Grading Homemade grader for GC series tractors

[cdaigle430]

Saw a quick youtube video on a GC1705 titled home made niveleuse grader. Cant post link now as Im at work and they don't allow youtube access. Man this is sweet....whoever built it is a professional for sure. Anyone on here know this person? Perfect for grading roads but I wonder if there is a spring that gives way to the blade if you hit something?

 

[BrokenTrack]

I think this is the video the Original Poster is referring too, and I agree, it looks pretty nice.

I don't think there needs to be a spring because it seems in a few places he takes a bit too much of a bite and the tractor spins.

 

[SteveM70]

Nice, but would it have any advantage over a 3 point back blade?

 

[cdaigle430]

I think its easier to level out when under the tractor vs behind.

 

[4570Man]

I think as short as the wheel base is it wouldn’t be much different than a box blade. Look how long the wheel base is on a real grader. It would be a lot slower to hook up than a regular box blade.

 

[BrokenTrack]

Nice, but would it have any advantage over a 3 point back blade?

It has a lot of advantages, and in fact I ripped apart my 3 point hitch grader blade and mounted it to a trailer because of the inherent problems with a 3 point hitch grader. I am not trying to be a computer-cowboy here, just trying to explain why they do not work as good as people would first think.

The biggest reason is, being attached in a cantilevered way, when the tractor goes into a dip,the grader blade digs even deeper behind, but when the tractor goes over a hummock, the grader blade rises from the ground. With a lot of skill , many passes and a lot of use of the 3 point hitch lever it can be graded out, but its not great even then,

But when the blade is slung in the middle between two points (the front and rear tires of the tractor in this example, the blade only rises and falls half as much as the front and rear tires travel. This makes for a much more flatter surface. Kind of kike how a long handplane smooths out wood much better, it rides over the low spots and hits the high spots. On a grader blade it cuts the high spots and fills the low spots.

To get the flattest road, the distance between the front tire and the rear tire needs to be as long as possible, this is why real road graders are so long.

BUT as much as I bashed 3 point hitch grader blades; in tight places, like back grading a new house, a person might not be able to get in there with a long tow behind grader blade.

 

[4570Man]

It has a lot of advantages, and in fact I ripped apart my 3 point hitch grader blade and mounted it to a trailer because of the inherent problems with a 3 point hitch grader. I am not trying to be a computer-cowboy here, just trying to explain why they do not work as good as people would first think.

The biggest reason is, being attached in a cantilevered way, when the tractor goes into a dip,the grader blade digs even deeper behind, but when the tractor goes over a hummock, the grader blade rises from the ground. With a lot of skill , many passes and a lot of use of the 3 point hitch lever it can be graded out, but its not great even then,

But when the blade is slung in the middle between two points (the front and rear tires of the tractor in this example, the blade only rises and falls half as much as the front and rear tires travel. This makes for a much more flatter surface. Kind of kike how a long handplane smooths out wood much better, it rides over the low spots and hits the high spots. On a grader blade it cuts the high spots and fills the low spots.

To get the flattest road, the distance between the front tire and the rear tire needs to be as long as possible, this is why real road graders are so long.

BUT as much as I bashed 3 point hitch grader blades; in tight places, like back grading a new house, a person might not be able to get in there with a long tow behind grader blade.

Assuming you’re working on reasonably level ground the blade doesn’t dig in when the tractor hits a dip because it’s free to ride up. A good operator can compensate for when the tractor hits a high place. I agree that a tractor isn’t the best choice for grading but neither is the tractor grader. With the weight of that setup it won’t be good for anything except loose dirt. A box blade at least has some teeth to help break up loose dirt.

 

[fried1765]

It has a lot of advantages, and in fact I ripped apart my 3 point hitch grader blade and mounted it to a trailer because of the inherent problems with a 3 point hitch grader. I am not trying to be a computer-cowboy here, just trying to explain why they do not work as good as people would first think.

The biggest reason is, being attached in a cantilevered way, when the tractor goes into a dip,the grader blade digs even deeper behind, but when the tractor goes over a hummock, the grader blade rises from the ground. With a lot of skill , many passes and a lot of use of the 3 point hitch lever it can be graded out, but its not great even then,

But when the blade is slung in the middle between two points (the front and rear tires of the tractor in this example, the blade only rises and falls half as much as the front and rear tires travel. This makes for a much more flatter surface. Kind of kike how a long handplane smooths out wood much better, it rides over the low spots and hits the high spots. On a grader blade it cuts the high spots and fills the low spots.

To get the flattest road, the distance between the front tire and the rear tire needs to be as long as possible, this is why real road graders are so long.

BUT as much as I bashed 3 point hitch grader blades; in tight places, like back grading a new house, a person might not be able to get in there with a long tow behind grader blade.

"To get the flattest road, the distance between the front tire and rear tire needs to be as long as possible".
That is exactly why I suggested that you might want to move your blade further back on your trailer grader.
The wheel base on the little GC 1705 with belly blade, is much too short to create any meaningful grading improvement over a simple rear blade, and the rear blade offers more versatility.

Google "Huber Maintainer" to see a tractor type grader that really works.
I would love to have a Huber!

 

[ray66v]

"To get the flattest road, the distance between the front tire and rear tire needs to be as long as possible".

+1 I would make a trailer grader.

The center grader isn't going to do much more than you can do with a grader box.

 

[SteveM70]

It has a lot of advantages, and in fact I ripped apart my 3 point hitch grader blade and mounted it to a trailer because of the inherent problems with a 3 point hitch grader. I am not trying to be a computer-cowboy here, just trying to explain why they do not work as good as people would first think.

The biggest reason is, being attached in a cantilevered way, when the tractor goes into a dip,the grader blade digs even deeper behind, but when the tractor goes over a hummock, the grader blade rises from the ground. With a lot of skill , many passes and a lot of use of the 3 point hitch lever it can be graded out, but its not great even then,

But when the blade is slung in the middle between two points (the front and rear tires of the tractor in this example, the blade only rises and falls half as much as the front and rear tires travel. This makes for a much more flatter surface. Kind of kike how a long handplane smooths out wood much better, it rides over the low spots and hits the high spots. On a grader blade it cuts the high spots and fills the low spots.

To get the flattest road, the distance between the front tire and the rear tire needs to be as long as possible, this is why real road graders are so long.

BUT as much as I bashed 3 point hitch grader blades; in tight places, like back grading a new house, a person might not be able to get in there with a long tow behind grader blade.

Yeah, like I said, it's neat but I'll just stick with a 5' back blade for my uses. I don't grade anything I plan to go more than 15mph on anyhow.

 

[MossRoad]

 

[MossRoad]

 

[MossRoad]

 

[4570Man]

That looks like a dedicated setup and not just an attachment and is probably owned by a concrete pouring or driveway company.

 

[MossRoad]

There's a bunch of them out there. Sure seems it would be easier on your neck than a back blade, and there's be a lot less movement vertically sitting under the center of the machine VS several feet off the back of the tractor, making it much less likely to dig "waves" as it common with a rear blade as the tractor goes up and down.

 

[4570Man]

But I’m not seeing it as a very practical solution unless it’s part of you job. I could be done with most projects before you get a grader attachment hooked up. That’s beside the point that a nice one like the one on the Kubota is a lot of money. One of the local paving companies has a mini grader but it’s a “real” mini grader with a long wheel base.

 

[MossRoad]

Why do you have so many tractors?

 

[BrokenTrack]

On my grader (though it is a tow behind) I have found that on the first pass it is misleading because sometimes I am cutting 8 inches, and then I have my blade six inches off the ground. BUT on the second pass, because the humps are cut out, I set my depth to just kiss the ground and my road ends up super smooth. Two passes and that is it! I never got that with my 3 point hitch grader blade. But I have a half mile of heavy-haul logging road to maintain too.

 

[s219]

The biggest reason is, being attached in a cantilevered way, when the tractor goes into a dip,the grader blade digs even deeper behind, but when the tractor goes over a hummock, the grader blade rises from the ground. With a lot of skill , many passes and a lot of use of the 3 point hitch lever it can be graded out, but its not great even then,.

That is certainly true if the rear implement is unable to move for one reason or another in one way or another (for example, it's elevated or reaches end of travel of the 3-pt) but if it's floating you shouldn't have that problem. For smoothing, I almost always operate my box blade in float so it's down on the ground no matter what the tractor is doing. I would have to encounter bumps/dips of +/- 12-16" (give or take) before the float travel of the 3-pt runs out and the box is affected by the tractor axles.

Occasionally I will do certain types of grading with the box raised a bit, and then you're 100% right, bumps and dips that make the axles rise or fall will cause a corresponding effect with the box and result in more bumps and dips. Keep doing that and you'll make a nice washboard!

 

[MFer1705]

Saw a quick youtube video on a GC1705 titled home made niveleuse grader. Cant post link now as Im at work and they don't allow youtube access. Man this is sweet....whoever built it is a professional for sure. Anyone on here know this person? Perfect for grading roads but I wonder if there is a spring that gives way to the blade if you hit something?

I really like the idea. I have been searching all over the net to see how he did it.