Box Blade or Land Plane - for this dirt road type? Other?

[void777]

frogracer
My vote is for landplane with rippers.

 

[LouNY]

I use a back blade for 95% of my driveway maintenance, the box blade and rippers are for moving material and tearing up compacted surfaces. With the back blade I can grade, crown, cut ditches, and move some materials with the blade in the working position, when the driveways just need a minor touch up and wash boarding slicked up and stones moved back into wheel tracks I can spin the blade around backwards and set it at an angle then pull it and it will smooth pack and gently move material.
With a T4.120 I would be looking for at least a 9 footer and preferably a 10 or 12 footer, I run a 9 and an 11 with either of my tractors (55 hp and 80 hp) and they handle them easily.

 

[Gordon Gould]

I have no trouble doing surface maintenance on a crowned road with a LandPlane w/o ruining the crown. The crown was originally formed with a blade but the idea that you can't use a LandPlane after the road is shaped w/o flattening it just isn't true.





gg

 

[lostcreekranch]

I have no trouble doing surface maintenance on a crowned road with a LandPlane w/o ruining the crown. The crown was originally formed with a blade but the idea that you can't use a LandPlane after the road is shaped w/o flattening it just isn't true.

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gg

I agree with Gordon. A land plane can neither crown a road or uncrown it. Long live the road!

 

[MtnViewRanch]

I have no trouble doing surface maintenance on a crowned road with a LandPlane w/o ruining the crown. The crown was originally formed with a blade but the idea that you can't use a LandPlane after the road is shaped w/o flattening it just isn't true.

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gg

I agree with Gordon and Rick.

I believe that the de-crowning (is that a word?:confused3 becomes an issue when you have a 12' wide road and you are using a 10'-12' LPGS. I know that my roads vary from 12'-20' wide and I typically use my 1400lb 7' LPGS and to the best of my knowledge my crown has only been diminished ever so slightly over the past 12 years. As in I re-crowned it about 6 years ago from how it was when we bought the property. I do have a 5' LPGS also, but have not found that I ever really needed it other than if I choose to use the smaller tractor vs the larger one.

As has been noted by others, a LPGS simply does not transfer all that much material from point A to point B like a box blade does.

Another point that I would like to make for others to understand. As far a general maintenance, I can get the same great results with either of my grading implements, box blade, rear blade and LPGS. The HUGE factor is that the general maintenance can be done with the LPGS in less than half the time of the other implements.

Just how things are with the circumstances and conditions that I happen to have.

 

[lostcreekranch]

I’m waiting on some rain to start maintenance on our roads and drives. I’ve found that I have a much better result if the material has some moisture.

I get a bit of material outside of the edges after a year of trucks, tractors, etc. I learned that my rear grader “will not” move that material back into the main track. Only my rear blade, with skid shoes, will do that.

I’ll take some before / after pictures to demonstrate ..... if we can ever get decent rain.

 

[jenkinsph]

I would suspect a rear Blade will be needed to dress up the edges from time to time. A land plane grader scraper will be used more often to maintain a smooth surface. I think you will need both to do it right.

Don't see the need for a box Blade in this specific case. That said you could do this job with a box Blade but would require a lot more time and patience . I would only consider this if buying more implements was out of the budget.