I used a box blade for years and was pleased with the results. I bought a rake and it was fine for finish work but was too light to move compacted rock. I eventually built a rack out of angle iron that holds 4 cinder blocks and bolts to the top of the rake. I can add blocks to increase down pressure now and it makes all the difference in how well the rake works. I haven't used the box blade since. If the rake is set on an angle, it does a great job of scraping and windrowing material which works well for rebuilding the crown. I am very pleased with how well it works to fill and distribute material evenly as well. When I am done grading the drive it looks like it has been hand leveled and raked. It is not as sensitive as a box blade and the "wash board" effect is a thing of the past. When on an angle, it even works very well for plowing snow. You would think that rocks, dirt, snow, etc would simply flow between the tines but when set on a bias, the faster you move, the more efficiently the material travels down the length of the rake. Don't get me wrong, some of it does go between the tines but it is much less than I would have imagined. For the snows we get here, it works much like a rear blade set on an angle and I can make 2 passes and have my drive cleared. With the box blade it takes much longer to clear a path, plus on the gravel I pick up less rock using the rake. The advantage of the box blade is that it will scrape more cleanly, leaving less base material....which can be a good thing or a bad thing.
