[KUBOTA B3200] Grader Blade / Box Blade Recommendation for Driveway Maintenance

[Forest_Man]

I'm gonna chime back in to STRONGLY recommend you stick with a 5' box blade for your B3200. 32 horsepower of engine can drag a 6' unit well in the right conditions, but your machine is very lightweight. Inertia is often what keeps a heavy pull moving through soil, not just rated power.
According to this, your machine is only 53" wide, so a 5' unit will cover your tracks well.

If makes any impact: my B3200 has 4" spacers, adding 8" to total width and loaded rear tires.

How about a blade? What length should I get? I just came across a 7 footer back blade for $350:

The general advice here on TBN is to buy the size box blade that covers your rear tire width by a couple inches, but don't go bigger. A 6' unit with the scarifiers down will easily stop your little B3200 dead in its tracks. A 5' probably will too, but a little less often, haha. The other factor is when driving through the forest, a 6' unit will bonk into trees more. Keep it tight.

Yes, I understand the compromise and limitations. And the attachment originally is intended for driveway maintenance only - but you are correct, in the future we could use it on the forest.

 

[Forest_Man]

If you want the most versatile implement, a 6 foot 3-way rear blade with tilt, angle, and offset is the standard. The 3-way adjustment allows you to do trenching, crowning, and reduces the pull force required when the load gets heavy.

I don't know much about rear blades, or anything tractor related, to be honest.

But I came across this 7' rear blade and it seems to have a adjustment. Could you explain me what this adjustment is (tilt, angle or offset) and if this blade would be adequate to create drainage swales if I chose to go this route?

 

[nyone]

need to wait for the driveway to dry before attempting anything. Not working on it until then

As someone who built a driveway through a swamp...you definitely should wait for it to dry. You can hand dig trenches to drain puddles in the meantime.

On mine I had to use tree tops to keep my mini ex above water. I then dug ditches and placed the material on the logs. At that time I stopped working on it for a month. Then it dried out, I placed road fabric directly over that and covered in 4-6in of stone. I have had dual axle dump trucks loaded with stone over it within 3 months and still do 4yrs later. Road fabric really helps with wet spots, so does filling low areas that can hold water.

 

[deezler]

Drainage on each side and 12' wide is not going to happen. God bless you and I hope one day we'll do it. But not for now.

Is this a camp? or do you have a real house back there?

So, just curious, if you have a house fire, do you just let 'er go? Never get deliveries by truck or van?

I thought my own 1000' driveway was long to get hacked in and installed into my own woods, but mine had to support cement trucks and semis just to get my house built. Plus obviously wanting fire trucks and ambulances to be able to reach my family abode.

 

[Forest_Man]

So, you said 995 yards long, so, that's where I got the 3000 LF. You said 12 ft wide wasn't gonna happen; so I used 10 feet wide as the width. I then converted the Square Feet to Square Yards by dividing by 9. Most roadbase materials, as a really brought brush, weigh about 100#/sy/inch of thickness. IE 6" of road base, over a 3 ft x 3 ft area, is gonna be approx 600 lbs.

Okay, got prices today for crusher run:

Low End: (1) truck load = 15 yards = $375 delivered ($25/Yard)
High End: (1) truck load = 12 yards = $600 delivered ($50/Yard)

Assuming I have to cover 300 yards this year: 300 yards = 900 feet

Surface Area: 900 Feet x 9 Feet wide = 8,100 Ft^2 = 900 Yd^2

So how do I convert 900 Yd^2 to truck loads? I am lost in the last step here...

 

[deezler]

I got a 7 footer for my Kioti, but it weighs twice as much as your Kubota. 6' probably better for your machine - I'm also thinking about heavy snow removal now that we know the location.

 

[Forest_Man]

So, just curious, if you have a house fire, do you just let 'er go? Never get deliveries by truck or van?

Propane and sewage truck comes here - well, they've had in the past. It is tight but they manage. The sewage truck comes in reverse - I've told the kid many times to drive forward and simply turn around but he insists and that does not help me keep the road.

The road was fairly usable until we had the timber company few months ago hauling trucks and trucks of timber.

The timber company is still on the hook to repair the roads but I am learning as much as I can about this because it will land on my lap very soon. My plan to for them to get it as good as they will and then I'll pick up the slack and maintain with my Kubota.

 

[deezler]

Upstate NY.

Like, catskills or adirondacks?

If catskills, maybe Andrew Camarata could make a new video out of tuning up your road. He gets so many view per youtube video that it pays him big bucks, dunno how that translates to his job pricing.

Andrew Camarata

Videos from my property maintenance business.

www.youtube.com

 

[Forest_Man]

Like, catskills or adirondacks?

Catskills

If catskills, maybe Andrew Camarata could make a new video out of tuning up your road. He gets so many view per youtube video that it pays him big bucks, dunno how that translates to his job pricing.

Andrew Camarata

Videos from my property maintenance business.

www.youtube.com

1.4M subscribers? WTH?

Is he here on TBN? I'd reach out and ask.

 

[paulsharvey]

Okay, got prices today for crusher run:

Low End: (1) truck load = 15 yards = $375 delivered ($25/Yard)
High End: (1) truck load = 12 yards = $600 delivered ($50/Yard)

Assuming I have to cover 300 yards this year: 300 yards = 900 feet

Surface Area: 900 Feet x 9 Feet wide = 8,100 Ft^2 = 900 Yd^2

So how do I convert 900 Yd^2 to truck loads? I am lost in the last step here...

So base materials, as a rule of thumb, will be about 100# per square yard, per inch of thickness, compacted. IE, 4" should be about 400 pounds per square yard.

Cubic yards, it's gonna be about 2700#/cubic yard.

Did some very dirty math; what you described sounds like 10 loads, at 18 tons per load (15 cy) and by your numbers, $3750. With trucking included, that's really good prices.

 

[deezler]

Catskills

1.4M subscribers? WTH?

Is he here on TBN? I'd reach out and ask.

Yeah he's more popular then sometimes seems he should be. Some good content though.

He gets discussed here (dedicated thread if you search) but never seen a comment. He's too busy building stuff and buying huge machines.

InMotion Hosting

 

[deezler]

Okay, got prices today for crusher run:

Low End: (1) truck load = 15 yards = $375 delivered ($25/Yard)
High End: (1) truck load = 12 yards = $600 delivered ($50/Yard)

Assuming I have to cover 300 yards this year: 300 yards = 900 feet

Surface Area: 900 Feet x 9 Feet wide = 8,100 Ft^2 = 900 Yd^2

So how do I convert 900 Yd^2 to truck loads? I am lost in the last step here...

That low end price is nearly too good to be true. My suspicion is that a big dump truck would show up and tell you it has 15 yards in it, but in reality it spreads more like 10-12. Been there.

The truck capacity is in CUBIC yards. If you spread to 6" thick, thats 1/6 or 0.167 of a yard deep. I usually calculate everything in cubic feet and just divide by 27 to get yards needed.

Whats even more fun is when you get quoted by the ton of stone, and have to figure out how dense and wet/dry the stone is.

In your case you have a big project needing multiple loads, so you can adapt on the fly for how many more you'll need to finish it out.

 

[paulsharvey]

The beauty of buying buying by the ton vs CY, is yiu get a scale ticket when they leave the rock pit. Doesn't mater much; it should be between 2300-2700 lbs per CY for most road base material; a washed rock will be lighter.

 

[paulsharvey]

Arguing with truck drivers on what percentage fill a truck is, of a theoretically cubic capacity is no fun.

If you are worried; a full truck should have a nice center front mound, small front corner holes, and pretty decent "holes" at the back corners. If there is no center mound, above the sideboards, your getting cheated.

 

[kozal01]

I know Im a bit late to the party here but if you havent picked up a rear implement already I would recommend a box blade over a regular blade. I have both and the box blade is much easier to get a level grade with and with the rippers it will work much better if the driveway ever gets compacted and rutted. My 5' Tarter box blade was $950 new, weighs 400 pounds and my small Kioti has no problem pulling it. The 7' back blade I have weighs less than my box blade. Once you get a good base down of course.

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

Once it's dry out there, if the area you need gravel is pretty close to level and the first pictures represent it well, the driver should be able to tailgate the majority. I built about a 450' driveway last year and had 4 loads of SB2 Grade 7 tailgated on it. It ended up being deeper than it needed to be, 3 loads would probably have done it. Tailgating just means the driver will chain the tailgate so it will only open a few inches and drive while its dumping. It ends up about the width of the truck and the depth can be controlled by the speed of the truck within reason. If they do a good job with it, any type of rear blade would be ok.

Around here SB2 Grade 7 is called road base. It's probably 2-3 inch stone with the fines in it. It packs really well and stays put. I built up and crowned my base with shale that I dug on site then topped it with the road base. So far we have had some long, heavy soaking rains and it did not effect the driveway.

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[Forest_Man]

Yeah he's more popular then sometimes seems he should be. Some good content though.

He gets discussed here (dedicated thread if you search) but never seen a comment. He's too busy building stuff and buying huge machines.

InMotion Hosting

What a luxury selling property maintenance services and not even needing to list a phone number to contact. I am jealous.

 

[Forest_Man]

That low end price is nearly too good to be true. My suspicion is that a big dump truck would show up and tell you it has 15 yards in it, but in reality it spreads more like 10-12. Been there.

The truck capacity is in CUBIC yards.

So when they sell you a truck load at 12 (or 15) yards, they are selling you cubic yards, a volume. That makes sense.

What doesn't make sense is that there is no way to verify how much you are actually getting?

 

[Forest_Man]

The beauty of buying buying by the ton vs CY, is yiu get a scale ticket when they leave the rock pit. Doesn't mater much; it should be between 2300-2700 lbs per CY for most road base material; a washed rock will be lighter.

I did get a quote by the weight: 15 yards or 2 ton = $375

15 yds = 2 ton
15 yds = 4,000 Lbs
1 yd = 266 Lbs

Something seems off. Either my ton>Lbs conversion (1 ton = 2,000 Lbs) is wrong or this is a very light way cubic yard of crusher run.

I'll call them tomorrow again to clarify this quote.

 

[Forest_Man]

I know Im a bit late to the party here

I hope not! Please join the party!

but if you havent picked up a rear implement already I would recommend a box blade over a regular blade. I have both and the box blade is much easier to get a level grade with and with the rippers it will work much better if the driveway ever gets compacted and rutted. My 5' Tarter box blade was $950 new, weighs 400 pounds and my small Kioti has no problem pulling it. The 7' back blade I have weighs less than my box blade. Once you get a good base down of course.

I have not picked up any driveway attachment.

This is the rollercoaster summary:

1. Started with box blade, after initial research on how to main gravel road - it seemed like preferred option.
2. Considered a rear blade, after discovering it is easier to create drainage swales with them - and the fact that they are way cheaper than box blade.
3. Discovered the Grading Scraper/Land Plane after watching a Kubota dealer video comparing and recommending the Grade Scraper over the Box Blade.

So as you can see, this party is in full mode. I appreciate your recommendation for the box blade over the rear blade.

Do you have any experience with a Grading Scraper as well?