Best Attachment for Parking Lot Leveling

[thclimer]

Send some pictures of you working with your new implement and let us know how you like it.

 

[Fixastuff]

Leveling and smoothing an area with different size aggregate can be very annoying. Things are going great then big chunks buried at different times and depths start getting pulled up and everything goes to crap.

 

[ovrszd]

Pics or it didn't happen.

 

[Fixastuff]

Pics or it didn't happen.

If you're talking to me I've pulled up cinder block chunks, old bricks, big chunks of broken up concrete even old tires.

 

[ovrszd]

If you're talking to me I've pulled up cinder block chunks, old bricks, big chunks of broken up concrete even old tires.

Talking to the OP.

 

[scootr]

Buried rock is Mother Natures way of telling who's boss. Some of our rocks are just not exposed yet. This exposed stuff is out back...and buried under the dirt in front yard.

 

[Username Taken]

I have a lawn maintenance account that has about an acre of land that tractor trailers use. Part is a long path and the rest is the loading dock area. It was probably started as crusher run many years ago but now it's a little bit of everything. It's extremely hard packed and develops pot holes terribly. They have asked me to help maintain it. I would drag and level it out monthly just to keep things a little easier and smoother for the trucks driving through.

Although money is always an object, it's not my number one priority. I want to get the option that makes the job easier for me. In other words, I don't mind spending extra if it gets me home earlier.

I can get a 6' landscape rake for a little over $600. I can get a 6' box blade for about $1600. I can also get a 6'-7' land grader for a little over $2000. I tried using my 6' scrape blade the other day and it struggled to break through the hard pack. I'm sure that will improve as I maintain this area but I think I need something to really break through that top shell of the ground.

Tractor is a DK5310SE Kioti so it should handle these fine. But I'm not 100% sure how I'd like to proceed. Any opinions? In all honesty, I think the landscape rake would do great used on a monthly basis but I admit, I've never used a land grader. I'm just not 100% sure that's the right thing for this job though.

An acre isn't all that much. 43560 sq feet. Just over 200 X 200.

I've got about 700 feet of driveway I maintain. Every year. More than once a year. Water finds a depression, freezes, makes a pothole, grass likes to grow everywhere except where I plant it, always got that hump in the middle, drainage needs tended tp once in a while.

I bought a 5 foot Box Blade for my little Kioti CX. The reason is -- I didn't know what to get so I looked on line and watched professionals who did driveways for a living. To a man they used Box Blades.

So that's what I got. It works. What it doesn't do is more my fault than the fault of the BB. Plus, there's so many other things you can do with a BB. The more versatile a piece of equipment, the better I like it. I can't afford to go out and by a piece for every single task.

My buddy was having trouble tilling up his garden last spring. He didn't have a PTO tiller. All he had was a little Kohler 1 cylinder tiller and no way that would bust through the sod. No way. The garden was also filled with corn stalks from the previous year, dead tomato plants, vines, weeds, etc. Heavy overgrowth.

I took my BB, lowered the scarifiers as far as I could and took everything up. Tore it up good with several passes. Then I took my EA Wicked 55, lowered the jaw and ran along with the lower jaw digging in and picking up everything with the lid at the end of a run. Then I took it and dumped it in the burn pile.

My buddy was amazed. And he was a professional Farmer at one time. Unfortunately, one that lost everything. Anybody that lives in the Country knows those guys and it's seldom they're fault. It's usually the fault of bad luck and/or bad weather.

Long story but the moral is, BB's are versatile. I don't know about Land Planes.

 

[ovrszd]

A valuable addition to a BB is a hydraulic top link and side link. Then the BB gets real close to the perfect tool

 

[DaBear3428]

for my money a land plane and a pile of fill at the site, use the fel to distribuite fill to the right areas and the landplane to level it out. I do not like to disturb packed fill but YMMV.

 

[dirttoys]

An acre isn't all that much. 43560 sq feet. Just over 200 X 200.

I've got about 700 feet of driveway I maintain. Every year. More than once a year. Water finds a depression, freezes, makes a pothole, grass likes to grow everywhere except where I plant it, always got that hump in the middle, drainage needs tended tp once in a while.

I bought a 5 foot Box Blade for my little Kioti CX. The reason is -- I didn't know what to get so I looked on line and watched professionals who did driveways for a living. To a man they used Box Blades.

So that's what I got. It works. What it doesn't do is more my fault than the fault of the BB. Plus, there's so many other things you can do with a BB. The more versatile a piece of equipment, the better I like it. I can't afford to go out and by a piece for every single task.

My buddy was having trouble tilling up his garden last spring. He didn't have a PTO tiller. All he had was a little Kohler 1 cylinder tiller and no way that would bust through the sod. No way. The garden was also filled with corn stalks from the previous year, dead tomato plants, vines, weeds, etc. Heavy overgrowth.

I took my BB, lowered the scarifiers as far as I could and took everything up. Tore it up good with several passes. Then I took my EA Wicked 55, lowered the jaw and ran along with the lower jaw digging in and picking up everything with the lid at the end of a run. Then I took it and dumped it in the burn pile.

My buddy was amazed. And he was a professional Farmer at one time. Unfortunately, one that lost everything. Anybody that lives in the Country knows those guys and it's seldom they're fault. It's usually the fault of bad luck and/or bad weather.

Long story but the moral is, BB's are versatile. I don't know about Land Planes.

Man you sound so much like me with the grass I think I have more money invested in the yard than the house.

Box blades are handy, I like the powered ones (harley) but they are real money and more maintenance than anything else I own.

I have 2700 feet of driveway and the harley is great, but, I think a guy could manage with a good box blade. The most important things I have found, keep the road above grade, and have as much material to work with as you can afford.

Best,

ed

 

[oosik]

I've never worked on a parking lot - just my loooong driveway. However - I have learned this. There is a GREAT difference between making something smooth or making it level. I have no problems making my driveway smooth. I've given up trying to make it level.

I may have the necessary equipment to make it level. I just do not have the skills required. Besides, smooth is more than adequate for a driveway.

 

[ovrszd]

I've never worked on a parking lot - just my loooong driveway. However - I have learned this. There is a GREAT difference between making something smooth or making it level. I have no problems making my driveway smooth. I've given up trying to make it level.

I may have the necessary equipment to make it level. I just do not have the skills required. Besides, smooth is more than adequate for a driveway.

Yep. No comparison between parking lot maintenance and driveway maintenance.

 

[dirttoys]

I've never worked on a parking lot - just my loooong driveway. However - I have learned this. There is a GREAT difference between making something smooth or making it level. I have no problems making my driveway smooth. I've given up trying to make it level.

I may have the necessary equipment to make it level. I just do not have the skills required. Besides, smooth is more than adequate for a driveway.

As long as it sheds water, who cares? Level is often the enemy of good drainage.

Best,

ed

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

I have a lawn maintenance account that has about an acre of land that tractor trailers use. Part is a long path and the rest is the loading dock area. It was probably started as crusher run many years ago but now it's a little bit of everything. It's extremely hard packed and develops pot holes terribly. They have asked me to help maintain it. I would drag and level it out monthly just to keep things a little easier and smoother for the trucks driving through.

Although money is always an object, it's not my number one priority. I want to get the option that makes the job easier for me. In other words, I don't mind spending extra if it gets me home earlier.

I can get a 6' landscape rake for a little over $600. I can get a 6' box blade for about $1600. I can also get a 6'-7' land grader for a little over $2000. I tried using my 6' scrape blade the other day and it struggled to break through the hard pack. I'm sure that will improve as I maintain this area but I think I need something to really break through that top shell of the ground.

Tractor is a DK5310SE Kioti so it should handle these fine. But I'm not 100% sure how I'd like to proceed. Any opinions? In all honesty, I think the landscape rake would do great used on a monthly basis but I admit, I've never used a land grader. I'm just not 100% sure that's the right thing for this job though.

Box grader. I don't impress easy these days. Box grader impressed me. My brother and I made one. You can grade, move dirt with it. We moved 165 cu yd with it one morning. Had two skid steers loading two dump trucks. Tractor pulling box grader. Get one that has adjustable angle for the blades. No comparison. That box grader is a keeper.

 

[Vigo327]

I might just be tired but is a box grader something different from a box blade?

 

[ovrszd]

I might just be tired but is a box grader something different from a box blade?

Very different.

A Box Blade is carried by the 3pt hitch.

A Box Grader is pulled by the tractor hitch. Has a long tongue. Two wheels behind the box with a hydraulic cylinder on the axle assembly to change height. Fancy models also can hydraulicly change the height of the wheels individually which "tilts" the box sideways.

 

[Vigo327]

Oh i see. Ive seen those and i guess you could say i want one because ive been planning for months to convert my ‘other’ box blade (picked up by coincidence in a tractor deal, already had one) to be a pull type with power adjustable lift wheels. I guess i would have called it a ‘pull type box blade’ but box grader makes more sense.

 

[jyoutz]

Since it's getting pot holes you need the ripper teeth of a box blade. Anything else and your just filling in pot holes so they can reform. A land plane, rake or rear blade is not the correct tool to do the repairs needed for what you described.

I agree for fixing potholes. Not so much for leveling and grading after the potholes are fixed. I would pair a box blade with a land plane or heavy rear, wide blade. I don’t think there’s one implement that would do this job completely.

 

[oosik]

I use my LPGS on the driveway if I need to fix potholes, wiffles or riffles. It has ripper teeth that will dig below the potholes, etc, etc. Teeth up and the LPGS brings everything back to smooth.

 

[ovrszd]

I use my LPGS on the driveway if I need to fix potholes, wiffles or riffles. It has ripper teeth that will dig below the potholes, etc, etc. Teeth up and the LPGS brings everything back to smooth.

I do not have a LPGS. I have saw two different designs in regards to blade angle. One type have both blades angled the same direction. One type have the blades at opposite angles.

Which is yours? Thoughts about which would be best?