Front-End Loader How does a FEL rate for grading a driveway?

[Gordon Gould]

Get to know all the tools. They all have plusses and minuses. I find my grading scraper a super road tool. I would strongly recommend you look into one.

 

[beppington]

Get to know all the tools. They all have plusses and minuses. I find my grading scraper a super road tool. I would strongly recommend you look into one.

This is the implement that will make you look like a seasoned road grading expert from the moment you put it on the ground & start dragging it around :thumbsup:

Mine's got shanks like box blade's have, so ... I don't bother with the box blade anymore :thumbsup:

Two parallel, slightly angled blades direct the material toward the road center for crowning. Very hard to mess up & dig a hole with these.

 

[Lumberdink]

I guess I'll start with what I've got (or will soon have---I've pretty much committed to a new BX2660) and go from there. Great forum with much to read!:thumbsup:

 

[scesnick]

Get to know all the tools. They all have plusses and minuses. I find my grading scraper a super road tool. I would strongly recommend you look into one.

How does that work with a more packed road surface? My road is made up of very packed crusher run. It is hard as a rock. The only way I have found that works at all is to rip it up with the teeth of the box scraper and then smooth it out.

 

[beppington]

How does that work with a more packed road surface? My road is made up of very packed crusher run. It is hard as a rock. The only way I have found that works at all is to rip it up with the teeth of the box scraper and then smooth it out.

Grading scrapers are similar enough to box blades that if your box blade won't penetrate the material, a grading scraper probably won't either. However, my Land Pride GS1572 grading scraper also has teeth just like a box blade :thumbsup:

 

[scesnick]

Grading scrapers are similar enough to box blades that if your box blade won't penetrate the material, a grading scraper probably won't either. However, my Land Pride GS1572 grading scraper also has teeth just like a box blade :thumbsup:

SO then what will a grading blade do that a regular box blade can not?

 

[MtnViewRanch]

Grader blades are just like box blades and rear blades, the heavier they are the better they work. There is no way that a 6' wide blade of any kind that weighs 500lbs is going to work as well as one that weighs 1000lbs.

A grader blade will remove washboard far better than a box blade, along with cutting high spots down and filling in low areas. Sometimes you should wait for some rain to dampen things down before any grading is even attempted

 

[cttractor]

I have a 2.5 mile road/driveway that I have to maintain. I HAVE intimate knowledge of this feat and I will echo what others have said. Box scraper with rippers is the only way to Go. FEL would be a waste of time.

Wow! 2.5 miles? I'd think you'd need access to a motor grader for something of that length.

 

[scesnick]

Wow! 2.5 miles? I'd think you'd need access to a motor grader for something of that length.

Yeah, it is quite long but in the summer i only have to take care of 1.1 mi of it. The coal company on the other side of the mountain takes care of the rest. Now, in the wintertime when they shut down I get the pleasure of plowing the whole thing . And two yrs. ago we got a bit over 22ft of snow !!!!

 

[scesnick]

Grader blades are just like box blades and rear blades, the heavier they are the better they work. There is no way that a 6' wide blade of any kind that weighs 500lbs is going to work as well as one that weighs 1000lbs.

A grader blade will remove washboard far better than a box blade, along with cutting high spots down and filling in low areas. Sometimes you should wait for some rain to dampen things down before any grading is even attempted

can you use it to put a small cap on the road by tilting it?