material was available. You can make water bars, etc with a box blade, (edit: and sometimes scarifiers can be a real plus) but on most sloped trails the angled water bars a rear blade can make work much better.

gg

 

[namesray]

Here are some pictures of the terrain and ruts I am talking about. Of course they look like they are sideways as I am computer illiterate.

I liked the drag video as that would be something I could get to my jobsite and leave there to use as needed easier, but I am still leaning towards a 3ph rear blade. I think there will be quite a few areas I will have to pick up, back up and hit again and that would be hard to do with a drag. The rear blade that can slide out to the side farther to reach out past tires might come in handy, but I am not sure necessary for the extra cost. I will have to think on that one.

Yes, it is like dragging a branch to "cover your tracks" as was mentioned. Most of the loose dirt makes it out to the sides and leaves the ruts. Most tops seem to follow the rut each time no matter how I off set. If I don't let a heavy rain storm hit before I touch up the worst rut areas, I am usually pretty good. If a heavy rain hits, sometimes I have a mess that is hard to fix and yes too much soil is washed away that a 3ph rear blade would not work. That's why I would like something that can touch up the small ruts quickly before a large rain hits.

a box blade with scaffirs might also work, but I am concerned if I caught a root, what would happen? Something going to break? Also would a box blade with scaffirs loosen up too much soil that a heavy rain would wash away more soil? Keeps bringing me back to a 3ph rear blade. I also feel I have the most other uses for a rear blade as well. Still going to ponder this one. Thanks for all the replys.

 

[airbiscuit]

Nice property. A slider rear blade isn't going to be that much more expensive, and you will like that it has extra weight.

 

[MossRoad]

Here are some pictures of the terrain and ruts I am talking about. Of course they look like they are sideways as I am computer illiterate.

I liked the drag video as that would be something I could get to my jobsite and leave there to use as needed easier, but I am still leaning towards a 3ph rear blade. I think there will be quite a few areas I will have to pick up, back up and hit again and that would be hard to do with a drag. The rear blade that can slide out to the side farther to reach out past tires might come in handy, but I am not sure necessary for the extra cost. I will have to think on that one.

Yes, it is like dragging a branch to "cover your tracks" as was mentioned. Most of the loose dirt makes it out to the sides and leaves the ruts. Most tops seem to follow the rut each time no matter how I off set. If I don't let a heavy rain storm hit before I touch up the worst rut areas, I am usually pretty good. If a heavy rain hits, sometimes I have a mess that is hard to fix and yes too much soil is washed away that a 3ph rear blade would not work. That's why I would like something that can touch up the small ruts quickly before a large rain hits.

a box blade with scaffirs might also work, but I am concerned if I caught a root, what would happen? Something going to break? Also would a box blade with scaffirs loosen up too much soil that a heavy rain would wash away more soil? Keeps bringing me back to a 3ph rear blade. I also feel I have the most other uses for a rear blade as well. Still going to ponder this one. Thanks for all the replys.

Well, the nice thing about a box blade with scarifiers is that you can raise the scarifiers when you don't want to use them, and lower them when you want to break stuff up. You can offset a box blade as well. However, you can't angle it compared to a blade.

As for roots, usually, it'll either rip the root out, or stop the tractor's forward momentum. It shouldn't break the scarifier unless the box is way undersized for the tractor.

 

[redman135]

Hello namesray, I have similar tracks to yours. I use a 3 way(slew, tilt and offset) backblade to maintain them. It is an old blade, manual everything. If your budget allows it hydraulic everything (3 pairs of scv) and a tail wheel to get a good finish. You can't do good work without a tail wheel. I also would get a "top n tilt" top link as it will be usefull with other 3ph impliments. you won't need adjustment on your tail wheel then.
This adds to 4!!! pairs scv outlets required. how many have you got?
What cost to add more scv?
If you only have 2 pairs scv then hydraulic slew and tilt with manuel offset would be the way to go.
It is also a cheap way of making a water channel down the side of your track, you offset ,tilt and slew the blade then line up with the outside of the tyre and make your water channel to keep the water off the track. An annual clean out of the water channel will keep the track in good condition for little effort compared to repair.

 

[427cjackson]

I use a 6' heavy duty box blade with scarifers on my L3830. With the scarifers down, it will rip out small stumps and roots. Like most box blades it has a rearward-facing blade. The box can carry a lot of material from one location to another. I finish by putting a crown on using the draft control while periodically pulling material to the center.

 

[LD1]

Forget the slider rear blade. Get an offset rear blade. I could be wrong but I have never seen a slider rear blade in anything but light duty stuff. Nothing anywhere near 100# per ft, and nothing I would trust behind a MX, especially extended one way.

 

[Egon]

From those pictures a rear blade all the way!