Adjustablility of Landscape Plane question

[jenkinsph]

I am currently designing a new 14' width landplane with 8 1/2' skids. This should weigh about 2600 lbs and is about as large as I can trailer without issues. I agree with Brian that higher weights will work better since they have less tendency to ride over mounds, instead the heavy landplanes cut through the mounds.

Very important to make sure the entire frame is very rigid without any flexing, that is much more important than the blade depth you choose imo.[/QUOTE]

I agree and cannot be stressed enough.

What are you going to pull that 14'er with???

Brian,
Had to add up the materials after doing more modifications to the frame and now the weight is 2955 give or take a few lbs. My cost will be cheap though about $2000 with new grader blades complete. Will be using 4x16" rectangular box tubing frame with braces front to rear to reduce twisting. This will be for finish planing of small pastures and fields and will be used with a new roller I am finishing this week (will post pics here soon). Also converting my Gannon to use with Topcon auto machine control, just finished the drawings and will start cutting out the parts this week for it.

Planning on buying a good used tractor along the lines of a Deere 6430 or similar size/weight of other brands.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

Brian,
Had to add up the materials after doing more modifications to the frame and now the weight is 2955 give or take a few lbs. My cost will be cheap though about $2000 with new grader blades complete. Will be using 4x16" rectangular box tubing frame with braces front to rear to reduce twisting. This will be for finish planing of small pastures and fields and will be used with a new roller I am finishing this week (will post pics here soon). Also converting my Gannon to use with Topcon auto machine control, just finished the drawings and will start cutting out the parts this week for it.

Planning on buying a good used tractor along the lines of a Deere 6430 or similar size/weight of other brands.

OK, please keep us up to date. Keep me in mind if you need clevis or tube type cylinders. I can usually beat everyone else's prices by enough to make it worth while.

 

[McGeesEquip]

Dirt Dog MFG recently came out with a new leveling blade with adjustable blades. The unit is currently available in a 8Ft unit, but a 7ft unit is being considered in the near future.







This unit can be found on our web site for more details on the link below.

Dirt Dog 8Ft Heavy Duty Road Leveling Blade

Thanks,

 

[TBarD]

My 7' Befco is height-adjustable but I have never had a need to adjust it. Most likely, the irregularities in the ground you are working will be a larger factor than adjustability in the land plane. (The bigger issue is rocks but there is not much to do about that with the landscape plane itself).

 

[jenkinsph]

TBarD,
I am in Ruidoso NM and agree rock can be a problem for sure. I have used a rock bucket with 3" spacing to gather the larger stuff and try to press or roll the smaller stuff below the top surface. Running the landplane in reverse also helps to push the smaller rocks down.

 

[Rustyiron]

I have 4" of adjustment and use it a lot. The next mod is to replace the hand cranks with hydraulics. It can add a good bit of work to your build (adjustment) but I think that it is worth it. FWIW, I put a ssqa on the back & a 3pt on the front. It's nice for visibility on the SS, but works much better on the 3pt. On the SS, you can set the "arms" in float but not the "curl" that allows the blade to bollow the contour of the land. The heavy & ridgid the guy's say is important. Part of my build below link.

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/build-yourself/204355-road-grader-blade-progressing-pics.html

 

[woodlandfarms]

This is all great stuff guys. Not expecting consensus but looking for input.

As for pushing, while my tractor is just totally friggin cool, it leaves a lot to be desired. Its a swiss army knife. Can't do anything great, but it does it all pretty well. Yes, I can go 45 on a slope and lift a bucket at the same time... But the bucket only gets to 6 feet so trashing the side of your truck happens a lot. It is great to watch your implements work out front, not so much fun to eat the dirt and dust on a constant basis. The design of the front arms is such that pushing is not an option in float mode. The tractor just walks over the arms. Fun but embarrasing none the less. So pull mode is all that will really work.

Good to know your opinion is to keep it at 6ft. I would love 7 as I maintain a mile of gravel / dirt / mud road but my gut tells me you are right. I was hoping as none of the dirt is supposed to stay in landplane that it would reduce the frictional weight.

Rusty, I have drooled over your design and implementation. It is beyond my skill set.

For those of you who adjust, why. What are the reasons you adjust?

 

[hosspuller]

I have a Road Boss. The blades are adjustable. The blade holders are slotted to allow changes to the amount of blade below the skids. I maintain 1500 feet of well traveled gravel road. In 12 years, I've adjusted the blades once to compensate for blade wear. Depending on your usage, this might be more or less. I think the blade adjustment allows more use from expensive blades while keeping the HP requirement low.

 

[Gordon Gould]

The blades on my plane are fixed at 3/4" below the skids. While I can't deny that adjustability adds something in flexibility, in my case, the way I use my plane, I don't know what that would be. Other than prehaps prolonging blade life/usage as hosspuller says. My roads, which contain a wide variety of material, are all graded to a quality finish that I am happy with with my fixed blade LPGS.
However, I do indeed make adjustments. Any cutting adjustment I need is easily done by adjusting the top link. Effectively making the blades more or less aggressive by changing the angle of how the the plane sits on the road.
Edit: Not really the angle - more the pressure distributition. More pressure forward - most aggressive, flat - normal, more pressure rear - least aggressive.