Best Attachment for Grading Gravel Driveway

[lhfarm]

Welcome to TBN! You will find great information given by a great group of people with all kinds of experiences. Gravel driveway care is always a hot topic here. Try using the search feature and you will have a weekend's worth of reading.

I maintain my 1400' drive with a back blade, box blade and landscape rake. The latter two with gauge wheels. I started with the back blade, added the box blade and finally the rake. I have other uses for the box blade and rake, so at the time, that seemed a better investment. If starting again, I'd probably buy a grading scraper, based on all I've read here.

Let us know what you end up doing. And pictures are always good!

 

[AGTtactical]

I use a Land Pride Grading Scraper. Any brand should work. Grading Scrapers are similar to Box Scraper, except they have a couple of differences:

1. Grading Scrapers have no "back" on them. This allows the gravel to build up and climb over the blade relatively soon. This minimizes how much material you drag away and makes for a nice surface in short order.

2. Grading Scrapers' blades (mine have two) are permanently angled (not sure if all brands do this) so excess material is somewhat drawn to the center of the road. This makes a small crown in the road.
I have an 8' Grading Scraper and use it on my 800 foot gravel driveway. I can honestly say that it takes me longer to hitch and unhitch than it does to drive up and down the driveway with it. One pass up and one pass down and my driveway looks brand new. These things really are amazing. If you have a gravel driveway, there is no better tool than a Grading Scraper. Everytime I talk to someone that has used one for the first time, they are simply amazed -- as I was when I first used mine.

How do you like the 8 width? I was going to buy the same width, but Landpride told me not to get anything bigger than a 6' wide for a driveway 12' wide. Because the material is moved into the center of the driveway, they claim you want one half the width of your drive. 10' wide driveway = 5' grading scraper. 12' wide driveway = 6' grading scraper. If you get something wider, say a 6' on a 10' wide road, the material is dumped two feet past center. We live on top of a mountain, so I need a crown in the center to keep water from flowing down the road.

 

[sandman2234]

I don't own a rear blade, but I also don't have a gravel driveway to maintain. I do maintain a dirt road about half a mile long. If I owned that road, or was paid to maintain it, I would own a tilt/offset rear blade and a pull behind rear grader. The grader will keep it slick as can be with just a quick pull down each direction. The rear blade will keep the ditches cleaned out and the crown done better. The rear grader is said to be able to "make a crown" but in reality, a rear blade will do it better as far as cutting down to the ditches. If you can get two attachments, get these two.
David from jax

 

[BMan2005]

One tool for everything from pulling ditches, shaping a crown, and grading a rear blade.

To maintain gravel though hands down a Land Plane/Grader. Here is a road I did a few months back with one I built. I'll add before & after pictures for you to see what it will do after 500+/- semi's use the road at about 90,000 lbs each. They are extremely easy to use as well and give the smoothest road of any pulled behind you.

 

[CalG]

I have a "hill" for an access road. In fact it is called "the hill" by all of the 6 residence families who must negotiate it each day.

I use a TA2B York rake with a drop down blade, The Wheels set the grade, with fine adjustments at the three point.
Model TA2B : York Modern

It's worked well for better than 30 years.

 

[oosik]

Well - I have a mile long gravel(mix) driveway. I say mix because it is a mix of gravel, sand, volcanic ash and a dash of clay. Easy to plow in the winter - dead straight as an arrow - sets up just like concrete after spring rains. You can drop the clutch on my Jeep - spin the rear tires and leave black rubber marks anywhere along my driveway.

I have a very heavy duty Rhino rear blade(950 - 96" @ 1100#) - a Land Pride LPGS(GS2584 - 84" @ 800#) - and a Bush Hog Roll Over Box Blade(RO720 - 72" @ 770#). I didn't want to take the chance that one type might be a lot better than the other.

Each will do a good job but only the rear blade is universal. The LPGS is very easy to learn/use but also is the most limited in its uses of the three. It will not build a crown - will not plow snow - will not move material from here to there - will not clean the roadside ditches - will not fix pot holes. It will make your driveway smooth as a pool table.

The ROBB or plain box blade will do most everything except plow snow very well and clean roadside ditches. Otherwise, it will build and maintain the crown on your driveway - will move material from here to there - fix pot holes - make your driveway reasonably smooth.

My favorite is the heavy duty rear blade. It does everything - based upon your experience and abilities - except fix pot holes. For that I put on my ROBB - it has the necessary scarifiers for pot hole repair.

The LPGS requires almost no experience and is quick to learn - hook it up and go.

The box blade and the rear blade do have a longer learning curve. I've been maintaining my mile long gravel driveway for 36+ years now and I'm still learning - with my new HD Rhino rear blade. The Land Pride rear blade made summer maintenance impossible. I now have the new rear blade and a hydraulic top link. The hydraulic top link is a fantastic addition. Infinite adjustment - on-the-go. No stop & go to make top link adjustments. Just tap the hydraulic lever and tune that rear blade down to a gnats eye lash.

BTW - see those driveway pictures the Gordon Gould and Mt View Ranch posted - - my driveway looks nothing like those pictures. My driveway looks like concrete and is just as hard.

 

[Gordon Gould]

BTW - see those driveway pictures the Gordon Gould and Mt View Ranch posted - - my driveway looks nothing like those pictures. My driveway looks like concrete and is just as hard.

Actually my road packs pretty hard - probably as hard as yours. The finish material is a mixture of crushed ledge products from 3/4" down to stone dust. All the angular edges and sizes lock together very well after being wet and compacted. My after grading pictures look like loose material because the landplane cuts and remixes the top layer of the road surface. Here is an in process picture



I also have lots of road to maintain. I have a rear blade, box blade, and land plane. The landplane gets used the most by far. I have no trouble maintaining the crown with it but use the rear blade to build or rebuild an overly worn crown. I use the box blade the least - almost never, for road maintenance except for a severe washout. For new road construction it is great.

gg

 

[AGTtactical]

I have a very heavy duty Rhino rear blade(950 - 96" @ 1100#) - a Land Pride LPGS(GS2584 - 84" @ 800#) - and a Bush Hog Roll Over Box Blade(RO720 - 72" @ 770#). I didn't want to take the chance that one type might be a lot better than the other. Each will do a good job but only the rear blade is universal. The LPGS is very easy to learn/use but also is the most limited in its uses of the three. It will not build a crown - will not plow snow - will not move material from here to there - will not clean the roadside ditches - will not fix pot holes. It will make your driveway smooth as a pool table.
The ROBB or plain box blade will do most everything except plow snow very well and clean roadside ditches. Otherwise, it will build and maintain the crown on your driveway - will move material from here to there - fix pot holes - make your driveway reasonably smooth.

My favorite is the heavy duty rear blade. It does everything - based upon your experience and abilities - except fix pot holes. For that I put on my ROBB - it has the necessary scarifiers for pot hole repair.
The LPGS requires almost no experience and is quick to learn - hook it up and go. The box blade and the rear blade do have a longer learning curve. I've been maintaining my mile long gravel driveway for 36+ years now and I'm still learning - with my new HD Rhino rear blade. The Land Pride rear blade made summer maintenance impossible. I now have the new rear blade and a hydraulic top link. The hydraulic top link is a fantastic addition. Infinite adjustment - on-the-go. No stop & go to make top link adjustments. Just tap the hydraulic lever and tune that rear blade down to a gnats eye lash.

Oosik, spot on....what I thought as well. I put down 22 loads of #34 when building my driveway (its over 1/2 mile long). We crowned it well, and no ditches. Its beautiful...a construction road for building our house, has held up really well. But, an 88 year old man drove off the road with his dump truck, spilled a bunch of rock, and tore up the edges of the road along a 100' or so. I need something to pull the rock back in toward the center. Landpride was trying to sell me their grading plane that so many talk about here, but a rear blade would seem better to fix it to me, if I'm thinking correctly. I could offset it full right, swing the right side of the blade forward at whatever max angle I can get (45 degrees), fine adjust the tilt with my TNT, and I think I could clean it up really nicely. I couldn't get a grading plane out to one side far enough to one side, and I don't think it would pull the rock back in as well. Is a rear blade best? What width rear blade do I need? Driveway is 12' most places...maybe 15' in the curves.

 

[BMan2005]

Oosik, spot on....what I thought as well. I put down 22 loads of #34 when building my driveway (its over 1/2 mile long). We crowned it well, and no ditches. Its beautiful...a construction road for building our house, has held up really well. But, an 88 year old man drove off the road with his dump truck, spilled a bunch of rock, and tore up the edges of the road along a 100' or so. I need something to pull the rock back in toward the center. Landpride was trying to sell me their grading plane that so many talk about here, but a rear blade would seem far better fix to me. I could offset it full right, swing the right side of the blade forward at whatever max angle I can get (45 degrees), fine adjust the tilt with my TNT, and I think I could clean it up really nicely. I couldn't get a grading plane out to one side far enough to one side, and I don't think it would pull the rock back in as well. Is a rear blade best? What width rear blade do I need? Driveway is 12' most places...maybe 15' in the curves.

In this case the rear blade is best and like I mentioned earlier the most versatile implement for road work, but also probably the hardest to really master. You can order a variety of them with skids or rear gauge wheels that will really help it stay at a more level plane with grading. You can also get side plates with most to make the move material similar to a box blade.

What size tractor are you using? I might have overlooked that.

Here is my Land Pride RBT4096 pulling ditches on our drive.

 

[AGTtactical]

The landplane gets used the most by far. I have no trouble maintaining the crown with it but use the rear blade to build or rebuild an overly worn crown. I use the box blade the least - almost never, for road maintenance except for a severe washout. For new road construction it is great.
gg

You have a pretty road, but not much of a crown from what I can see in this one photo. I'm not being critical...it just seems pretty flat/level straight across. Nothing wrong with that if that's the way you like it...except water will lay in the road instead of running off. Our house site is up a mountain, so we need a better crown to keep water running off the road instead of down the road. A really good crown solves most maintenance issues, especially with a solid rock base.