I'm considering a light/medium manually adjustable rear blade and I'd like input on offset adjustments. Land Pride and Woods have variations of slotted bolt adjustments on the moldboard for offset and tilt. I'm concerned about needing a wrench every time I want to make an adjustment and the possibility of the bolts sliding in the slots as I work, but the slots would allow infinite adjustability. Dirt Dog/Rhino has a pin on the 3 point hitch that allows the entire arm to swing. To me this seems preferable because the pin won't work loose like a bolt can. However, these brands are harder to find near me. Should I try to find one with a pin or is the Woods design fine if I don't want to change the offset frequently? I'd also like the option of skids and end plates so that's why I'm looking at certain brands.
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Aaron,
You have gotten some excellent replies and suggestions. I have made a business of repairing and maintaining gravel roads for 20+ years. A few thoughts:
What you get depends on how much road you are maintaining, how much it softens in the spring, how steep it is, how much rain you get every year, and the size of your tractor. A one lane road which is fairly flat, does not freeze in the winter, and does not get much rain can be kept with a fairly simple blade like the ones you show. A road which has a thaw cycle in the spring and gets rain during the year will require redoing the crown and ditches every spring and touch ups every month or so to get out potholes, maintain the crown, and clean material out of the ditches back into the road. Snow plowing has been well covered by others' comments.
If you have more than a simple road, you will need to change adjustments often as you do the road. You will need the pin controlled offset function, pin swivel for the blade, and a pin controlled tilt function. They should be robust. The used Ford blade recommended in another comment is a good choice. A good used piece of equipment may be a very good choice, but try it to see how much play has been worn into the adjustments, before you buy. A set of gauge wheels(or a gauge wheel in the center for a small blade) are a very effective help in avoiding ridges caused as your tractor nods over bumps, avoiding plowing road surface material off in winter, and smoothly spreading material you have pulled back out of ditches. If you find that you would like end caps, you can make them yourself or have someone weld them up for you if the blade you like does not come with them. They should be removable.
If you have a road which is more than a simple dry short one, you will have to restore the crown and clean the ditches in the spring and spread the material you get back out of the ditches onto the road surface. You will have to touch the surface up to keep the crown and clean ditches several times a year and after big rain storms. The touch ups wont take too long, but you will need to change angle and side offset often as you work. Bolt type adjustments will really slow you down and prevent you from doing a good job. If you have any rear hydraulic outlets, getting a cylinder for blade swivel and side extension will save you time and you will be much more likely to make the adjustments and do a good job. Hydraulic cylinders and hoses are not expensive Keeping the crown and getting out potholes is important. If water stays on the road surface anywhere, the material under the puddle will be soft, and when a car tire goes though the puddle, the soft material will splash out to the side and the pothole will deepen with every splash. To fix a pothole you have to break up the hardened road surface it is in and re-smooth the area, just throwing in loose material will not last long.
Leaves in the ditches are another concern. You don't want to leave them in the ditch where they will hold water and make the surface soft, or pull them back out onto the road surface when you clean ditches. Organic matter in the material spread on the road will hold water and make the surface soft. If leaves bunch up and dam a ditch in a rainstorm, the water will be forced back into the road and will erode the surface badly. If a branch is lying in a ditch, it will make a leaf dam and push lots of water onto the road. You should clean ditches in the fall after most are down, and before you work on the road. Pick out branches as you see them during the year. One of the best ways to get leaves out of the ditch is with a heavy push blower like a 12 HP Billygoat which has a nozzle which can swivel up and down by a lever on the handle. The strong blower and swiveling nozzle work fast. I can clean both sides of a half mile road in about a hour in dry conditions, and it does a lot to keep the road in good condition. You can use a blade to bunch up leaves in the ditches, but they will be heavy and will need to be moved with your bucket. You will lose some material that way. You want to clean leaves out before you pull material back out of ditches.
If you have a small machine, probably under 3000 pounds, the offset function for the blade will make the tractor bounce around a lot and may not work well for you, and generally the heavier the rear blade, the better it will work. Always easier to redo the surface on a damp day, or the day after a rainstorm. That will let the blade cut in and prevent bounce. Don't work on it if it is too soft.
If you have gauge wheels, you can do a lot of smoothing by setting the gauge wheels for about a inch cut into the surface, put on blade end caps if you have them, and disconnect your top link. Use the lift lever for the 3PH arms to move the blade up and down and let the blade ride on the gauge wheels and pivot vertically on the link ends in the end of the 3PH arms. As you raise or lower the 3PH arms, the blade angle changes and the amount of cut increases or decreases. This is a good way to distribute loose material and fill potholes. For a final cut, set the gauge wheels for 1/2 inch cut.
You can use a york rake with drop down scraper blade and end caps for this work, too. The scraper will do your blade work, and the york rake will spread material evenly and fill potholes. The scraper blade and end caps add weight to make the rake cut in. It is a lot easier to make a final smooth surface. I use this on a 3500 pound machine with a triple hydraulic valve for swivel, tilt, and top link. It is not as touchy as a blade to get the final smooth surface, and it will pull grass and trash out of the road surface material if you work when it is not wet and stop to pitchfork out the junk before it makes too big a ball. It won't work on a very wet day. This won't plow snow or swivel out to the side the way a good blade can. You will have to get a rake about a foot or two wider than the tractor if it can handle the weight.
Hope this is a help and I am sure readers can improve and refine this.
