First time using a rear blade, man I really suck!

[redman135]

soldier415, with a topntilt you shouldn't need a hydraulic gauge wheel.

al2, make sure when you fit a gauge wheel there is enough room for the wheel AND the gravel or what ever you are pushing.
Also set the down speed on the 3ph to medium decent or slower as if someone drops the blade you may have a bent gauge wheel arm at the receiver hitch.

 

[JRobyn]

You aren't kidding on "aggressive" crown! I usually aim for maybe a 1" - 2" crown. But then my surface is much more dense than yours, with lots of crusher-run fines and decayed limestone.

 

[airbiscuit]

Soldier, your road is looking pretty good in my opinion. In a short amount of time it looks like you've made a lot of progress learning the blade.
In the link to the gauge wheel I posted before, it did list a manual kit for about $550 if you were interested.


Al,
That's a good idea to add a gauge wheel in the receiver hitch location. I had welded a hitch on my box blade to tow around my log splitter, but never thought of the gauge wheel.

I can actually see the value of having a gauge wheel on the box blade as well, albeit not as much as the rear blade.

Here are a couple pics of the receiver hitch I have. Please don't mind my welds, as you can tell, im an amateur at best.


View attachment 522497

View attachment 522498

View attachment 522499

If you get this, all you have to do is fab up everything around it!

 

[RichM752]

It's all about the angle of the dangle, according to Bob. I've found this video useful.

how to set up a box blade, the angle of the dangle! - YouTube

 

[Soldier415]

You aren't kidding on "aggressive" crown! I usually aim for maybe a 1" - 2" crown. But then my surface is much more dense than yours, with lots of crusher-run fines and decayed limestone.

Without an aggressive crown water was just running straight down and washing out the road around the bridge abutment

 

[airbiscuit]

I have seldom had to knock a crown some because it was too aggressive. I have often had to make a crown higher. The other thing that has worked for me is to carve out swales mid-hill to divert and slow the water running down the sides of the road. I use shallow ditches when the terrain allows, but often the sides are higher than the road. Then I create a depression (swale) to make a place for the water to go. " Water will go where water wants to go". If you can make it want to go off the road it solves lots of problems.

 

[tmcj]

On a side note, turning the rear blade around and using the back side to push snow works pretty well also. By the looks of your drive and since you are in Vermont, I'm sure you are no stranger to plowing snow. But if you decide to use your rear blade for it, this will help to keep from pushing all of your recently placed stone away and while keeping it leveled also.

 

[Jd5203]

What we do with ours is leave the blade forward, go slower not a crawl but not making the dust fly, when you feel the tractor go up, put the lever down to compensate, tractor sinks down lift the implement a bit. If your tractor has draft control I would suggest using that as you are new to this, this is used to keep a constant depth when plowing but will do the same for you. It will take some time to get used to it. For working with crusher run you will be able to grade it better when its been packed.

 

[Soldier415]

On a side note, turning the rear blade around and using the back side to push snow works pretty well also. By the looks of your drive and since you are in Vermont, I'm sure you are no stranger to plowing snow. But if you decide to use your rear blade for it, this will help to keep from pushing all of your recently placed stone away and while keeping it leveled also.

I use a 68" rear mounted snowblower for the driveway