Towable driveway graders

[jackpine savage]

I have a 1/4 mile driveway to maintain. Right now I have a 3 point blade and have been planning on building a land plane. But, I was driving around the neighborhood last night and noticing how bad all the driveways looked. I have many Amish neighbors, and those narrow buggy wheels really cut up driveways. It occurred to me there might be an opportunity to provide a service and maybe pay for the equipment at least.

I started searching on Land Planes and ran across a couple that can be towed behind a truck. That would sure cut down on road time versus running my 7000 Allis around.

The two I found were from Domar and Eco Grader. The one from Eco Grader looked interesting in that the rear blade is adjustable to build up a crown.

Does anyone have experience with these or others like them? Anyone do custom driveway grading like this, and if so what are you charging?

Here's a couple pics:

TP Series Grader - Domor



6FT Grader | Chicago Road Graders, Towable Graders and Road Grader Sales

 

[bcp]

I've seen photos of a driveway grader mounted on the rear of a small dump truck and on a Jeep.



Bruce

 

[bcp]

How about a low-profile land plane hung under a second-hand boat trailer?

Bruce

 

[jackpine savage]

How about a low-profile land plane hung under a second-hand boat trailer?

Bruce

Thank you, that's a great idea! A boat trailer is real similar to that eco grader. They wanted almost $6k for that, out of my price range.

 

[TractorGuy]

I picked up a free boat trailer last year. I have considered putting my 5' grader blade on it but haven't gone beyond thinking. My grader is hung with a 1" stud so it would be fairly simple to bore a hole in the trailer tongue and weld in a 1" bushing and plate. I would still use my tractor and control height with the 3pt.

 

[oosik]

I have a Land Plane LPGS - GS2584. It's a very nice unit but has many limitations. It WILL smooth out the speed riffles, and generally smooth the driveway. It's an exceptionally easy implement to learn and use.

It WILL NOT - crown the driveway, move material either sideways or down the length of the driveway, clear the ditches, plow snow or gather and move material like a box blade.

I'm going to sell mine. I've had & used it for four years now. It's just not the implement I hoped it would be.

 

[sandman2234]

I have a Land Plane LPGS - GS2584. It's a very nice unit but has many limitations. It WILL smooth out the speed riffles, and generally smooth the driveway. It's an exceptionally easy implement to learn and use.

It WILL NOT - crown the driveway, move material either sideways or down the length of the driveway, clear the ditches, plow snow or gather and move material like a box blade.

I'm going to sell mine. I've had & used it for four years now. It's just not the implement I hoped it would be.

I haven't used my box blade since I built my landplane grader. so this surprises me.
David from jax

 

[fried1765]

I have a Land Plane LPGS - GS2584. It's a very nice unit but has many limitations. It WILL smooth out the speed riffles, and generally smooth the driveway. It's an exceptionally easy implement to learn and use.

It WILL NOT - crown the driveway, move material either sideways or down the length of the driveway, clear the ditches, plow snow or gather and move material like a box blade.

I'm going to sell mine. I've had & used it for four years now. It's just not the implement I hoped it would be.

Interesting!
Having been trained as as Civil engineer, I view the land plane as a homeowner gadget that SMOOTHS driveways, but does not GRADE them.
I have a box blade and a rear blade (EA Deluxe Scrape Blade).
The box blade sits in the barn.

The EA blade is excellent, and if it had a tail wheel,(longer wheelbase) it might even be superb.

 

[RickB]

Here ya go!

 

[fried1765]

Here ya go!

The forerunner of the motor grader.
I'll bet it did a great job ..... in it's day.