Laser grading and new time lapse camera

   / Laser grading and new time lapse camera #1  

Complete Turf Care

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 31, 2013
Messages
1,983
Location
South Louisiana
Tractor
2022 Kubota Grand L6060 (no loader), 2017 Kubota Grand L6060, 2011 Kubota L5740 HSTC-3, 1997 Kubota M4700
Here is a video from today. I am laser grading about 3 acres of a 10 acre job. This 3 acres is a big job for my little rig. I have subcontracted a friend to do the bigger part. He has a 12' blade and also has a bulldozer.

The other thing I wanted to show here is my new camera. It's a Brinno TLC 200 I got on Amazon Robot Check

I just put the SD card in my computer and the video is already made. I haven't edited it. It's set to take a pic every 1 minute between the hours of 6.30 am and 8:00 pm.

 
   / Laser grading and new time lapse camera #2  
Nice work.

So how many yards do you have to move on this three acres?
 
   / Laser grading and new time lapse camera
  • Thread Starter
#3  
Nice work.

So how many yards do you have to move on this three acres?

I don't know. I have never figured how many yards I move on any jobs. I guess I should.

This job is big for me. It's not that I'm moving a lot of soil, but I'm having to move it a long way compared to what I normally do. The most I've ever done is a football field and the farthest I've had to move soil on a football field is about 300'. On this job, I'm moving some as much as about 700'. My blade can move about 1 to 1.5 yards per pull.....and it just takes a lot of pulls.

I think I have the right tractor for my blade though. I use the pedal to vary my speed as I go, and I hit the '2 speed' lever into high when I have a long run with an empty blade.
 
   / Laser grading and new time lapse camera #4  
I think we all go through this at various times in business. You can get a small scraper so that you could carry the dirt instead of dragging it but how many jobs would you have similar to this. If this is an infrequent need it might be more efficient to move it with a large loader after you have it piled up. Maybe a dump trailer would help too.
 
   / Laser grading and new time lapse camera #5  
Super cool time lapse Brinno TLC 200 camera. Makes a great video of your work. And it provides proof that your really do work all day :)
 
   / Laser grading and new time lapse camera
  • Thread Starter
#6  
Used the camera again today. This John Deere tractor and blade belong to a friend who I hired to help on this job. He is doing about 7 acres and I'm doing about 3 acres. His rig will move at least twice as much soil as my rig. You can see me in the back right in a few frames working on my part. My part is just about done. We are supposed to get a couple inches of rain tonight. That should help settle the soil and tell if I need to go back to touch it up a little. I worked for about 3 days so far.

 
   / Laser grading and new time lapse camera #7  
Looks like you got a late start and took a long lunch, but you did stay late, just kidding look's like you all are doing a nice job.
 
   / Laser grading and new time lapse camera #8  
I find this extremely interesting, but have some questions. I've seen this done in person once on our local softball field. The one side of the machine "cut" the grass and earth on a slight angle from once side of the cut to the other gently sloping the outfield from front to back. Basically it after the infield, it goes down hill to the fence. They did one width at a time in the same direction.

I see you and your hired help go in many directions. How do you know how much to remove from one spot and where to drop it. I assume the laser level is sending some signal to you in the cab. Also, how much slope are you putting per foot or yard or whatever from one end to the other? Last question is why level 10 acres? Just curious what the field will be used for is all.
 
   / Laser grading and new time lapse camera
  • Thread Starter
#9  
I find this extremely interesting, but have some questions. I've seen this done in person once on our local softball field. The one side of the machine "cut" the grass and earth on a slight angle from once side of the cut to the other gently sloping the outfield from front to back. Basically it after the infield, it goes down hill to the fence. They did one width at a time in the same direction.

I see you and your hired help go in many directions. How do you know how much to remove from one spot and where to drop it. I assume the laser level is sending some signal to you in the cab. Also, how much slope are you putting per foot or yard or whatever from one end to the other? Last question is why level 10 acres? Just curious what the field will be used for is all.

If you look on our blades, you see a pole sticking up with a receiver on top. Mine has one, his has two. The laser is set on a tripod as you can see in my first video. I can set the slope of the laser beam at whatever angle I want. In this case, my slope is set at 0.3% which will give me about 18" of drop across the area I am doing.

The laser beam is picked up by the receiver on pole. If the blade goes below the laser beam, the receiver tells the hydraulics to lift the blade. Basically, we just drive around and let the machine cut the hills and fill the holes. It's a little more complicated than this, but hopefully this gives you an idea.

On this job, the city wants to add some practice area for youth sports teams. There is a ridge about 1/3 of the way across this 10 acres and it naturally slopes to the east on the small side and to the west on the larger side. I took the smaller side because of my smaller equipment. The idea is to match the natural slope, and make it a very even, smooth slope so that it will drain well. And, by matching the existing slope, we have to move the least amount of soil.

Hope this helps.
 
   / Laser grading and new time lapse camera #10  
So basically, the only way you know at any location what the ground is doing is to watch the blade? And then you get a feeling for the lay of the land and come up with a best plan in your head for your movements? Do I have that more or less right?
 

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