How to best smooth trails

[topshop]

My 34DA with FEL has been useful in creating and rough-smoothing trails through the woods. However, there are limits to how smooth I can level and smooth I can make the trails because the backblading bucket rises and falls as the wheels of the tractor rise and fall on unlevel areas. Even backblading in float position can only do so much under those circumstances--at least in my hands.

What have users found to be most useful for making level, smooth trails? Will a box blade do the trick? Or would a rear tiller, followed by smoothing, be better? Naturally, in the woods there are occasional roots to contend with, but most can be popped out with the FEL as needed. And lastly, what about areas that are sodded but uneven?

I am hoping to make trails that are smooth and suitable for easy walking, trail biking, and pleasant golf-cart passage for elderly folks. Thanks for any tips and advice you can give.

 

[deerhunt1974]

Topshop, Tilling then Back pushing with a light skim would probably be your best bet if you dont have a pulverizer. if you have a pulverizer. i would till it or disc it then pulverize ive found my pullverizer evens out the ground and makes for a very smooth and packed surface.

 

[djradz]

Topshop, you should be under several feet of snow by now, what are you doing thinking of grading trails for???

Seriously, you may want to post in one of the general areas like attachments or projects - you'll get more info than you ever could imagine on this subject. As I don't have a box blade, I'd suggest a read blade. Angling the blade with help with some of the ups and downs you're getting with the FEL. A box blade with the scarifiers down would help break up the ground big-time, but you'll probably have to deal with a lot of roots and debris which you might avoid by not ripping too deep. Good luck and happy trails!

 

[dqdave1]

I have used my tiller to do this; I finished it with my landscape rake; the rake worked nice; then I installed guage wheels on the rake and it is amazing at how well it now works. The wheels on the rake compinsate for the wheels on the tractor going up and down.

 

[johnk]

I use a Box Blade with rippers down and back up my with Box Blade up until I get to the top. I have some pretty steep hills and I hang on for dear life. If I lose traction I drop the blade go forward and try to back up over where I just leveled the ruts. Kind of hard to see the steepness....Once I get up to the top I actually hate to come back down for fear of never making it up there again..

 

[LoneCowboy]

box blade is probably the simplest (and cheapest)

a rear blade will work too, sometimes give you the angle you want.

You should ask this in attachments or owning/operating.

 

[daTeacha]

If it's an existing trail, a simple drag made of a section of cyclone fence or an old bed spring can sometimes work wonders. Any loose surface can be smoothed pretty well with these simple cheap tools.

 

[SOS]

After I used a rear blade, I used a rear rake to smooth out my paths.

 

[topshop]

Thanks for all the great replies. I have been looking at something like a York landscape rake with accessories (scarifiers, end plates, caster wheels) upon the advice of one respondent. It may be the most expensive but also the most versatile approach? Or is there something that boxblades or backblades can do that an accessorized rake cannot?

Topshop

 

[daTeacha]

Another line of thought, and I'm not sure if you can make it work on a CUT, is to use a mid-mounted blade. I don't know if anyone makes something that would hang under the tractor like a mid-mount mower or not, but that would allow you to easily watch what you're doing and would eliminate the exaggerated motion you get with a blade hanging out either end of a tractor going over a rise or dip. It would also make the whole rig shorter and more maneuverable.