Have given up on my Land Plane

[shooterdon]

I bought a unit last year to try to level my driveway. I have gentle rolling humps I call "whoopity-dos". It feels like riding a little roller coaster. I created most of the problem trying to initially use a back blade. Once a hump is introduced, it just makes the problem worse with each pass.

Over the last year, I have spent about 12 hours going up and down the drive (300 yards) and the land plane has helped a bit but not enough. Disconnected the hydraulic top link and used a chain hoping it would help but that did not work that well either.

The land place works well on the rest of the drive that is flat but not where I have the undulations.

Thought about adding 10 ft runners to the land plane to help. Two PT 2x8's will cost $35 but mounting them will not be easy. My neighbor has a box blade but his driveway is not much better, so not sure how well it will work, plus I hate borrowing stuff.

I have a contractor coming in to look at getting the job done next month.

Any advice?

 

[Diggin It]

Sounds like it needs to be cut down several inches and re-graded and packed. Not sure most consumer tools can do that. Kind of like a pothole that gets filled a hundred times, but is still there. The subsurface needs to be fixed.

I there any kind of water problem leading to erosion?

 

[LittleBill21]

land plane doesn't fix whoops, learn that as well with mine. it simply follows the path. you have to cut into the whoops with the loader, or you can drop rippers with the blade up and do that a bit as well

 

[Jchonline]

Sounds like it needs to be cut down several inches and re-graded and packed. Not sure most consumer tools can do that. Kind of like a pothole that gets filled a hundred times, but is still there. The subsurface needs to be fixed.

I there any kind of water problem leading to erosion?

Exactly. You must cut at least as deep as the deepest rut/dip in the road...then you will be level. Then you need to regrade it. OP just isnt going deep enough to get it initially graded properly.

 

[shooterdon]

No water issues to deal with.

LB21, I did not get the rippers when I bought the land plane as I did not have pot holes to deal with, so ripping up the surface did not seem necessary. Hate to spend another $300 for them and still have whoops to deal with.

 

[workinonit]

Find someone with a motograder and pay them to make a couple of passes down it. Short of tearing your entire drive up that's the best way there will be. When I start to get them in mine draft control seems to work very well for me. But I'm not sure if that will solve it if you've let them get too bad.

 

[deezler]

How long are the "dip" sections? 10 ft? 20? 50ft? And how deep are they? 4", 8" a whole foot? (pics would help)

All you need to do is cut hard on the high spots, then pick up the land plane just a tiny bit in the dips, to empty it out. Same technique would work with a box blade. You need to cut out the peaks, and deposit material in the low spots. Possibly you will have to quick empty the land plane into a small pile, and use your front loader to scoop and redistribute. It might be a little lumpy once you do all this.

THEN, then you can land plane the entire thing and it'll be perfect.

 

[shooterdon]

How long are the "dip" sections? 10 ft? 20? 50ft? And how deep are they? 4", 8" a whole foot? (pics would help)

All you need to do is cut hard on the high spots, then pick up the land plane just a tiny bit in the dips, to empty it out. Same technique would work with a box blade. You need to cut out the peaks, and deposit material in the low spots. Possibly you will have to quick empty the land plane into a small pile, and use your front loader to scoop and redistribute. It might be a little lumpy once you do all this.

THEN, then you can land plane the entire thing and it'll be perfect.

The dips are about 20-40' apart and average about 6".

 

[Citydude]

Try extending your top link out so the box blade is just riding on the rear cutter. That works for me.

 

[Doughknob]

Bulldozer

 

[npalen]

Find someone with a motograder and pay them to make a couple of passes down it. Short of tearing your entire drive up that's the best way there will be. When I start to get them in mine draft control seems to work very well for me. But I'm not sure if that will solve it if you've let them get too bad.

I would be interested in knowing how draft control works for you if you don't mind explaining. I assume the draft control raises the blade after enough loose material builds up in front of it?
Otherwise, it would seem that is the blade would lift when it hits a high spot due to increased draft and make a bad problem worse.

 

[oosik]

Background - I have a mile long gravel driveway. It has a 150 foot section that get like jello every spring. I wait until its almost "dusty" and then hit this section with the LPGS - scarifiers full down.

I end up with a 150 foot section - smooth as a pool table. But it DOES have whoopie - doos. Peak to peak on the woops - 35 to 40 feet. Elevation differential - about one half foot.

It happens because my tractor/LPGS just isn't a road grader. The connection between the front wheels and the LPGS is just too short. It's called - short coupling. Front wheels go UP - LPGS goes DOWN and vice/versa.

It's not a problem - just a fact of life.

 

[Threepoint]

Exactly. You must cut at least as deep as the deepest rut/dip in the road...then you will be level. Then you need to regrade it. OP just isnt going deep enough to get it initially graded properly.

One caution here, though. Before cutting deeply, especially with scarifiers, it's important to know the depth of the surface stone covering the road base material. That will depend in part on how the driveway or access road has been maintained over the years, but also on how it was initially constructed. That in turn would depend on the pre-construction surface conditions (undisturbed native soil/rock, compacted fill, etc.). If you were to scarify through to base material and kick it up, that can be a world of hurt.

Around here, a typical driveway would start by cutting the bed with a dozer or skidsteer, spreading and compacting a base of #3 construction stone or reclaimed concrete/aggregate equivalent, then following with four inches of crusher run (aka "21A" here) spread and compacted. Over time, the surface stone can thin out in spots. Once the underlying base is kicked up with the scarifiers or blade, it can't be put back. Then it's just stone pickin' time. Of course that's never happened to me.

 

[Jchonline]

One caution here, though. Before cutting deeply, especially with scarifiers, it's important to know the depth of the surface stone covering the road base material. That will depend in part on how the driveway or access road has been maintained over the years, but also on how it was initially constructed. That in turn would depend on the pre-construction surface conditions (undisturbed native soil/rock, compacted fill, etc.). If you were to scarify through to base material and kick it up, that can be a world of hurt.

Around here, a typical driveway would start by cutting the bed with a dozer or skidsteer, spreading and compacting a base of #3 construction stone or reclaimed concrete/aggregate equivalent, then following with four inches of crusher run (aka "21A" here) spread and compacted. Over time, the surface stone can thin out in spots. Once the underlying base is kicked up with the scarifiers or blade, it can't be put back. Then it's just stone pickin' time. Of course that's never happened to me.

If the road is blown out enough down to base material (if that is different than the top/dress) then wont that need to be addressed anyway.

I should add we are pretty spoiled in the high mountains….material is all disintegrated granite…thats all we use on the roads top to bottom. No Separate base layer needed.

 

[oosik]

Unfortunately - the LPGS is NOT a universal do-everything implement. But it does what it was designed for well.

 

[Nikkorott]

I bought a unit last year to try to level my driveway. I have gentle rolling humps I call "whoopity-dos". It feels like riding a little roller coaster. I created most of the problem trying to initially use a back blade. Once a hump is introduced, it just makes the problem worse with each pass.

Over the last year, I have spent about 12 hours going up and down the drive (300 yards) and the land plane has helped a bit but not enough. Disconnected the hydraulic top link and used a chain hoping it would help but that did not work that well either.

The land place works well on the rest of the drive that is flat but not where I have the undulations.

Thought about adding 10 ft runners to the land plane to help. Two PT 2x8's will cost $35 but mounting them will not be easy. My neighbor has a box blade but his driveway is not much better, so not sure how well it will work, plus I hate borrowing stuff.

I have a contractor coming in to look at getting the job done next month.

Any advice?

When this happens to me on my driveway and the community dirt road, I change the angle of the blade so every pass pushes loose dirt to the center of the road. It cuts the high spots and fills the lows. My final passes are are with the blade straight across but backwards so it doesn't cut. I usually run a harrow over all of it afterwards.

Good luck!

 

[dirttoys]

I bought a unit last year to try to level my driveway. I have gentle rolling humps I call "whoopity-dos". It feels like riding a little roller coaster. I created most of the problem trying to initially use a back blade. Once a hump is introduced, it just makes the problem worse with each pass.

Over the last year, I have spent about 12 hours going up and down the drive (300 yards) and the land plane has helped a bit but not enough. Disconnected the hydraulic top link and used a chain hoping it would help but that did not work that well either.

The land place works well on the rest of the drive that is flat but not where I have the undulations.

Thought about adding 10 ft runners to the land plane to help. Two PT 2x8's will cost $35 but mounting them will not be easy. My neighbor has a box blade but his driveway is not much better, so not sure how well it will work, plus I hate borrowing stuff.

I have a contractor coming in to look at getting the job done next month.

Any advice?

If you want to fix it, use the scraper at the sharpest angel that doesn't hit the tires. take overlapping passes in the same direction until you have 4 - 6 inch windrows.

Then reduce the angle to the least, but not straight, grade all the material to one side, then lift the blade to light pressure, and grade the material back across. If done correctly, the drive will be flat, and you will run out of material before forming a windrow on the last pass.

Of course this doesn't account for crown, but will get you flat.

Best,

ed

 

[hosspuller]

I have a LP... Deezler's post (#7) is the solution. Otherwise, a true grader will fix it in a couple of passes.

 

[s219]

The dips are about 20-40' apart and average about 6".

Ideally you just want to take down the hump with a box blade and move the material into the dips (the BB is superior to a LP for removing material from high spots and carrying it to low spots). But a 20-40' long hump is going to take a lot of careful shaving to get down to the proper grade. It will take a lot of adjustment with the top link to alternately dig and then move material. But it's doable.

If you can get eyeballs down near the ground to read it, try to determine what's longer -- the dips on the ends, or the hump in the middle. If you have a long hump and shorter dips, sometimes you can dump/smooth a couple buckets of new material in the dips to fill them enough to give the land plane a better chance to fair everything out more smoothly. You really just need to interrupt the cycle of the land plane following the contour.

Of course, if you're not careful you can replace a single dip with several. Been there, done that, many years ago, but learned a lot.

 

[bcp]

Your land plane is too short.

Bruce