10' Land Leveler Review

[Dadnatron]

Ranger,

It has no problems at all with the 12' blade. If I drop it in a ditch, or have a really full blade and am going up hill it will grunt a bit, but I haven't had any issues with it. The times it is hardest is full blade, deep enough to be cutting and going up hill. On flat ground... I don't remember ever having any lugging at all.

I always keep it in MFWD - 4wd.

What type of dirt pan??? That is a good question. The bearings on it were discontinued in 1981, so that should tell you how OLD it is. I think it is a Reynolds 6yd (same as a John Deere 700) but the front dolly wheels have been removed so it is directly attached to the drawbar. It works great, but I've had some issues with breakdowns which have resulted in a bit of custom machining of bushings and parts. But all in all, the tractor handles it fine. My biggest problem with it is trying to get the correct depth for my 'bite'. It is difficult, and regardless of whether I use stops or not, I always tend to have to fuss far too much. I'm sure there is a trick, because no one who does this for a living would tolerate the up/down/up/down it seems I have to do in order to get the pan full.

I don't know what I'd do differently, I picked it up for $4K which while it wasn't cheap, it was 'relatively' cheap. I had looked for quite some time and needed to get something. If I had my way now, I would have tried to find a newer pan simply for the issues with the parts. But, now that I have them fixed, hopefully it will give me the time I need to finish my roads and dirt moving.

 

[oosik]

Ranger - I don't know exactly how level/smooth you are shooting for but..... that next to the bottom pic shows that you are doing a great job of smoothing out what the Cat has left behind.

Without some type of laser leveling equipment - its rather a shot in the dark. As far as smoothing goes - your box blade is doing a good job. You might also consider a Land Plane Grading Scraper - although it will not MOVE near as much dirt as your box blade.

 

[ovrszd]

Ranger,

It has no problems at all with the 12' blade. If I drop it in a ditch, or have a really full blade and am going up hill it will grunt a bit, but I haven't had any issues with it. The times it is hardest is full blade, deep enough to be cutting and going up hill. On flat ground... I don't remember ever having any lugging at all.

I always keep it in MFWD - 4wd.

What type of dirt pan??? That is a good question. The bearings on it were discontinued in 1981, so that should tell you how OLD it is. I think it is a Reynolds 6yd (same as a John Deere 700) but the front dolly wheels have been removed so it is directly attached to the drawbar. It works great, but I've had some issues with breakdowns which have resulted in a bit of custom machining of bushings and parts. But all in all, the tractor handles it fine. My biggest problem with it is trying to get the correct depth for my 'bite'. It is difficult, and regardless of whether I use stops or not, I always tend to have to fuss far too much. I'm sure there is a trick, because no one who does this for a living would tolerate the up/down/up/down it seems I have to do in order to get the pan full.

I don't know what I'd do differently, I picked it up for $4K which while it wasn't cheap, it was 'relatively' cheap. I had looked for quite some time and needed to get something. If I had my way now, I would have tried to find a newer pan simply for the issues with the parts. But, now that I have them fixed, hopefully it will give me the time I need to finish my roads and dirt moving.

I've got a 5yd Midland with dollies. If my borrow area is short and I have to fill quickly I struggle with the bite as well. If I've got enough room to fill at a slower pace it's not so bad. I think a scraper without dollies would be harder to control because of the distance between your tractor tires and trailing tire of the scraper. I also think you and I are pulling scrapers a bit large for our tractors. This makes the bite depth more critical. A bit too much and you spin out or stall the tractor. A larger tractor would pull thru it. I recently hired a 13yd scraper pulled by a 245hp 4wd tractor. He didn't struggle controlling the bite at all and could actually cut "grade" with the scraper almost as smoothly as I could with a road grader.

 

[jenkinsph]

Hello all,

Thanks for the answers. We shot grade with a laser(pounded a grade stake in) and I was pulling the dirt windrows into a hole. That was the easy part, just drop the blade as far as it would go and roll to the hole, reverse. The actual leveling part was difficult almost impossible. I didn't have a laser mounted to the blade and every 3-4 pass I would have to jump out of the seat and re-shoot. Huge pain and it didn't take long to realize that it takes some tools/skill to move dirt efficiently! I did the best I could then the money ran out and the dozer rolled on down the road. It rained a few days latter and ugh I had small pools of water all over. I am waiting for it to dry out and then take another crack at it. Really the dozer did its job and now I am within a few of inches.

When it dries out you should be able to see where the puddles were located. Try pulling dirt in to these holes. Puddles if they hold the water for too long can kill the grass that may be planted later. Just try to get the area smooth enough that it will drain without these puddles.

I would not concern myself with getting the box fully loaded. Just concentrate on moving the dirt to the low spots with as much finesse as you can muster. Don't dig too deep on a high spot, that may cause another hole to fill. Multiple light passes that overlap should get it fairly smooth. Working with what you have.

Now if you have more than the two acres to work on I might consider a different approach. I do a lot of this work and find that a land plane grader scraper does a good job with smoothing and averaging the surface. Drag type finishing tools whether factory or home made can all help with smoothing. For my work where I have to transport the equipment frequently the lpgs is more convenient for my uses. Below is a picture after smoothing with the lpgs and another after the grass was up.