Anyone ever mount a level to there box blade for grading out roads?

[MechanicalGuy]

I don't believe a level on the BB will help. First, you don't want the road to be level. It won't shed water and develop potholes. When grading the road, you want to put a crown in the middle. You can do this by setting you blade a bit high on the left, while you work on the right. Then on the return trip, again working the right, the left side of the BB will leave a crown.

If you have long stretches of slope, you want to put diagonal swales to carry off some of the water every so often. Volumes of running water works against you. You must divert and spread the water from your road.

A level will tell me what parts of the road are currently level, or sloped to one side or the other.

The road is sometimes bermed at an angle and the ditch that I create will be on one side only. I won't be creating a crown on every surface of every road. I've utilized some diagonal swales. I haven't made any that completely cross the road though. That seems like it would be hard to maintain. I'll have to research that concept more. I have numerous areas where a flow already crosses the road in a natural diagonal. They get deeper quick.

 

[3Ts]

I have that exact level mounted on my angle blade which has full hydraulics and it is easily visible from the seat which is probably 10'. The level appears to contain a steel ball and glycerin since it moves slowly in the liquid. I do not use it to determine level. I have a road that undulates from side to side which causes the tractor to do the same, so I use the level to tilt the blade to get the slope or crown that I'm after. I do not have one on my box blade.

 

[CoyPatton]

A level will tell me what parts of the road are currently level, or sloped to one side or the other.

Since your entire tractor will be sitting on the slope/ pitch/grade all the level is going to tell you is how far out of level the BB is. But this in compounded by any tilt you have put into your level. Remember a level can not tell you slope! A level’s function is to tell you where level is at. If your seat experience or eyes can not tell you where your slope is at, consider it close enough to zero grade for your purposes and put your grade in accordingly. The level you displayed from a photo looks to be an RV level. Again the purpose of a level is to put something level! Not parallel to the grade but level.

The road is sometimes bermed at an angle and the ditch that I create will be on one side only. I won't be creating a crown on every surface of every road. I've utilized some diagonal swales. I haven't made any that completely cross the road though. That seems like it would be hard to maintain. I'll have to research that concept more. I have numerous areas where a flow already crosses the road in a natural diagonal. They get deeper quick.

If your drive is very wide and your stretch of grade to one side is very long, plan for wash outs across the drive. After only a few heavy rains, runoff will quickly cut a continuous path in the same areas-somewhere there will be a natural low spot, probably so slight you could find it barefooted, but flowing water will. And a small stream will cut a channel.

 

[Fallon]

I thought about putting one on when I started but never did. At this point I don't think it would add enough value to me. I was looking at smaller ones though & visibility would have been an issue. I used string levels for a while but have a rotary laser now. Not as useful as I'd initially hoped on many projects. I find my calibrated eyeball or seat of the pants much faster and as effective for most driveway & light drainage stuff. I only bust out the rotary if I'm leveling something for a shed or there is a large "flat" spot in the driveway that needs to drain.

 

[mred2]

All of my life I have been told that a good dozer operator has a bubble in his butt. I think that it would be really hard to use a level, but I can't say that I didn't think about it myself at one time. I do it best by going slow and checking my work.

 

[crazyal]

If a level is what you want I think you could just rig a post on the BB and then hang a stiff rope or metal wire with a weight on the bottom that could swing. It would be much easier to see and vibrations and the jarring from hitting rocks isn't going to damage it. Personally I think you are quickly going to learn how to read the road and not need it. The water is going to run down hill and any ruts will indicate which way that is. While making a road and if you want to change which way the water will run it could be useful. Once your road is made you will just be maintaining it and I don't think you will use it.

 

[zzvyb6]

What I did was mount a stalk on the box blade frame with a heavy pendulum swung on it. On the pendulim rod, I had another crank rod to move an arrow in a gauge. You see this idea rigged on many new post hole diggers now. If you have a decent rear view mirror, you can play the angle game all day with the top and tilt mechanism.

 

[IXLR8]

I did this on my BB, it works great, I just taped it on the top of the BB with Gorilla tape, it has been there for 3 years. I have TnT and it is very easy to adjust the BB on the fly to maintain an angle to properly crown a road. There are spots in our road that I think are tapered, but the water doesn't run off. With the 'angle meter' I can easily see the road is flat and not tapered. A few passes with the BB, gradually increasing the angle, and I am all set. I wouldn't run my BB without TnT or the angle meter.

 

[Smokeydog]

Have that same level on my 27 year old airstream RV trailer. Yes it’s a steel ball in the big tube. The graduation marks are how many inches of blocks to go under the tires to make it level side to side. Inches drop/rise per 8’. Small center bubble level front to back.

Have lev-o-gauges on the tractor ROPS

With any gauge have be able to read the scale and understand the measurement. Not sure where you mount the RV gauge to see it on a box blade while using? On some parts of my driveway the side slope would exceed the RV gauge range.

Don’t use gauges to maintain my mountain driveway. Grade to get the water off the road and keep gravel on the road. Rain makes apparent what is needed on a twisty, wooded hillside driveway. Land leveler has been a blessing maintaining the driveway over box blades and grader blades.

Always wanted top n tilt for the tractor.

 

[MechanicalGuy]

Have that same level on my 27 year old airstream RV trailer. Yes it’s a steel ball in the big tube. The graduation marks are how many inches of blocks to go under the tires to make it level side to side. Inches drop/rise per 8’. Small center bubble level front to back.

Have lev-o-gauges on the tractor ROPS View attachment 658801

With any gauge have be able to read the scale and understand the measurement. Not sure where you mount the RV gauge to see it on a box blade while using? On some parts of my driveway the side slope would exceed the RV gauge range.

Don’t use gauges to maintain my mountain driveway. Grade to get the water off the road and keep gravel on the road. Rain makes apparent what is needed on a twisty, wooded hillside driveway. Land leveler has been a blessing maintaining the driveway over box blades and grader blades.

Always wanted top n tilt for the tractor.

I just ordered one of these. Gonna mount it separately on the tractor and then I'm gonna get one of the big ones and mount it on the box blade. I've tried not using one, but there is just no way to figure it out when you're going up and down and making ditches and the road gets wide and narrow...it's just to much to figure out the grading without some help. I hadn't previously thought of using two levels, but now it seems natural. The tractor needs one also.