Best way to smooth this out? Tilled land.

[g8erh8er]

Our property used to have a bunch of pines on it and many were removed and the stumps ground several years back. That's left the land very rough. I've started tilling some sections so I can have something smoother to mow in the future.

I thought I would be able to smooth & compact the tilled dirt with my box blade tipped back on the rear blade, but the soil is so soft that the blade just sinks and digs in when lowered all the way. One caveat here is that I tried doing this when the ground was fairly saturated, so I may have better luck waiting for it to dry out some.

If the box blade method doesn't work, I'm thinking the most economical way I'll be able to get everything smoothed out is by dragging a chain harrow over it multiple times, and hope the combined action of the tractor tires compacting the ground and the chain drag smoothing gets me where I need to be.

Any thoughts? Pics below show what I'm dealing with. There's a lot of bahia grass mixed in with the dirt still. Not sure if I should continue trying to work it into the dirt by tilling more or just smooth it as is.

 

[rangerfredbob]

I've had luck using my box scraper with just a light touch on the high spots with the top link angled forward so the skids are dragging and holding the blade up a little, works ok on small areas but takes a lot of paying attention. After that I take the chain harrow and smooth it out, or a combo by pulling the chain harrow behind the box blade...

Best would be gauge wheels on the box blade the same distance from the tractor axle to the blade behind the blade, then it would level it pretty good.

 

[duffer]

From the look of the picture, I'd go over it again with your tiller/disk, to make sure the dirt is really loose. Maybe even a couple of times at 45° angles against each other. Then I'd find a railroad tie, a steel pipe, or other large, heavy object and drag it over the entire area a few times. Dress it out with the chain link drag, or if you have access to a spike tooth harrow, that would be great as well.

After you get a rain, let it dry for a day, and then go over it again, and again for the next couple of rains. Should end up really smooth in the end.

 

[bcp]

Bruce

 

[Thomas]

Could you borrow set harrows than afterwards something in the line of what duffer said.

 

[mred2]

If the pines were cut more than 7 years, you may be ok. Even if they were ground a foot deep, the roots will rot over time and you may still get holes later. Agree, work it at more than one angle. Then drag it with something. An old log, chain fence gate, tires tied together. I have seen a lot. I chained 3 cross ties together in the past.

 

[Tomtint]

I would go over it s viral times with a rake,...then if you have access to a Land plane grading scraper..it will be like a pool table when you are done. If you don't have one of those..In the past I used a 48" wide x 84" long section of chain link fence dragged behind my 4x4 quad and it worked fantastic.

 

[LouNY]

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Bruce

Those were used to float the ground after it had been plowed, disked, and harrowed.
The ground has to be dry enough to work on with out rutting or packing.

 

[TractorGuy]

Pictures don't look that bad to me.

I've been working some clear-cut land with disc harrows and a landscape rake. Not perfect but good enough.

In my case I have dug the stumps out.

I wish I had a tiller.

Doesn't seem like a tiller would be happy in ground stumps.

 

[g8erh8er]

Thank you for all the replies. Stumps were ground in 2013 and I haven't seen any wood come to the surface when tilling down 8 inches so I'm hopeful everything has rotted by now.

I do have a landscape rake but I have a feeling it would get clogged quickly with all the grass that's mixed in with the soil. Additionally, unless I constantly modulate the 3 pt, it will try to dig down in the soft earth as opposed to leveling the surface.

Something I didn't consider is turning the rake tines backwards and somehow cradling a log in the tines with chains or something.

I like that idea better than a chain drag harrow because it would give me the ability to raise the 3 pt and back into the corners. That, and I already have everything I need (would have to purchase the harrow). Might be onto to something here.