Hello
My name is Dave. Been on and off the site for some time. I'm very grateful for this forum and its members. Recently brought home a new LS 4140h with BH and BB. My step father has a road boss for his gravel road and I looked into them. They seem like the "rolex" of the LPGS implements, however the price is a bit high for me. I think it was upwards of $2600 for a 6' model to my door. So I hit the steel yards in Oklahoma city. I found some drops of 15 40 C channel. 15" high and 40lbs a foot. They're about 3/4" thick. Both pieces were 8 feet and change in length, so 320lbs a piece. Bought some 2 x 4 x 1/4" and some 4" x 1/4" square tubing for the cross members. Bought some 3 x 5 x 3/8" angle iron for the blade mounts and then found some discounted CAT grader blades 6' in length. All of that for less than 25% of the road boss...my welder just paid for itself...lol.
Either way, got everything home in my old truck (poor thing had the arse sagging something awful). The $1 bill is for reference.
Got everything home and remembered I don't own a forklift to move the 320lbs of steel pieces. Anyway, got them unloaded and set it up to have the mounts on the deep end of the garage. Mistake there since now I can't back the new tractor in to pick it up and move it out once complete. Oh well, I'll weld some chain to it and move it with the FEL and get it out of there.
Got the pieces cut and made the mounts on the steel. It'll be 6' wide to match the blades. I decided (after reading every single thread on angled vs straight blades) to make them straight for simplicity sake. My T&T from Brian won't be here until mid FEB anyway, so I'll make it work until then. From a previous bumper build, I have a sheet of 1/2" plate that I used to make the 3 point attachments. They look like they were cut by a drunk 4 year old, but they'll work well. It's solid, square, but the pieces ain't pretty. Guess I'll keep my day job. A plasma table is not in the budget.
I realize my tendency when building things is to overbuild, including this project. I figure weight is my friend, particularly with a 5 year old neglected gravel road. 40HP tractor should do fine with it. Best I can tell I'm in around 700lbs with this.
Things left to do:
1. Cut the angle iron to length
2. Poke slots in angle iron and mount blades (front should be 3/4" below the sides of the plane, back will be essentially flush)
3. Tack the blade assembly into the C Channel
4. Cut the bevels in the C Channel sides on the front side so it doesn't dig in while in use on the tractor end of the implement.
5. Decide on the length of the C channel sides. They're 98" long now. At 6' wide, I think I'll cut it down to 7' in length. My only issue with that is
losing the mass/weight of those walls.
6. I'm toying with putting a "back door" on the thing like Gordon Gould (https://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/237153-land-plane-grading-scraper-2.html) just in case I want to move some material also
7. I'm also toying with adding scarifer slots on the front cross member. I figure I can switch them between the box blade and this tool as I only own 1 tractor. On the other hand I have a box blade with said scarifers.
8. Possibly I need to reinforce/gusset/brace the top link arm as it's only welded 1/4" 2x4. Figure that's a weak point in my design.
What do you guys think? Am I overlooking anything? Thanks in advance for any input or critiques.
-Dave
My name is Dave. Been on and off the site for some time. I'm very grateful for this forum and its members. Recently brought home a new LS 4140h with BH and BB. My step father has a road boss for his gravel road and I looked into them. They seem like the "rolex" of the LPGS implements, however the price is a bit high for me. I think it was upwards of $2600 for a 6' model to my door. So I hit the steel yards in Oklahoma city. I found some drops of 15 40 C channel. 15" high and 40lbs a foot. They're about 3/4" thick. Both pieces were 8 feet and change in length, so 320lbs a piece. Bought some 2 x 4 x 1/4" and some 4" x 1/4" square tubing for the cross members. Bought some 3 x 5 x 3/8" angle iron for the blade mounts and then found some discounted CAT grader blades 6' in length. All of that for less than 25% of the road boss...my welder just paid for itself...lol.
Either way, got everything home in my old truck (poor thing had the arse sagging something awful). The $1 bill is for reference.
Got everything home and remembered I don't own a forklift to move the 320lbs of steel pieces. Anyway, got them unloaded and set it up to have the mounts on the deep end of the garage. Mistake there since now I can't back the new tractor in to pick it up and move it out once complete. Oh well, I'll weld some chain to it and move it with the FEL and get it out of there.
Got the pieces cut and made the mounts on the steel. It'll be 6' wide to match the blades. I decided (after reading every single thread on angled vs straight blades) to make them straight for simplicity sake. My T&T from Brian won't be here until mid FEB anyway, so I'll make it work until then. From a previous bumper build, I have a sheet of 1/2" plate that I used to make the 3 point attachments. They look like they were cut by a drunk 4 year old, but they'll work well. It's solid, square, but the pieces ain't pretty. Guess I'll keep my day job. A plasma table is not in the budget.
I realize my tendency when building things is to overbuild, including this project. I figure weight is my friend, particularly with a 5 year old neglected gravel road. 40HP tractor should do fine with it. Best I can tell I'm in around 700lbs with this.
Things left to do:
1. Cut the angle iron to length
2. Poke slots in angle iron and mount blades (front should be 3/4" below the sides of the plane, back will be essentially flush)
3. Tack the blade assembly into the C Channel
4. Cut the bevels in the C Channel sides on the front side so it doesn't dig in while in use on the tractor end of the implement.
5. Decide on the length of the C channel sides. They're 98" long now. At 6' wide, I think I'll cut it down to 7' in length. My only issue with that is
losing the mass/weight of those walls.
6. I'm toying with putting a "back door" on the thing like Gordon Gould (https://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/237153-land-plane-grading-scraper-2.html) just in case I want to move some material also
7. I'm also toying with adding scarifer slots on the front cross member. I figure I can switch them between the box blade and this tool as I only own 1 tractor. On the other hand I have a box blade with said scarifers.
8. Possibly I need to reinforce/gusset/brace the top link arm as it's only welded 1/4" 2x4. Figure that's a weak point in my design.
What do you guys think? Am I overlooking anything? Thanks in advance for any input or critiques.
-Dave
