Seeders Driveway Maintenance - Box Scraper?

[JeffroL]

I maintain about 1/4 mile of rural driveway, connected to a 2 mile private road where I also am responsible for a good amount of maintenance. I currently primarily rely on a 6' adjustable blade, which I can swing relative the ground and side to side to cut / pull gravel out of ditches. My primary challenge are some large ruts generated by heavy rains in some spots and also a high crown in the middle of the drive on some stretches. Grass grows thick in those areas and I get grass in a lot of less frequently travelled spots.

I'm leaning towards a box scraper but would like opinions. Is that the proper tool? What brand should I look at? What size? I have a Kubota M7060 (70hp) and a Duetz D4006 (35hp). Both very capable tractors. The Kubota has a FEL.

I would value any experience / advice you would be willing to share.

-Jeff

 

[bcp]

If you are going to buy a tool for road maintenance, get a Land Plane Grading Scraper.



Bruce

 

[Tinstafl]

I have both of them and say the land plane grader scraper with scarifiers. It does a better job easier. The first time you might have to do a few more passes but it is the best thing I have found. I have an 84 inch big Gannon BB with hydro scarifiers and it does a great job of moving material but my wood land plane does a better job on the road.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

With out a doubt, a Land Plane Grading Scraper (LPGS) would be your best implement for maintenance. Depending on your road, a 7' or 8' would be a good match. Get as heavy of a unit as you can afford. Weight is definitely your friend for this application, as it is for most grading applications.

 

[Tinstafl]

Oh and a hydraulic top link is your best friend too.

 

[Fallon]

LPGS is the best tool for road maintenance. A box blade is a 2nd place. A box blade will be a more flexible for more varied tasks like digging & moving dirt & gravel.

The box blade is a pocket knife, the LPGS is a chefs knife. Both will chop veggies, but only the pocket knife gets used everywhere.

I have a box blade now, but have been collecting grader blades & other parts to end up building a LPGS.

 

[oosik]

I have a mile long gravel driveway. I have - HD rear blade, HD roll over box blade and HD land plane grading scraper. I also have a hydraulic top link. I have 34+ years experience maintaining this driveway. The best, easiest implement for summer maintenance, by far, is the land plane grading scraper. Both the ROBB & the LPGS have scarifiers - used to tear out and repair pot holes. The rear blade clears the winter snows.

My driveway is a mixture of gravel, sand & volcanic ash - so after the spring rains, it set up like concrete. Trying to maintain my driveway with just the rear blade is simply an ugly joke.

 

[TripleR]

I maintain our roads with a LP HR3584 and it works fine, but I have TnT and road maintenance is not my primary tasks. Now if I only maintained roads and or had the money and storage space, I'd sure buy a LPGS, much quicker and easier to learn to use.

 

[JeffroL]

Thanks for the all the information. I'm leaning towards a box blade simply because it's more versatile and the driveway isn't all that big, single lane with only a few spots that need significant / regular work. Plus I'd like it to level out some high spots and groundhog holes in the fields, which will be a regular thing because they will just get dug back out time and time again. I've tried using my loader and it's not terrible, but tricky to get just right. Any thoughts on the Tar Rover brand? I can get an 84" unit right down the street for $995.

 

[jeff9366]

I'd like it to level out some high spots and groundhog holes in the fields, which will be a regular thing because they will just get dug back out time and time again. I've tried using my loader and it's not terrible, but tricky to get just right.

I do not understand. You created this thread seeking advice. Six T-B-N "heavy hitters" replied, with a Bazillion T-B-N posts between them, all recommending LPGS, and you are going with a Box Blade?

LPGS is the right implement.

Consider a $400 Ratchet Rake bucket attachment for the groundhogs and high spots. I use mine for filling Gopher Turtle holes and low spots several times each month. Much easier to mount than a Box Blade, much easier to use than a Box Blade. (I own a Box Blade.)

Ratchet Rakes are sold by the T-B-N store.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

Thanks for the all the information. I'm leaning towards a box blade simply because it's more versatile and the driveway isn't all that big, single lane with only a few spots that need significant / regular work. Plus I'd like it to level out some high spots and groundhog holes in the fields, which will be a regular thing because they will just get dug back out time and time again. I've tried using my loader and it's not terrible, but tricky to get just right. Any thoughts on the Tar Rover brand? I can get an 84" unit right down the street for $995.

If you can purchase a new 84" box blade for $995, I can 99.9% be sure that it will not perform as you would like it to. Any 7' grading implement to be used behind your M7060 needs to weigh at a minimum of 1000lbs to actually perform well.

For the price that you have posted, I'm guessing 500-600lbs tops.

All I can say is good luck with whatever decision you make. :thumbsup:

 

[JeffroL]

LOL, I had the same thought shortly after posting. I'm re-evaluating the plan

 

[coldsteelva]

I'm relatively new here and local to you, but just recently took delivery of a LandShark LPGS from EverythingAttachments. I only have a 25HP Massey, but this thing is awesome. Used my bucket to pull gravel back onto the driveway, dropped this down onto its skids and drove forward. It does all the work for you. Only thing to get right is the top-link so it rides mostly level. Didn't even need to use the included scarifiers.

 

[TripleR]

Yep, we have a Land Pride BB2584 that we use only rarely and have welded sections of RR tracks to add weight so it's OK for a counter weight, but it was replaced with a HR3584. If I could afford it, I'd buy a heavier 8' Woods for the M and just use the LP on my L5740.

 

[Fallon]

I do not understand. You created this thread seeking advice. Six T-B-N "heavy hitters" replied, with a Bazillion T-B-N posts between them, all recommending LPGS, and you are going with a Box Blade?

LPGS is the right implement.

Consider a $400 Ratchet Rake bucket attachment for the groundhogs and high spots. I use mine for filling Gopher Turtle holes and low spots several times each month. Much easier to mount than a Box Blade, much easier to use than a Box Blade. (I own a Box Blade.)

Ratchet Rakes are sold by the T-B-N store.

As often is the case, the TBN brain trust might have provided slightly off topic answers that answered the problem better than the OP question asked the question.

A good tool for the job might work better in the long run for many jobs than the best tool for a specific job.

 

[JeffroL]

I do not understand. You created this thread seeking advice. Six T-B-N "heavy hitters" replied, with a Bazillion T-B-N posts between them, all recommending LPGS, and you are going with a Box Blade?

LPGS is the right implement.

Consider a $400 Ratchet Rake bucket attachment for the groundhogs and high spots. I use mine for filling Gopher Turtle holes and low spots several times each month. Much easier to mount than a Box Blade, much easier to use than a Box Blade. (I own a Box Blade.)

Ratchet Rakes are sold by the T-B-N store.

I'm considering just holding off on any purchase at this point. The LPGS units are double the price of a Box Blade and that's for a lighter LPGS as well. To get into the 1000# range or higher, I'm looking at $2000+. I'm not quite ready to spend that. My fixed blade does a good enough job and is advantaged by already being in my shed

-Jeff

 

[MtnViewRanch]

I'm considering just holding off on any purchase at this point. The LPGS units are double the price of a Box Blade and that's for a lighter LPGS as well. To get into the 1000# range or higher, I'm looking at $2000+. I'm not quite ready to spend that. My fixed blade does a good enough job and is advantaged by already being in my shed

-Jeff

Waiting sounds like the right thing to do for you. 12 years ago I made the mistake of listening to my dealer and went with a couple of medium duty implements that my dealer said would be fine running behind my 75hp tractor. WRONG, bent both of them in the first weekend of use. Sent pictures to them showing the problems, I was told that I had abused them and that nothing would be covered under warranty.

That was a $2000 mistake, but I have NEVER made that mistake again and hopefully saved many others from doing the same.

 

[JeffroL]

Here's an honest question. I've read in multiple places that you should buy a heavier implement (blade, leveler, etc.) based upon your tractor size. It will work better. That intuitively doesn't make sense to me. Why would putting a lighter tool behind a heavier tractor work less well than the same implement behind a lighter tractor? Or is it just a factor that heavier tools will always work better regardless of the tractor and stand up to the abuse the heavier tractor can kick out?

Example, I have an ancient Bush Hog 406 which is just a workhorse behind my 35HP Deutz. But it works SO MUCH BETTER behind my newish Kubota 71HP. My Duetz doesn't like to run at it's full RPM so maybe the PTO RPMs are a little low, but the tool never binds up behind my Kubota and just overall works better. Why are things so different here?

-Jeff

 

[drdoolittle]

Here are some pictures of a small box blade I folded up because I used it with too large of tractor. You can use them but they give up long before you notice they've been screaming for mercy. I was back into a brush pile to quickly bunch it and found a stump. The tractor didn't slow down but the blade just started folding. The metal bending noise alerted me to the "problem" so now it's waiting for me to get some torch/welding time to fix.

 

[bcp]

Here's an honest question. I've read in multiple places that you should buy a heavier implement (blade, leveler, etc.) based upon your tractor size. It will work better. That intuitively doesn't make sense to me. Why would putting a lighter tool behind a heavier tractor work less well than the same implement behind a lighter tractor? Or is it just a factor that heavier tools will always work better regardless of the tractor and stand up to the abuse the heavier tractor can kick out?

The light implement won't WORK less well behind a heavy tractor than a light one, but it is much easier to OVERWORK (damage) it with the heavy tractor, therefore it is not as good. And you won't be able to accomplish as much as with a heavier implement.

As an extreme thought experiment, compare a tractor with a rear blade to the same tractor with a garden hoe hitched behind. The garden hoe won't move less dirt than pulling it by hand, but it won't last very long, either. It is no longer a good "implement."

Bruce